Ann Winblad is an American tech coach and venture capitalist who is the co-founder of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. She is famous for being the former girlfriend of American business magnate Bill Gates.Ann Winblad grew up in the Minnesotan cities Rushford and Farmington.She started her first job, which was strawberry picking, at the age of seven. Her employer allowed her to work in the field only for a few hours as she was very young. She received ten cents for a plant. [9]Fresh Dialogues.She was a high school cheerleader and valedictorian. She even participated in a regional track event only because her boyfriend taught her long jump once.During her sophomore year of graduation, she trained in Fortran programming language.While pursuing her graduation, she had three jobs. She was employed as a cocktail waitress at a joint (where the bartenders called her Sunshine), a bookkeeper at a hardware store, and a customer service representative for Northwestern Bell. She continued to work until she graduated in 1973.In 1973, she started her career by working as a system analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. She quit her job at the bank after two years and launched her company Open Systems, Inc. in 1976; she launched it with the help of three other employees of the bank. The company was sold to Dallas-based UCCEL Corp. for $15 million in 1984. [10]St. Thomas.In 1984, she moved to California. At the same time, she also began working as a tech consultant for IBM and Microsoft.Ann has been the director for many software companies like Central Point Software (1990-93), Oracle Hyperion (1991-96), Net Perceptions (1996-2001), Intrinsa (1999-2003), Liquid Audio (1996-2003), Xo Group (then (The Knot)1999-2005), Krillion (2006-11), Star Analytics (2007-2013), Karmasphere Inc. (2010-14), Voltage Security Inc. (2002-15), MuleSoft (2006-18), Sonatype (2010-19), and OptiMine Software, Inc. (2014-Present).Other companies for which Ann has been the director are PR and communication-based company Marketwired (2000-2006), non-profit organization Silicon Valley Forum (1998-2004), and advertising analytics company Ace Metrix (2008-2020).