Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Angel

Investor Stage

Seed

Kris Duggan is a technology investor and serial entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience in Silicon Valley.

In 2013, he co-founded BetterWorks, an enterprise software company dedicated to innovating the field of performance management. BetterWorks is funded by Kleiner Perkins (John Doerr) and Emergence Capital (Jason Green) and serves hundreds of customers. BetterWorks’ next-generation performance management platform empowers employees to seamlessly set goals; provide and receive peer feedback; and conduct regular check-ins with management, all in support of BetterWorks’ mission: Get 1% better every day. Under his leadership, Kris championed a flat, collaborative organizational structure and led the company’s team of managers across the company to 54%/46% male to female gender mix — this virtual parity is a rarity in the traditionally male-dominated enterprise tech space and more than twice the industry standard.

Kris Duggan left his day-to-day role at BetterWorks in 2017, having shepherded the company past the 100-employee mark and overseeing the acquisition of more than 250 enterprise customers. Kris continues to serve on the company’s board and remains committed to supporting its next phases of growth. He is presently focused on the boundless promise of the healthtech sector. In the years to come, he looks forward to identifying and making targeted investments in the next crop of promising startups in this life-saving and life-improving field.

Prior to BetterWorks, Kris Duggan co-founded Badgeville in 2010. Badgeville provided gamification and social engagement solutions to help companies influence and measure user behavior. During Kris’s three-year tenure, Badgeville raised $40 million in capital and expanded its workforce to over 100 employees. By 2013, the company claimed more than 300 customers. Badgeville was acquired in 2016 by publicly traded Callidus ((later bought by SAP) in a successful exit that validated their early efforts and underscored the transformative power of gamification.

Over the last two decades in Silicon Valley, Kris has had the great honor to invest in and work with many amazing startups and teams, including Palantir Technologies, RelateIQ (acquired by Salesforce.com), Addepar, Blend Labs, Gusto, Turo, and WebEx (acquired by Cisco). Earlier in his career, Kris held senior sales and management positions at WebEx and Socialtext, an enterprise social software provider.

Kris currently invests in a number of early-stage firms, including Gusto (a payroll, benefits, and HR automation platform); Blend (an enterprise software provider that empowers top mortgage lenders to be more efficient, compliant, and borrower-friendly); and Addepar, an investment management technology company.

Separately from his investing work, Kris serves as an advisory chair to the Alchemist Accelerator, which champions enterprise startups and first-time entrepreneurs with disruptive, visionary ideas. In the past, Kris has worked on an adjunct basis for Singularity University.

Kris has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California, Irvine. He received a patent for customizable reward systems in 2011, and wrote and published “Business Gamification For Dummies” in 2013. Kris is a frequent speaker on the topics of engagement, employee performance and collaboration.

During his downtime, Kris is an avid auto racing fan and enjoys spending time outdoors with his family. Originally from Sydney, Australia, he now resides in Palo Alto with his wife and two sons.