pierre lamond
pierre lamond is a member of the eclipse investment team. prior to that, pierre worked with formation 8, khosla ventures and sequoia capital .
in addition to making angel investments, pierre is an advisor to formation 8 .
pierre lamond, a silicon valley veteran, was planning to retire from sequoia capital this year. instead, mr. lamond, 78, has decided to join khosla ventures, the venture firm founded by vinod khosla .
it’s been known for some time that sequoia capital’s partner mark kvamme is married to the daughter of sequoia partner pierre lamond. no big deal, right ?
pierre lamond, an icon in the silicon valley world of venture capital, has joined khosla ventures, the venture firm run by another highly respected venture capitalist vinod khosla .
now it emerges that, through reporting of pe week’s alex haislip (sorry the full version is subscription only), that david lamond, son of pierre (pierre pictured here), is an investor at hedge fund artis capital. another family connection, and again, who cares ?
pierre is a native of france. he graduated with a bsee and ms in physics from toulouse university .
pierre lamond is a pioneer of the semiconductor industry. he started his career in 1957 as an engineer at transitron electronics before joining dr. gordon e. moore’s r & d team at fairchild semiconductor. while at fairchild, pierre oversaw the development of advanced high - frequency transistors and the first generation of digital integrated circuits .
arthur conan doyle: a memoir by rev. john lamond (john murray, 1931 )
“this is not a lightweight commitment on pierre’s side, ” yu told me by phone. “he will come into the office, mentor partners and entrepreneurs and advise on investments… we wanted to have as much of pierre as we could. ”
advisor, investor pierre lamond is a pioneer of the semiconductor industry. he started his career in 1957 as an engineer at transitron electronics before joining dr. gordon e. moore’s r & d; team at fairchild semiconductor .
that company, called soladigm, uses semiconductor processes to make the glass. lamond
was a founder of national semiconductor ,
khosla notes. he added :
pierre is a very technical person. we' re doing a lot of that kind of stuff .
pierre left fairchild in 1967 to cofound the national semiconductor corporation (nsm), where he was vice president and general manager, integrated circuits. following ceo roles at coherent radiation and advent, pierre returned to national semiconductor in 1977 to assume the role of chief technology officer and vp, general manager of advanced products .
after leaving khosla ventures after its last fund, silicon valley icon pierre lamond has resurfaced in a new role. the veteran venture capitalist has taken an advisory position at formation 8, the three - year - old venture firm founded by joe lonsdale, jim kim and brian koo .
lamond is a pioneer of the semiconductor industry. he started his career as an engineer at transitron electronics before joining dr .
pierre spent three years as a general partner at khosla ventures serving on the boards of skybox imaging (google), cogenra, seeo, avogy, seamicro (amd) and heartvista. pierre was one of the founding members of eclipse and currently works with: kindred, flex logix, diassess, cerebras, and light .
of course, the public coffers can only profit if a firm like sequoia does well, and sequoia did do well (in contrast to most venture firms, which aren’t doing so well). but it’s important that the public be aware if its investments in venture firms are riddled with favoritism, especially if firms aren’t doing well. pierre lamond reportedly lost $ 250, 000 from his personal investment in the cks group, an ad agency, which was run by mark kvamme (pictured here) in the late 1990s. it was also a time when lamond’s firm was taking money from uc. even then, lamond’s son, david, was partaking of lamond’s investments .
