General Investing >> Money Manager Interviews >> November 26, 2001
JOHN MONTELIONE works for New South Ventures. He specializes in
identifying and penetrating large market opportunities with 'killer'
applications of new technology. Mr. Montelione has worked for Fortune
100 companies and has launched three high-tech companies. As an
entrepreneur, he has a track record for formulating and implementing
marketing strategies that enable startups to become leaders in markets
traditionally dominated by larger, better-financed companies. Mr.
Montelione began his career in the early 1970s with IBM, as a marketing
specialist, then as the Manager of Computer Services at McKesson and a
Director of Marketing and Sales at Becton Dickinson Medical Systems. He
was one of the two Founders of Mercury Computer. As Chairman and
Marketing VP (1980-1986), Mr. Montelione developed and implemented an
innovative business strategy that established Mercury as the major
embedded signal/image processor system supplier to the OEM market. In
the late 1980s he founded Paragon Imaging. Through the identification
and penetration of an emerging application within the defense
intelligence market, Paragon became the leading supplier of imaging
software systems to the federal government. Ceridian (NYSE-listed)
acquired the company. In 1998, Mr. Montelione was recruited by Lockheed
Martin, ThermoElectron, the Central Florida innovation Corporation
(affiliate of Enterprise Florida) and a VC firm to launch TeraNex.
Within nine months, he, as CEO, hired a team of 18 persons including his
replacement (former Sony Broadcast Systems, Senior VP), assisted in
identifying two independent billion dollar killer applications (HDTV '
standard TV conversion and Internet Streaming Video) and increased the
company's valuation from $1 million to $12 million. Profile
responsibilities at New South Ventures.
Mr. Montelione: I am a newcomer in terms of venture capital, but as an
entrepreneur, I
