Nirav Tolia goes to Benchmark
The rehabilitation of Nirav Tolia is not just complete — it is, at long last, confirmed. The cofounder of Epinions, though tarred by old controversies, will announce tomorrow morning that he has, indeed, landed a long-rumored spot at Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence. (Back in March, Valleywag emeritus Nick Denton was told by several people Tolia was heading to Benchmark.) He'll be joined there by Sarah Leary, a former Epinions executive, and both hope to look at startup ideas having to do with online community and user-generated content. (We'll hold our tongue.) Tolia called Valleywag to share the news.
Of his past transgressions, which included doctoring his resume to say he worked at McKinsey (he hadn't) and completed his Stanford degree (he later finished it), he had this to say: "I did it, it was wrong, it was dumb, I won't do it again." And he had news of interest to Valley oldtimers: He's thinking of restarting Round Zero, the '90s boom-era networking group famed for its lavish dinners and raucous arguments.