, the leading developer of reconfigurable rtl ip cores and software, today announced that it has appointed industry - veteran and eclipse ventures general partner pierre lamond to its board of directors, effective immediately. lamond joins the growing list of well - known executives at flex logix, a fast - growing silicon valley start - up that has developed an innovative reconfigurable rtl platform that will change the way chips are designed today and in the future .
in 1981, pierre joined sequoia capital as a general partner, where he played a pivotal role in the expansion of the semiconductor, systems, and software portfolios. while at sequoia, pierre was chairman of the board at cypress semiconductor (cy), microchip semiconductor, vitesse semiconductor, open - silicon inc. , redback networks, verisity, and plumtree. he was also a director at mellanox technologies and xoom. pierre ran, on a temporary basis, engineering departments at cisco systems (csco) and c - cube .
lamond, who was a founder of the early chip company national semiconductor, was last year planning to retire from sequoia. instead, he says he was lured away from that idea through conversations with khosla, who impressed lamond with his focus on funding bold, scientific companies .
pierre spent three years as a general partner at khosla ventures serving on the boards of skybox imaging (google), cogenra, seeo, avogy, seamicro (amd) and heartvista .
lamond, in an interview with forbes, said he started talking to his sequoia partners about retiring about a year ago. but he began discussions with khosla ventures founder vinod khosla, a brainy sun microsystems co - founder whom lamond said he has known for 20 years, late last year .
angela joined stanford from khosla ventures where she worked on pierre lamond’s team, working closely with both the wider investment team and portfolio companies. angela began her career as a marketing strategist for mccann worldgroup where she conducted market and consumer research for brands such as microsoft, hp, cathay pacific, and the boys and girls club of america .
in 1981, pierre joined sequoia capital as a general partner, serving as chairman of the board at cypress semiconductor (cy), microchip semiconductor, vitesse semiconductor, open - silicon inc. , redback networks, verisity, and plumtree. pierre spent three years as a general partner at khosla ventures serving on the boards of skybox imaging (google), cogenra, seeo, avogy, seamicro (amd) and heartvista .
now, one sequoia partner has decided to look for good times elsewhere, too. incredibly, that partner is 78 - year - old pierre r. lamond, a silicon valley legend who has been at the menlo park, calif. - based firm since 1981. starting in april, he will begin a new job just across the street with a competitor, khosla ventures .
although we invest anywhere from $ 50, 000 for a seed investment to $ 10 million, we are not bankers, nor do we hire people who are bankers ,
says partner pierre lamond .
all our people have at least a half - dozen years of experience as engineers or marketers. we are not passive investors. we don' t just lend money .
yu first got to know lamond after joining youtube as cfo, where the veteran vc was advising the young team prior to their sale to youtube. they worked together again when yu joined sequoia and later when he found himself also at khosla ventures. kim would also work with lamond at khosla ventures before moving on to found formation 8 .
prior to joining sequoia capital, pierre cofounded national semiconductor in 1967 where he held the position of cto and vp advanced products division. from 1962 to 1967 he was with fairchild semiconductor as vp & gm, integrated circuits division .
a few months ago, however, it became clear lamond had left khosla ventures after he was not listed on a regulatory filing related to the firm’s newest fund, and his bio disappeared from the venture firm’s website. at that time, lamond told fortune that he wasn’t retired, and that he might become an adviser to one or two firms .
so when they heard that lamond was leaving khosla ventures, he and yu reached out to see if their mentor would be interested in joining formation 8. lamond didn’t want the full responsibilities of a partner, but agreed to be heavily involved in the firm. and as part of his advisory role, he’ll be allowed to invest along with formation 8 whenever they choose to back a company .
in march 2009, his fund was joined by pierre lamond as a general partner, following which they completed fundraising for two new funds to invest in clean - tech and information technology start - ups. they had secured a total of $ 1 billion worth investor commitments which included $ 750 million to invest in traditional early stage and growth stage companies, and $ 250 million for their second fund – khosla seed, to focus on investing in higher - risk opportunities .
mr. lamond recognized his own investment philosophy in mr. khosla’s retro approach, he said. “khosla ventures is going back to the source, to the way venture capital used to be done, ” mr. lamond said. “a focus on growing companies from scratch is what venture capital is all about — not just because this is exciting, but it is also the way to make money. ”
lamond, 78, is renowned in valley circles as one of the hardest working venture capitalists, but he also prefers to work behind the scenes, and so doesn’t have the same public profile of other big - name venture capitalists, such as khosla or john doerr, of kleiner perkins caufield & byers. (picture at left top shows lamond in 1967; at left bottom is a more current picture. )
lamond will stay on the boards of the three sequoia portfolio companies: luxim, which makes energy - efficient lighting; santur, a tunable laser company and achates power, which is making a fuel - efficient diesel engine .
