Jon Sakoda
Founding partner of the venture firm Decibel; earlier a partner at NEA.
Founded
- Jon Sakoda is the founding partner of Decibel, an early-stage venture firm he launched in 2019.
- Decibel was set up in partnership with Cisco and invests in early-stage software startups.
- Before Decibel he spent about a dozen years investing at NEA.
- He began as a founder: he co-founded IMlogic, later acquired by Symantec.
- He hosts The Decibel Podcast, where founders talk about the earliest stage of a startup.
Why it matters. For founders of early-stage infrastructure, security and AI software companies; he started Decibel and leads its interviews with founders.
- Current role
- Founding partner of Decibel1
- Decibel launched
- 2019-032
- At NEA
- Joined 2006; about 12 years; co-managed NEA's seed investment program3
- NEA investments included
- Blue Jeans Network, Desire2Learn, Hearsay Social, Opower, ScienceLogic, Suniva, WibiData3
- Earlier work
- Co-founder, CTO and VP of Products at IMlogic (acquired by Symantec)3
- Podcast
- Host of The Decibel Podcast: Founders Helping Founders4
Episodes he hosted
The shading behind a date shows how recent it is: full within 3 months, empty after 2 years.
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2 years ago
A security founder on the early days of CrowdStrike.
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18 months ago
An AI security founder on the risks in AI models.
Links
Sources
- Team detail - Decibel (opens decibel.vc) read 1 Oct 2026
- Former NEA partner Jon Sakoda takes the wraps off his new, Cisco-backed venture fund, Decibel (TechCrunch) (opens techcrunch.com) read 1 Oct 2026
- Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With NEA's Jon Sakoda (TechCrunch) (opens techcrunch.com) read 1 Oct 2026
- The Decibel Podcast: Founders Helping Founders (Apple Podcasts) (opens podcasts.apple.com) read 1 Oct 2026
Last checked against its sources yesterday
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