Kevin Harvey

Founded

Harvey's own history names Bruce Dunlevie, Bob Kagle, Andy Rachleff, Val Vaden and himself. Four-founder retellings omit Vaden and are less authoritative on the founding roster.

Education

Harvey co-founded StyleWare in August 1985 while studying electrical engineering. Contemporary trade reporting identifies three co-founders, preventing sole-founder overstatement.

Charities

Kevin and Catherine Harvey gave Rice $4 million to support the D2K Lab, which connects students with company, government, academic and nonprofit data problems.

Awards

Forbes ranked Harvey No. 27 in 2011, No. 59 in 2012 and No. 77 in 2013; he fell off the 2014 list. Rankings are editorial signals, not audited return measures.

Hobbies

Harvey uses soil depth, geology, altitude, exposure, site weather stations and comparative climate data to choose vineyards, while acknowledging that final quality still requires planting and observation. Rhys sells primarily direct to a mailing list and small allocations to restaurants.

More

Rice identifies Harvey as a Houston native and names his father, Reese Harvey, as a Rice mathematics professor emeritus. Later first-person wine reporting says he was born in California and raised in Houston. No exact birth date is published; 2025 Upwork proxy age 60 implies a 1964-1965 birth. At acquisition, StyleWare published roughly eight to ten Apple II products. Contemporary reporting says employment grew from three in 1986 to 35 in 1988 and MultiScribe products shipped more than 85,000 combined copies. Claris bought all outstanding StyleWare stock in its first acquisition; reliable contemporaneous sources do not disclose price. Later $5 million estimates are not treated as established fact. Harvey said direct-mail tests at $99, $129, $149 and $199 revealed the product's price-sensitivity curve. Approach 1.0 remained on best-seller lists after moving to a $399 suggested price, illustrating his preference for empirical commercial evidence. The New York Times reported Approach at roughly $15 million in sales in 1993; terms were undisclosed. Later $23 million values are directory-level and excluded from the core transaction claim. Harvey calls equal economics and equal voice Bob Kagle's brainchild, designed to reduce hierarchy, internal competition and the risk that a startup's board partner could not represent the fund. Harvey endorsed and practiced the model; he did not claim to originate it. Harvey chaired MySQL and Benchmark held a reported 26% stake when Sun agreed to buy the company for $1 billion. He said the board had intended an IPO until Sun offered a better community and financial outcome. The reported stake belonged to Benchmark, not Harvey personally. Harvey joined Proofpoint's board in December 2002, before its 2012 IPO, and served until Thoma Bravo's $12.3 billion acquisition closed in 2021. Public filings show direct director equity and Benchmark-affiliated holdings, but not his complete personal or fund return. Benchmark led oDesk's $8 million 2006 Series B and Harvey joined the board, arguing that remote hiring needed trust, time-zone and collaboration tools. oDesk later combined with Elance and became Upwork. Harvey served on oDesk from August 2006, joined the combined company's board at its March 2014 inception and was re-elected in 2025 for a term expiring in 2028. He serves on nominating and governance and is classified independent under Nasdaq rules. Tellme went to Microsoft, Zimbra to Yahoo for $350 million and Ingenio to AT&T for undisclosed terms. Board, investor and transaction sources directly associate Harvey with each; company values are not his proceeds. In the company's 2011 Series A announcement, Harvey called security the leading inhibitor to cloud adoption, placed CloudPassage within Benchmark's existing cloud portfolio and emphasized the team's vision and early-stage innovation. Benchmark led Highlight's seed round after founder Paul Davison developed it as a Benchmark EIR. The location app failed to sustain mass adoption, was removed in 2015 and its parent team's 2016 Pinterest acquisition had undisclosed terms. No source isolates Harvey's personal role beyond portfolio directories. HP acquired Eucalyptus in 2014 and installed repeat Harvey-backed CEO Marten Mickos over its cloud business. Terms were undisclosed and reputable reporting cited an anonymous estimate below $100 million; the dossier does not label the return successful without cost-basis evidence. Historical Harvey materials list Ashford.com, Broadbase and Critical Path board seats. Their post-IPO value destruction, restructurings and distressed combinations demonstrate losses within his attributable board portfolio, but exact Benchmark fund gains or losses are not public and firm-wide Webvan/Living.com failures are not assigned to him. A 2018 Rice interview says Harvey's time flowed mostly to Rhys despite six board seats. Benchmark Fund X's 2020 Form D does not list him as a managing member, although Upwork continues to call him a founder/GP and legacy Fund V ownership filings identify him among that vehicle's managing members.

From Kevin's own website — common ground for a warm intro.