Phil is a Managing Director at Griffin Gaming Partners and has been a venture capitalist for the past 22 years. He started his VC career as a General Partner at Walden from 1997 to 2006 and then co-founded IDG Ventures/Ridge in 2006 and was a Managing Director until 2018. Both Walden and IDG Ventures have deep roots in venture capital in China, and Sanderson worked closely with their respective Asian-based teams. Sanderson previously worked as an investment banker in Robertson Stephens' New Media and Information Technology Groups. At Robertson Stephens, Phil managed initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions assignments for various US entertainment software and information technology companies. Prior to Robertson Stephens, he worked in Goldman Sachs' corporate finance group. Phil has also founded and operated three companies in the retail, non-profit, and manufacturing industries.
Phil spearheaded 35 venture investments in both early and late stage investments including VitalStream (INAP), Bamboo.com (IPIX), Niku (NIKU), Sina (SINA), Next Games (NXTGMS:FN) Kixeye, Funzio, Guidespark, Survata, and Discord, among others. His industry focus includes entertainment software (gaming) and information technology.
He is also Co-Chairman/Founder of the VCNetwork, a non-profit organization consisting of over 1,200 venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. Since 1997 Sanderson has managed 20 social networking events per year which include the participation of over 50% of the Valley’s General Partners. In addition, Phil serves on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and is the Co-Chairman of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC).
Phil received his Master of Business Administration with Honors from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Honors from Hamilton College. He resides in Mill Valley with his wife and four children and is a competitive ultra-marathoner.
