April 23, 2014, Boston, MA - Polaris Partners today announced that Pat Kinsel has been made a Venture Partner, joining the firm's Technology investment team.  Pat joined Polaris in 2013 as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence after his Polaris-backed company, Spindle, was acquired by Twitter the same year.  He specializes in the areas of mobile, search, data analytics, collaboration and social software development and has played a meaningful role in the Boston startup ecosystem serving as a mentor and visiting practitioner at the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab) and a mentor to TechStars Boston.  Kinsel was also a former resident of @dogpatchlabs, the open entrepreneurial community network which Polaris curated successfully in the Cambridge, San Francisco and New York City markets from 2009 to 2013 and now operates in Dublin Ireland.  In his role as Venture Partner, Pat will focus on early stage technology investments and continue developing relationships with entrepreneurs across the country.

"Pat Kinsel is an outstanding entrepreneur with technology chops and a strong business sense that has endeared him to the startup community both here in Boston and Silicon Valley," said Dave Barrett, Polaris Managing Partner.  "His ability to go deep into a technical space while maintaining a long term strategic focus has enabled him to successfully advance innovation within both large corporations and emerging early stage companies.  Having closely worked with him as an entrepreneur, we are thrilled that he will be applying these strengths to the current and future Polaris portfolio."

Prior to co-founding Spindle, Pat spent several years leading teams within Microsoft FUSE Labs and Microsoft Startup Labs where he was responsible for incubating new concepts and bringing them to market. In this role, he led development of Docs.com, a collaboration between Microsoft and Facebook to bring Microsoft Office Online to the Facebook audience. Before Docs.com, Pat built several social discovery applications and helped bring Bing Social Search to market in October 2009. At Microsoft, Pat was a co-inventor of several issued and pending patents in the areas of social search and collaboration.

"At its earliest stages, innovation requires mentorship to move beyond a concept and into reality," said Jodi Goldstein, Director of Harvard Innovation Lab.  "In this regard, Pat Kinsel has made a significant contribution to our students who are seeking to change the world with their ideas.  As an entrepreneur himself, he understands the opportunities and challenges that face every startup and is able to help gently navigate the road to ultimate success, without getting in the way of the process.  Any startup venture would be lucky to have Pat as an investor."

Pat will continue to be based in Boston and will work out of Polaris' new offices at One Marina Park Drive in the city's Innovation District.

About Polaris Partners

Founded in 1996, Polaris Partners has more than $3.5 billion in capital under management invested into a diverse portfolio of technology and healthcare companies throughout their lifecycles.  From the earliest startup phases through the growth stages, Polaris Partners takes minority and majority positions alongside outstanding management teams to help grow industry leading companies.  With offices in Boston, San Francisco and Dublin, Polaris partners with an unparalleled network of repeat CEOs, entrepreneurs, top scientists and emerging innovators who are positioned to make a significant impact in their fields and vastly improve the way in which we all live and work.  The result:  Hundreds of growing companies, thousands of jobs generated, and billions of dollars of value created.  For more information, visit: www.polarispartners.com.

Contact:  Emily Mendell, Polaris Partners, [email protected], 781-522-6732