About
Viant Capital is the investment banking and financial advisory services arm of Viant Group. We deliver top quality investment banking and financial advisory services to emerging, high growth companies. Located in San Francisco, our team has a diverse set of backgrounds, including investment banking, corporate law, entrepreneurship, operations and engineering.

Senior Team
Scott Smith,Founder, CEO and Managing Director
ph. (415) 710-0079 LinkedInssmith@viantgroup.com
Mr. Smith is the founder and Managing Partner of Viant Group, a Managing Director of Viant Capital. Mr. Smith also founded Neveric Capital, Viant's predecessor firm, in 1998 and has over twenty-five years of experience in investment banking, corporate law and company operations working primarily with technology, cleantech, media and healthcare companies. Prior to Viant, Mr. Smith was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) where he was responsible for establishing the Silicon Valley office and was the co-head of the technology group. Before CSFB, Mr. Smith spent fifteen years with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro as a Partner where he was responsible for founding the firm’s Silicon Valley venture capital office. Mr. Smith earned a BA from Colorado College and his JD from UC Berkeley.
Stephen Gurney,CFO and Managing Director
LinkedInsgurney@viantgroup.com
Mr. Gurney has over two decades of investment banking and corporate operations experience in a variety of sectors including creative services and technology. Mr. Gurney originates and executes M&A / capital raise transactions and manages manages Viant's finance and operations. Prior to Viant, Mr. Gurney was with Seven Hills Partners and ING Barings (Furman Selz). Prior to graduate school, Mr. Gurney developed systems and embedded software for scientific and telecommunications satellites and consulted for General Electric, Orbital Sciences, Comsat, Com21 and NET. Mr. Gurney earned an MBA, Beta Gamma Sigma, from Columbia Business School in New York and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
Peter Coe Verbica,Managing Director
ph. (408) 832-3030 LinkedInpverbica@viantgroup.com
Mr. Verbica serves as a Managing Director of Viant Capital and Silicon Private Wealth. Mr. Verbica has worked at numerous investment banks, including Robert Stephens (in the Ventures Services Group), Dean Witter Reynolds (acquired by Morgan Stanley) and Merrill Lynch (acquired by Bank of America).  He was the Managing Director of FireStarter Partners, which held equity interests in AuthenTec (acquired by Apple) and other technology companies.  He taught Fundamentals of Investments as an Adjunct Economics Professor, worked as the CFO of a high technology start-up, chaired the Investment Committee for a long-standing foundation, and served as the sole Trustee in a series of large real estate transactions, including the sale of 4,100+ acres in Silicon Valley.  Mr. Verbica earned his BA and JD from Santa Clara University and an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Robert Eberhart,Managing Director
ph. (650) 926-9822 LinkedInhmckb@thepbgrp.com
Robert N. Eberhart directs research at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where he studies entrepreneurship and how it shapes society. He earned his Ph.D. in Management Science from Stanford University and his academic publications span topics such as new theoretical constructs on how institutional change has complex effects on new firms and how entrepreneurship is changing society. He won awards for the Responsible Research in Business and Management (2020), Organizations and Management Division Best Theory Paper (2017), Outstanding Scholar Award at SCU (2017), Best Paper Award at the Western Academy of Management (2016), Best Paper Proceeding of the 2012 Academy of Management, among others. He served as the Vice Chairperson of the U.S. Dept. of State and METI’s Japan-US Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council. He has been quoted in the New York Times, NPR, USA Today, San Jose Mercury News, ABC News, Forbes magazine, the Nikkei Weekly, and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Before his academic career, Prof. Eberhart was a partner at Pacific Rim Partners, a San Francisco based venture capital firm and he was the Founder and CEO of WineInStyle KK in Tokyo, Japan. WineInStyle, along with its wholly owned subsidiary in the USA, distributed California wines to the Japanese and other Asian markets. Prior to founding WineInStyle, Mr. Eberhart was an executive with semiconductor and electronics hardware companies.
Hobart McK. "Hobey" Birmingham,Managing Director
LinkedIn
Hobey serves as a Managing Director at Viant Capital and was previously with Western International, Securities, GBS Securities, and ePlanning Securities. Before that, Hobey was Chief Administrative Office / General Counsel at Borland Software and Associate General Counsel at Apple. Hobey was also a partner at various international law firms and practiced law in Japan for four years. Additionally, Hobey was on the boards of Finelite from 2013 through 2017, Schilling Robotics from 2008 through 2012 and Optical Communication Products Inc. (OCPI) from 2002 through 2007. Hobey earned an A.B. from Princeton university and a J.D. from the University of Michigan.
Greg Rivers,Managing Director, Steelhead Advisors
ph. (415) 474-7206 LinkedIngrivers@steelheadadvisors.com
Greg has over fourteen years of technology banking experience and has completed over 60 M&A and public and private equity transactions, totaling over $9 billion in transaction value for Semiconductor, Optical, Communication System, Telecommunication and Software companies. Before founding Steelhead Advisors, Greg was Managing Director in Technology Banking for JMP Securities and responsible for the Semiconductors and Systems Investment Banking Group. Previous to that, Greg was with Robertson Stephens where he headed the Global Semiconductor M&A practice and established the Exclusive Sales M&A Group, which focused on private companies and corporate divestitures in all segment s of technology. Greg began his career at Price Waterhouse and was a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers and a Managing Director in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities Silicon Valley Technology practice. Greg earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and a Bachelor's Degree in Business Finance from the University of Southern California.
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Recent Transactions
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Acted as exclusive financial advisor to Parley Pro
Advised on Seed financing round
has been acquired by
SBM Investors Corp.
Acted as sole Financial Advisor to Nantero
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Acted as exclusive financial advisor to Wootric
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