lamond has been in tech for more than five decades, getting his start in the then - nascent semiconductor business. he held positions in fairchild semiconductor and its spinoff national semiconductor before entering venture investing in the early 1980s .
khosla told forbes that lamond
adds a lot of great experience to our team .
he said lamond recently became increasingly interested in some deals that khosla ventures was pursuing - - deals khosla described as involving
big technology breakthroughs
in areas such as lighting, bioplastics and biofuels. khosla ventures even has funded a start - up making newfangled window glass that can block light in the summer but let it through in the winter, he noted .
lamond said when he informed his sequoia partners about his decision ,
they were very courteous and very pleasant and wished me good luck .
it is highly unusual for senior vcs to defect to other firms, partly because of the complicated economics of taking stakes in illiquid start - ups - - and dealing with those interests after a partner leaves a firm. khosla said lamond had intended to retire, so sequoia was not counting on his sticking around .
at formation 8, lamond says he will work to mentor the founding partners and entrepreneurs they invest in. he plans to sit in on board meetings of portfolio companies and offer advice when he can, as well as advising formation 8 founders when they are deciding whether or not to make an investment in specific companies. lamond also hopes to help out with recruiting, especially as the firm is looking to bring on another investment professional to join the team .
“that’s what pierre is uniquely equipped to do, because he has run operations and founded a company, ” he said. “he understands what entrepreneurs are dealing with, can help them with technical problems and engage at a level that an m. b. a. can’t, ” mr. khosla said .
“when i think about someone with pierre’s proven track record, his value - add and legendary reputation… he had his choice to be an advisor or mentor at any company and any firm in the valley. having him on board is another validation of what we’re doing [ at formation 8 ], ” yu said .
lamond told the new york times that he will not focus on one specific sector but that he is interested in companies that deal with energy storage, lithium - ion batteries, water purification and conservation, carbon dioxide and the transport of electricity. this fits nicely with khosla ventures, because that firm has focused heavily on clean - tech investments. lamond has already invested in a khosla portfolio company, the lithium - ion battery start - up seeo, as an angel investor .
for kim, the experience he brings will be invaluable to formation 8. even before the advisory role was official, kim says he would reach out to lamond whenever he would get stuck or need advice while working to build the firm .
the move also comes at a time when khosla is trying to raise its first fund from institutional investors, and so lamond is likely to help with that effort. until now khosla has relied on most of his own money to fund companies the firm has supported .
urltoken' s experience is an unusual one. as lamond points out, sequoia prefers companies entering into markets that are growing very fast or don' t exist yet .
typically our style of investment is to invest early ,
says lamond .
first, we try to identify potentially profitable sectors of the market before everyone else does. at that point, we can get involved in the seed and first financing rounds, become active at the board level and participate in establishing strategy and start recruiting a management team .
, co - founder and ceo of flex logix .
we look forward to having his contributions at flex logix. this is an exciting time in our company' s history as we embark on our next phase of mainstream commercialization. pierre' s experience and industry connections will be key as we execute on the aggressive business plan we have in place .
last, it scrutinizes the management .
we look for a management that drives itself very hard ,
says lamond .
we don' t want to drive them or be micromanagers. but we are tough taskmasters and want to be associated with a winning team .
mr. lamond will stay on the boards of the three sequoia portfolio companies he is actively involved with, he said. they are luxim, which makes energy - efficient lighting; santur, a tunable laser company and achates power, which is making a fuel - efficient diesel engine .
frankly, it was time for me to move on ,
said lamond, who will be a senior partner with khosla, a five - year - old firm that invests in traditional high tech but mainly in energy - related companies .
sometimes people stick around too long .
technical experience - - particularly for a firm that invests heavily in semiconductor, chip, networking and internet companies - - is crucial, says lamond, who before becoming a partner at sequoia in 1981 was himself a founder and technical director of national semiconductor nsm and general manager of fairchild' s integrated circuit division .
