Emily Melton has quietly left venture capital firm Mayfield, where she joined as a partner in September 2009. She previously had been a director with Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where her deals included MyShape, NearbyNow, ProQuo, Redfin and ShareThis.
Not much in the way of explanation yet. In an email reply to Fortune, Melton simply said: “I decided to leave Mayfield earlier this year and am taking some time to figure out what is next.”
Upon joining Mayfield, the NYT Bits blog ran a glowing profile. Here’s an excerpt:
Glenn Kelman, the chief executive of Redfin, said one of Ms. Melton’s strengths was getting entrepreneurs — many of whom start companies in part because they do not like to be told what to do — to take her advice.
She wanted him to do more search engine optimization, but he was resistant. So she tried different arguments until she came up with one that worked: telling him the story of Yelp, a Web company he admires that had success that way.
“Not many board members can do that and the C.E.O. still says, ‘I love her,’ ” Mr. Kelman said. “She has a way of guiding people to a good outcome without being heavy-handed.”