John Backus
Co-Founder and Managing Partner @ PROOF
Great Falls, United States
John Backus is a Series A investor at PROOF in Great Falls focused on Information Technology and Software. Based in the national capital region, John is a seasoned technology investor and entrepreneur with over two decades of experience investing in and managing rapidly growing companies. Before becoming a venture capitalist, he co-founded US Order, which revolutionized online banking, went public in 1995 and was sold to Visa.John serves on the Boardof Directors for the Center for Public Policy Innovation (CPPI) and the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. He served four years on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA),is Chairman Emeritus of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) Board of Directors, has served as a technology policy adviser to Virginia governors Gilmore, Warner and McDonnell and has contributed his views to The Washington Post, Tech Crunch, Fortune, VentureBeat and the Huffington Post. John began his career at Bain & Co. and Bain Capital, where he was the first management consultant to take a full time operating role in a portfolio company.
- Total investments:
- 8
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 25%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries John Backus invests in
Stages John Backus invests in
Countries John Backus invests in
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Investment Focus
Industry
- Information Technology 3 (38%)
- Software 2 (25%)
- Health Care 2 (25%)
- Retail 1 (13%)
- Internet 1 (13%)
Stage
- Series A 4 (50%)
- Seed 1 (13%)
- Series B 1 (13%)
- Series C 1 (13%)
- Post-IPO Equity 1 (13%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| BrandYourself provides tools and services that help people look better online. This includes dealing with unwanted items – like an old divorce record or ill-advise tweet – as well as helping promote positive items that benefit someones career. In 2012, BrandYourself launched the first DIY online reputation management tool that walks usersthrough the process of monitoring and improving their online presence. BrandYourself also offers reputation management services for individuals and businesses with a team of in-house content creators, web developers, social media managers, brand strategists and placement specialists. BrandYourself has secured over $6 million in venture capital, including investments from prominent angel investor Barney Pell (former Head Search Strategist at Microsoft & Architect at Bing), John Galanti (former President at Hudson Valley Datanet), Ryan Holmes (CEO & Co-founder at Hootsuite) as well as firms FF Angels, New Atlantic Ventures, Zelkova Ventures, and LeFrak Investments. BrandYourself has been recognized by the White House, named a "Best Entrepreneurial Company in America" by Entrepreneur Magazine, declared "Best Online Reputation Services for Individuals" by Business News Daily and appeared on ABC's Shark Tank, where they walked away from a $2 million offer - one of the highest offers in the show's history. | $3.3M / Series A / Jun 05, 2014 | ||
| Invincea is the leader in advanced endpoint threat protection, protecting more than 25,000 customers and 3 million active users.The company provides the most comprehensive solution to contain, identify, and control the advanced attacks that evade legacy security controls. Invincea protects enterprises against targeted threats, includingspear-phishing and Web drive-by attacks that exploit Java, Flash, and other applications. Combining the visibility and control of an endpoint solution with the intelligence of cloud analysis, Invincea offers the only market-deployed solution that defends against 0-day exploits, file-less malware, and previously unknown malware.The company has been in market with its award-winning technology since 2009. In 2011, Invincea was recognized as "Most Innovative Company of the Year" at RSA Conference, and since then the company has won numerous awards for its technology and business.Invincea maintains an OEM agreement with Dell to ship a customized version of Invincea's award-winning endpoint security solution, under the Dell Data Protection | Protected Workspace brand. This offering ships on Dell's entire line of commercial PCs and tablets, comprising 20 million devices per year.The company, which was founded by Dr. Anup Ghosh to address the rapidly increasing security threat from nation states, cyber criminals, and rogue actors, has commercialized technology originally built under DARPA funding. The company is venture capital-backed and based in Fairfax, VA. For more information, visit https://www.invincea.com. | $16M / Series C / Dec 16, 2013 | ||
| PokitDok provides a software development platform with a set of APIs that streamlines the basic business processes of healthcare. | $4.3M / Series A / Jun 26, 2013 | ||
| HealthWarehour is a US-based pharmacy providing individuals with retail mail-order services. HealthWarehouse.com offers 300 prescription drugs for $3.50 with 100% FREE shipping and is a winner of the 2009 and 2010 BizRate Circle Of Excellence Award for outstanding customer satisfaction and service.HealthWarehouse.com (OTC: HEWA) is a trusted USpharmacy based in Cincinnati, Ohio. | $1.5M / Post-IPO Equity / Aug 04, 2011 | ||