“khosla ventures is going back to the source, to the way venture capital used to be done, ” lamond told the new york times. “a focus on growing companies from scratch is what venture capital is all about — not just because this is exciting, but it is also the way to make money. ”
khosla has funded companies like soladigm, which makes window glass that can block light in the summer but let it through in the winter, notes forbes, which also has a good story about the transition. soladigm uses semiconductor processes to make the glass, something that lamond can bring value to, based on his experience .
lamond joined sequoia capital in 1981 and led investments in a number of its semiconductor and infrastructure companies, including cypress semiconductor, microchip semiconductor, vitesse semiconductor, and redback networks. in 2009 he joined khosla ventures as part of its kv iii fund, where he was interested in backing cleantech and research - heavy industrial startups .
“i was really looking at phasing out, but an opportunity like this comes and i thought it was worthwhile, ” said mr. lamond, who was a founder of national semiconductor and an executive at fairchild, advent and coherent. “you’re as old as you think you are, and i don’t feel that i’m 78. ”
chips & technologies and weitek have avoided direct fabrication of chips, farming out their production to japanese and american companies that have excess fab space. but other startups, like cypress, performance semiconductor, and integrated device technology, have created some of the most advanced fabs in the industry. lamond’s cypress—attacked by sanders—has decisively swept by the
asked why he did not stay at sequoia if he wanted to keep working, lamond said he was
very excited
by khosla' s penchant for investing
in some very advanced, very risky, research - oriented start - ups .
at sequoia ,
i thought it was time for me to phase out .
he also exudes the stern demeanor exuded by sequoia capital partners, such as co - founder don valentine. the firm is famous for shying away from media attention. it was lamond, for example, who would attend the early board meetings at video - sharing company youtube, and put pressure on the youtube founders, asking them each time how their traffic was coming along. youtube co - founder steve chen once told me it was lamond’s stern questioning — especially whenever traffic tapered off — that kept the founders on the edge of their seats during board meetings, frightening them so much so that they’d do anything they could to make sure traffic kept growing every month .
at sequoia, where he has been a partner for 27 years, mr. lamond focused on semiconductor, systems and software start - ups. khosla ventures, which mr. khosla founded in 2004, has made a name for itself investing in clean technology and also invests in information technology start - ups. mr. lamond said he will not focus on one specific sector but that he is interested in companies that deal with energy storage, lithium - ion batteries, water purification and conservation, carbon dioxide and the transport of electricity. he has already invested in a khosla portfolio company, the lithium - ion battery start - up seeo, as an angel investor .
the first post - mortem biographies were written by the swedish viktor olsson in 1930: sir arthur conan doyle: liv och minnen, and by conan doyle' s friend john lamond in 1931: arthur conan doyle: a memoir. since then, not least than 23 full biographies have been written and others about parts of his life .
in a memorable encounter at a dataquest conference, jerry sanders, chairman of advanced micro devices, confronted pierre lamond, once a leading figure at national semiconductor and now a leading venture capitalist. “you took my best guys to cypress, ” sanders charged, “and they made 3 million last year on 14 million in sales. fast static rams. big deal. static rams are not exactly a major innovation. [ intel introduced them in 1972. ] but so far, so good. the problem is what they’ll do next. they succeed by being focused. but all these small firms want to get big, and that means unfocused. after the first 50 million, believe me, it gets much harder. you can’t fill large fabs with niche products. so far these companies have just ripped off the big firms without contributing anything significant. ” 1
according to yu, having lamond’s experience and help is not just a value - add for partners and portfolio companies, but also serves as a bit of validation for the firm’s early success. while just a few years old, its first fund has already seen a couple of exits with oculus and relateiq, and it expects to see many more as time goes on .
lamond tried to laugh off the complaints of sanders and others as merely the maundering of old men who want the world to stop turning as soon as they get on top. that’s an understandable response from today’s young entrepreneurs. but amid the late 1980s carnage in microchips, with the japanese sweeping ahead in some measures of market share, the easy answers beg the question .
