About Chris Tolles

Chris is a 3X Silicon Valley co-founder and technology executive. Chris most notably co-founded and ran Topix, a top ten news site backed by Tribune, Knight Ridder and Gannet, & led the sale of Topix to Publisher’s Clearing House.

Previously, Chris has been a pioneer in the Internet space, co-founding the largest human edited directory of the web, The Open Directory Project; acquired by Netscape. He subsequently ran product at Netscape Search & AOL Music.

Additionally, Chris co-founded Spoke Software and ran marketing for Sun Microsystems’s Internet Commerce Group. Chris currently advises multiple Venture Capital firms and has served on the dean’s advisory board for the school of social sciences at the University of California at San Diego, his alma mater, where he earned his Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Economics.