| Koofers is a consumer internet platform that helps college students succeed by providing free access to practice exams, professor ratings, and flashcards.Koofers Campus Recruiter is an enterprise solution that allows employers and recruiting firms to easily find and connect with over 1,000,000 college students looking for internships andfull-time job opportunities. | $5M / Series A / Sep 29, 2010 | ||
| Qliance Medical Management, Inc. is a 'direct primary care' provider founded in 2006 and provides operating and management services to Qliance Medical Group of Washington PC, which operates clinics under the Qliance® brand. Qliance offers people of all ages and incomes unrestricted access to all types of primary, preventive and chronicillness care for one monthly membership fee, ranging between $49 and $89, depending on age, for its core service level. Qliance does not exclude anyone for pre-existing conditions and offers 30- to 60-minute same- and next-day appointments, 7-days per week. Through Qliance, patients and employers are getting exceptional care and saving between 20 and 50 percent on comprehensive health care costs when bundled with a lower-premium insurance plan. Qliance was co-founded by Dr. Garrison Bliss, Norm Wu and Chapin Henry from the model pioneered by Dr. Bliss in 1997. The company has raised $13.5 million and is backed by Second Avenue Partners, Clear Fir Partners LP, New Atlantic Ventures, Bezos Expeditions, MSD Capital and private investors that include actor Drew Carey and Rich Barton. | $6M / Series B / Apr 28, 2010 | ||
| Koofers is a consumer internet platform that helps college students succeed by providing free access to practice exams, professor ratings, and flashcards.Koofers Campus Recruiter is an enterprise solution that allows employers and recruiting firms to easily find and connect with over 1,000,000 college students looking for internships andfull-time job opportunities. | $2M / Seed / Jan 22, 2010 | ||
| Invincea is the leader in advanced endpoint threat protection, protecting more than 25,000 customers and 3 million active users.The company provides the most comprehensive solution to contain, identify, and control the advanced attacks that evade legacy security controls. Invincea protects enterprises against targeted threats, includingspear-phishing and Web drive-by attacks that exploit Java, Flash, and other applications. Combining the visibility and control of an endpoint solution with the intelligence of cloud analysis, Invincea offers the only market-deployed solution that defends against 0-day exploits, file-less malware, and previously unknown malware.The company has been in market with its award-winning technology since 2009. In 2011, Invincea was recognized as "Most Innovative Company of the Year" at RSA Conference, and since then the company has won numerous awards for its technology and business.Invincea maintains an OEM agreement with Dell to ship a customized version of Invincea's award-winning endpoint security solution, under the Dell Data Protection | Protected Workspace brand. This offering ships on Dell's entire line of commercial PCs and tablets, comprising 20 million devices per year.The company, which was founded by Dr. Anup Ghosh to address the rapidly increasing security threat from nation states, cyber criminals, and rogue actors, has commercialized technology originally built under DARPA funding. The company is venture capital-backed and based in Fairfax, VA. For more information, visit https://www.invincea.com. | $7.3M / Series A / Mar 12, 2009 |
Co-Investors
About PROOF
PROOF invests in breakout high-performing companies in growth rounds across all VC sectors except life sciences. The firm works in partnership with early stage VCs and leverages their pro-rata rights in exchange for sharing part of the upside.
PROOF Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Jennifer Schretter
General Partner
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John Backus
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
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Thanasis Delistathis
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
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John Burke
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
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Scott McComb Johnson
Managing Director
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FAQ
What does John Backus invest in?
John Backus invests primarily in Information Technology, Software and Health Care startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 8 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact John Backus?
Public channels for John Backus include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did John Backus last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for John Backus closed in Jun 2014. Shizune tracks 8 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Sep 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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