“i’m what you might call a consigliere, ” lamond told me by phone. he said he didn’t have a specific charter at formation 8, but will provide guidance whenever and wherever he can. “when you think about the venture business… you don’t learn that in business school. you need to go through an apprenticeship and the guys at formation 8 know that, ” he said .
tom and justin – your comments are so unjustified and undeserved. do you two really “know yourselves” more than this pierre just because he happens to be good at his job and is solicited to build a great organization based on his experience? his life’s work is infinitely more important than either of you two’s existence as far as providing resources and opportunity to build companies that offer livelihood to so many people. don’t be philosophically cynical and judging of other people’s desire to do something. in short, get a life .
flex logix has the unique combination of technology, talent, value proposition, and business model to build a multi - billion dollar market cap business ,
said lamond .
now, just nine months after our initial investment, we see the company making incredible progress in both engineering and customer acquisition. i' m excited to have the opportunity to work with geoff and the team .
sequoia made a killing off its investment into video site, youtube when it was sold to google for $ 1. 6 billion, and eyebrows were raised when it emerged that the obscure artis capital had also been in on the investment. who were these guys? one of its partners has since bought the $ 20 million tiburon estate of andre agassi. is it a coincidence that david lamond, who has been with artis since at least 2005 appears to have been among the few to benefit from the youtube investment? and is it a coincidence that since that time, artis has landed as an investor alongside sequoia in a surprising number of deals, from aruba in sept. 05, to open silicon in oct. 05 and adbrite in february, to name just a few ?
in october, venture capital concern sequoia capital gathered the ceos of its portfolio companies to warn them about the coming economic meltdown - - and to scare them into slashing costs. the first slide in sequoia' s presentation at the special meeting was headlined
rip: good times .
the implication? not all the start - ups would make it .
that all could be interpreted as a backhanded swipe at what most other vc firms - - including sequoia - - are doing these days. khosla, however, called sequoia one of the
great firms in venture capital
and noted that his firm invests alongside sequoia frequently .
but, overall, most vcs are investing in
incremental stuff ,
khosla said, such as new social networking sites, and not backing fundamentally risky technologies .
the venture industry has lost its ability to create a genentech or a sun or a compaq
today .
sequoia has started putting cash into
clean
technology deals but is better known recently for backing web companies. it had a big win when google scooped up online video site youtube for $ 1. 6 billion. but the jury' s still out on many of sequoia' s other, more narrowly focused internet plays, including online messaging site meebo ,
widget
company rockyou and web real estate site trulia .
clean technology, of course, is unproven, too. there have been only a handful of blockbuster
exits
- - meaning initial public offerings or big merger and acquisition deals - - involving clean - tech companies. even khosla acknowledged that his firm had to write off two early investments in corn ethanol companies. the market tanked after corn prices rose, making corn - based ethanol less price competitive with traditional fuels .
meanwhile, khosla ventures is ramping up its operations. though many vc firms are making fewer investments and finding it tougher to raise money in today' s depressed environment, the firm is raising a new fund worth as much as $ 1 billion and intends to hire more general partners .
khosla declined to comment on any fundraising his firm might be doing. last month, however, calpers, the giant california public employee retirement fund, reported it had committed $ 200 million to a new
khosla ventures expansion fund .
in a document released in conjunction with calpers' february investment committee meeting, the pension fund said that the new khosla fund was
targeting a size of $ 1 billion
and that calpers would be the fund' s anchor investor. it is unclear when the new khosla fund might close or how successful khosla ventures has been in drumming up cash from other investors. many big pension funds, endowments and charities are facing liquidity problems and have little extra cash for new venture capital commitments .
calpers said the new fund marks the first time khosla ventures has sought third - party capital. indeed, until now, khosla' s firm has made investments mainly with khosla' s own family money. after sun, he made a fortune working as a vc at kleiner perkins caufield & byers during the 1990s telecoms boom. currently, khosla makes many investments alongside kleiner - - a model, presumably, khosla ventures hopes to continue with sequoia .
