David Freeman

Observer
DISC Type : ci

Operating Partner, Finance at Kleiner Perkins

Los Gatos, California, United States

Overview

David Freeman is a finance and operations leader currently serving as an Operating Partner at Kleiner Perkins. His expertise is built on high-impact roles, including CFO at Starburst and various VP positions at Nutanix and Zscaler. He holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

He has a keen interest in building high-performing teams and scaling companies, demonstrated by his experience taking startups through significant growth phases. He values creating opportunities for interaction and recognition to motivate teams and believes time at the bar is as important as time in sessions for building relationships.

He began his career at Intel, where he credits the "direct and confrontational" culture with shaping his expectation for excellence and deep business knowledge.

Personality Overview

Curious

Assertive

Value Driven

They can sound friendly and charming but can quickly change gears to become inquisitive and probing.  They are generally strong communicators and are not easy to convince. They ask a lot of questions and rely heavily on information and collaterals.

Topics They Care About

Scaling Startups
He has a history of joining companies at early stages (like NetSuite and Nutanix) and helping build the finance and operations functions to support rapid growth and IPOs.
Sales Operations
He took on a VP of Sales Operations role at Nutanix, gaining a different perspective by leading inside sales, sales enablement, and global system integrator teams.
Data Analytics
As the former CFO of Starburst, a data analytics platform based on Trino (formerly Presto), he is deeply familiar with the data lakehouse and distributed query engine space.

Media Appearances

David has no verified media appearances

Work History

11-2024 - 9-2025
Operating Partner, Finance at Kleiner Perkins
6-2022 - 11-2024
Chief Financial Officer at Starburst
5-2021 - 6-2022
VP of Business Operations and Finance at Starburst
9-2018 - 4-2021
SVP Business Operations at ThoughtSpot
8-2014 - 9-2018
VP Corporate Sales and Global System Integrators at Nutanix

Education

2004 - 2007
MBA from University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business
1995 - 1999
BA from UC San Diego

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 13 Location : Los Gatos, California, United States Job Level : N/A Designation : Operating Partner, Finance at Kleiner Perkins
URL has been copied!

Insights For Selling To David

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Invite them for a social do but don’t rely solely on the relationship
  • Build rapport, it will come handy to handle hard questions later
  • Share testimonials from known people and give multiple examples of product value

DONT's

  • Don’t be too objective but make sure to pad your storytelling with data points
  • Don’t rely excessively on your relationship with them to win the deal
  • Don’t try to rush them into a decision, provide all necessary information first

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with David is

  • Proven value, strong testimonials are important for them, rapport can impact decisions a little.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from David

  • They are practical yet friendly, don’t expect a clear no very often.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will David move?

  • They like to analyze well and then make their decisions.
  • Can David take some risk or not?

  • They weigh all decisions systematically and are unlikely to take many risks.

You And David

Personality Compatibility


More Profiles

Discover additional public profiles from our index.

Search more profiles

Looking for someone else? Search here for anyone.

Or visit Humantic AI to know more.