Peter Gotcher

Co-founder and Chairman, Topspin

Peter Gotcher, co-founder and Chairman of Topspin, is a music industry veteran who has spent the past 25 years developing and guiding the strategy behind some of the most significant innovations in music production and distribution.

Gotcher worked at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco from 1982 to 1984, then went on to co-found Digidesign Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of Digital Audio Workstations. He served as Digidesign president, CEO, and chairman, and during his tenure as CEO the company’s ProTools products became the industry standard for audio recording and music production. Gotcher took Digidesign public in 1993, a public offering that resulted in one of the 10 best performing NASDAQ stocks of 1994 and later sold the company to Avid Technology Inc. in 1995. Gotcher remained as the general manager of Digidesign and an executive vice president of Avid until May 1996, and he served on the board of directors of Avid until 2002.

At the 2000 GRAMMY Awards, Gotcher accepted a Technical Achievement GRAMMY Award in honor of Digidesign’s contributions to the recording industry.

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. Since 2003, he has been an independent private equity investor. He has served on the board of directors of 15 public and private companies and currently serves as a director of Pandora Media, Dolby Laboratories, Line 6, Avnera Corporation and Dash Navigation. Gotcher also serves on the board of trustees for the Berklee College of Music and SFJAZZ.

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