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sequoia capital is silicon valley’s most respected venture capital firm, having made money from backing yahoo, google, youtube and many others .
again, no big deal, unless of course investors in sequoia’s fund begin to argue that their stakes in companies like youtube are being artificially reduced because sequoia is letting in artis simply for family reasons. we should caution that we know very few facts about the relationships. we contacted both sequoia and artis for comment. however, another common thread is that both firms are obsessively secretive. sequoia did not respond. coo john milani of artis, when contacted, told venturebeat: “we don’t comment on employees or our investments. ”
sequoia took public money from the university of california for decades. while working for the mercury news, we engaged in talks with sequoia and other firms in an effort to obtain their financial performance, which we thought the public investors a right to access, especially given the downturn in the economy and in venture capital. uc, calpers and many other public - backed institutions had invested in vc firms, and almost nothing was known about the money - losing investments the vcs had made. notably, sequoia initially agreed to release its basic data, the so - called internal rate of return, in exchange for an agreement that we not request other, more detailed information about the fund. two days later, sequoia reneged on that agreement, and decided to boot the university of california as an investor for its initial decision to reveal sequoia’s financial performance to the public .
pe week’s haislip points out that there is no evidence (yet) that sequoia’s partners invested in artis — which would be of concern for sequoia’s remaining investors. to repeat, we don’t know the full facts on this, but it is a significant reminder that family and relationship ties do matter at a time when many tend to think — quite naively — that meritocracy alone rules in a place like silicon valley .
chad hurley, steve chen and hundreds of the videos that helped turn youtube into a sensation .
let' s say you' re in your 20s and you start your first internet company. let' s say 21 months later you sell it for $ 1. 65 billion. what happens next ?
at first, not much. some of the money is tied up in escrow, and the traditions of modesty in silicon valley require a period of restraint before you spend in the big, life - changing way that your wealth will permit .
still, the world wants to talk to you. japanese television, argentine newspapers, a bunch of french journalists and what seems like every news outlet in the u. s. friends you haven' t heard from in a long time send e - mails. hey, how' s it going? long time no see! btw i have this great business idea ...
and so even though you' ve just left a photo shoot with an imperious, name - dropping l. a. photographer and ride to the airport in a jet - black escalade, when you arrive at lax, you have to stand in the united economy line because you' re still flying coach. having removed your shoes to get through security - - an indignity you' ll never again endure if one day you spend an inconsequential few million on a jet - - you walk past a newsstand to see your company on the cover of wired and gq .
oh, and have you seen fortune? ... yeah, we' re in there too .
and there they are: steve chen, 28, and chad hurley, 29, two of the three founders of youtube (the other, jawed karim, went to grad school last year), a couple of boy - men looking out from a magazine and up at themselves in real life. then they board the plane, steve way in the back and chad closer to the front after paying an extra $ 24 for an
economy plus
seat .
