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Former MySQL CEO Mickos joins Benchmark

The open-source database company's one-time chief executive is now entrepreneur in residence at a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Stephen Shankland

Marten Mickos
Marten Mickos, surrounded by inflatable MySQL dolphin mascots. Benchmark Capital

Marten Mickos, the one-time chief executive of MySQL who left about a year after Sun Microsystems acquired the open-source database company, has joined Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur in residence.

"Why I like @benchmark: They consistently ask 'What's best for the entrepreneur?' and they think big," Mickos said Tuesday on Twitter.

The admiration is mutual. "Marten Mickos builds global disruptive businesses. As CEO of MySQL AB for seven years, Mickos grew that company from a garage start-up to the second largest open-source company in the world," Benchmark said on its Web site.

Mickos joined MySQL in 2001, stayed through Sun's 2008 acquisition, and left earlier this year. Mickos also is on the board of cloud computing start-up RightScale and Thunderbird e-mail software backer Mozilla Messaging.