Peter C. Gotcher, Independent Venture Investor

Peter Gotcher is an independent venture investor focusing on investments in digital media companies. He is chairman of Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB) and chairman of Topspin Media, Inc., which he cofounded in 2007. He also serves on the boards of Pandora (NYSE:P) and Line6.

Gotcher founded Digidesign Inc. in 1984 and served as its president, CEO, and chairman. Digidesign became the world’s leading manufacturer of digital audio workstations and completed a successful initial public offering in December of 1993 (NASDAQ: DGDN). Digidesign was acquired by Avid Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID)  in January of 1996, and Gotcher remained as the general manager of Digidesign and an executive vice president of Avid until May of 1996, and served on the company’s board of directors until 2001. At the 2000 Grammy Awards, he accepted the Technical Achievement Grammy in honor of Digidesign’s contributions to the recording industry. Digidesign also received an Oscar from the Motion Picture Academy in 2004. In 2010 he was awarded the Philo Farnsworth Lifetime Achievement Emmy award.

Gotcher became a technology-focused venture capitalist upon joining Institutional Venture Partners as a venture partner in 1997. In 1999 he was a founding venture partner with Redpoint Ventures of Menlo Park, California, a leading Silicon Valley technology venture capital firm. He is a member of the board of trustees of Berklee College of Music.

He attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated with a B.A. and university honors in 1981.