such is life these days for chad and steve - - and because they are still young enough to get the occasional pimple, i don' t mind calling them chad and steve. they are premoguls, near magnates. they foreshadow but don' t quite yet embody the wealth and power that accompany their role as the new demiurges of the online world. at a gq party in west hollywood, calif. , a few weeks ago, al gore tapped steve on the shoulder outside the bathroom to congratulate him on the success of youtube. chad chatted with leonardo dicaprio, handsome and taller than you think and ashing his cigarette on the floor. but at the end of the night, the youtube boys were hanging with the b crowd, steve eating a burger (despite a disapproving glare from his girlfriend julie) and chad drinking until 2: 30 a. m. with a guy who was in the jackass movies - - not even the main guy. guys, you gotta know when to leave the party. (when leo does. )
but of course the party is just starting for chad and steve, whose omnium - gatherum of online videos has captivated the web for the past year, at least since a saturday night live digital short called lazy sunday was forwarded millions of times last december, increasing visits to urltoken 83% . (if you don' t know lazy sunday, don' t tell anyone, particularly anyone under 30. just quietly youtube it now. )
ouch. that’s a bit of a slap at sequoia, which has enjoyed a reputation until now as one of silicon valley’s most prominent and successful firms. only two other firms rival that reputation, benchmark and kleiner perkins. khosla’s firm is relatively new, founded a few years ago after khosla left kleiner perkins .
however, like other large venture firms, sequoia appears to have drifted slightly from its pure focus on investing in early stage startups. it has raised large amounts of funds for companies that are much more mature .
to many people the lush, leafy enclaves of menlo park' s sand hill road probably look like just another upscale office park. but to those hopeful entrepreneurs and budding ceos who come here looking for funding and guidance, sand hill road is the pearly gates of silicon valley: if you get in here, you' re in heaven. if you don' t, you' re in the other place .
but the deity here is not god but mammon. that' s because sand hill road is the home of several of the most powerful and influential venture capital firms in the country. driving in, past the parked mercedes and bmws; the bustle of federal express trucks; and, unusual for california, the sight of men and women in sober business attire; one comes to building 4, the offices of sequoia capital .
though not as well known to the general public as its neighbor, kleiner perkins caufield & byers, sequoia capital' s roster of the companies that it has taken public reads like a who' s who of the information age: cisco systems csco, yahoo! yhoo, oracle orcl, 3com coms, vitesse semiconductor vtss and apple computer aapl. since its 1972 inception sequoia has raised more than $ 1. 3 billion to invest in more than 350 companies, of which 100 have been taken public and many more sold .
as partner mike moritz says :
the companies we' ve provided the original financing for are now worth more than one - third of a trillion dollars .
unlike venture capitalists of the past, which were funded primarily by family wealth, firms like sequoia raise their money mainly from institutional investors, such as large foundations, endowments and universities, as well as very well - heeled private investors. these funds are entrusted to the firm, which then - - using its superior expertise, active involvement and sweat equity - - invests them in promising startups .
the companies we' ve provided the original financing for are now worth more than one - third of a trillion dollars .
sequoia' s typical strategy is to invest in companies at the early stages where it can get up to 25% of the company and play a key role in directing the company' s strategy and the hiring of the company' s management team. when the partners consider it appropriate they will take board positions or even act as senior executives at a company. for example, sequoia' s founder, don valentine, was ceo of cisco until he tapped current ceo john chambers to replace him. what sequoia doesn' t want is a large equity position, because it believes the best incentive for a company' s management is to retain the majority stake themselves .
our business is to identify entities too small to be called companies ,
says moritz, who has been at sequoia since 1986. it was moritz who first came across two young graduate students named jerry yang and david filo when they were working out of a trailer on the stanford campus in 1995. he is now a member of yahoo!' s board. most of sequoia' s partners immediately grasped the need for a search engine to navigate the new medium of the internet .
a lot of people thought it was lunacy to invest in a company with no technology, no barriers to entry, no management and no discernible source of revenue ,
says moritz .
but there was no doubt in our minds that the internet was a new medium and that a company like yahoo! that was developing a search engine to navigate it would be needed. but nobody in their right minds imagined that this would be a company with a $ 40 billion market cap .
while not every investment becomes what sequoia calls a
ten bagger ,
investments that multiply more than tenfold after their ipos, sequoia' s reputation for picking winners has allowed it to raise more than $ 750 million in investment funds from institutional investors, many of whom are in their third decade of investing with the firm. it has also allowed the company to create a network of contacts that touch upon every part of silicon valley, from commercial banks to accounting firms to executive search groups .
