Welcoming Brian Watson to Spark

We are delighted to announce that Brian Watson has joined us on the early-stage investing team at Spark Capital. He’ll be based out of our San Francisco office — though, for the moment, that means online video, of course.

Brian comes to Spark from Apple, where he rose the ranks quickly and was referred to as one of the brightest lights inside the company. But we actually first met Brian almost a decade ago when he was an associate at Union Square Ventures, a firm we have a long shared history with. We watched as he went on to lead product at VSCO and then to Apple. There, Brian worked on product for many of the most used applications in the world, from Apple’s Camera app, Photos, iMessage and Memoji.

As we’ve spent the last few months digging in deeper with him, Brian has especially impressed us with the speed and quality of his thinking around disruptive innovation, enabling creativity through software, and what it takes to make products for the masses. We expect founders will find the same thing when they meet him.

More than anything, from our earliest interactions, Brian showed a mindset that just felt, well, Spark. Since day one at Spark we’ve been product obsessed, long believing products can create markets, not just find market fit. That takes a certain personal conviction and judgement. Brian not only shares this same belief, but he also brings years of showing that judgement in scaling some of the most used products in the world. So we’re thrilled the stars aligned for Brian to join us.

As part of our early-stage team, Brian will lead investments in Seed and Series A stage startups. Like all of us at Spark, he’ll have the freedom to invest across all areas, including many we probably can’t see right now, but he’s currently most excited about the creator economy, new media formats, the intersection of technology and the arts, and supporting founders from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.

A big welcome to the Spark family, Brian!