equally important, sequoia gives its clients unparalleled access to many of its post - ipo companies. for example, cisco bought netsys in 1996 for $ 79 million and ardent in 1997 for $ 156 million. in 1996, oracle acquired datalogix for $ 94 million. some companies have acted as investors in early financing rounds, as well: cisco invested $ 2. 5 million in international networking services inss, which then went public in 1996 for $ 490 million .
they know everyone ,
says john drew, ceo of ins .
their network of contacts between different companies is incredible, and they are very active in selecting management teams, customers, partners, investors, everything. the combination of their contacts, their dedication and their success rate is what convinced me to come on board .
having them involved with you instantly legitimizes your company ,
says larry augustin, ceo of va research, a mountain view, calif. - based startup that sells linux systems. he pursued the sequoia people for three years before they agreed to work with him .
they understood the technology but they just couldn' t pull the trigger ,
augustin says .
so i started sending them information every week showing how profitable we were, how important linux was, until they committed. it was worth it because they' re the ones i wanted. money isn' t the thing they bring to the table. other firms offered more money, but nobody promised the degree of involvement they could .
by its own estimate, sequoia gets an average of 20 business plans every day. while no investments are made without total consensus from all seven partners, few companies were able to secure an investment as easily as urltoken, a startup already prominent in the online music business. michael robertson, urltoken' s ceo, says that sequoia contacted him .
they were looking for a market leader ,
he says .
in exchange for a minority stake, they gave us $ 10 million, which is the largest investment they' ve ever made .
second, the firm likes companies that make products people need, as opposed to superfluous items they only want .
third, it looks at how that company' s product differentiates itself from similar products. does it have proprietary technology ?
they have a reputation as ceo killers ,
says bryan stolle, ceo of agile software, a san jose - based startup that helps companies integrate their supply chains and is currently working with sequoia .
that' s not fair but they are demanding. these guys are raving capitalists. they' re very very focused on making money and very very focused on finding companies and management teams that make money. from where i sit, that' s exactly the kind of team i want behind me .
well, he has reemerged in an advisory role at formation 8, where he is being reunited with kim and gideon yu, both of whom he had worked with previously .
“we haven’t had the same breadth of experiences he has. he’s literally seen every situation, ” kim said .
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lior founded eclipse to meet the unique and unmet needs of entrepreneurs building startups integrating hardware with software and data .
prior to launching eclipse, lior was founder and general partner at labix, the hardware investment platform of flextronics, the world’s second largest electronics manufacturing services and original design manufacturer. labix brings together startups, oems and technology partners across the entire hardware ecosystem. at labix, lior led investments in companies across: energy storage, wireless / infrastructure, 3d optics, additive manufacturing, and robotics .
lior also co - founded farm 2050, an agtech collective, with innovation endeavors to address the global food challenge. prior to labix, he was part of the founding team of elementum, flextronics’ proprietary saas platform which was later spun out. before moving to silicon valley, lior was a serial entrepreneur in tel aviv, where he helped build intucell which was sold to cisco in 2012 .
lior is a (res) of an elite special forces unit in the israel defense force .
greg oversees all aspects of finance, investment reporting and monitoring, operational, compliance, accounting and human resource functions at eclipse and is also involved in fundraising aspects of the firm .
prior to joining eclipse, greg worked at sequoia capital where he managed financial reporting and operations for funds across the u. s. , china, india and israel. during his time at sequoia, greg was also responsible for developing and reviewing gaap valuation models for portfolio companies across all geographies .
previously, greg was part of the pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc) audit practice in san francisco where he focused on financial services clients. in his role with pwc, greg supervised and trained audit team members and worked with multiple investment management and banking and capital markets clients. greg graduated cum laude with a b. s. in business administration with a concentration in accounting from sonoma state university. greg earned his cpa and is a member of the aicpa .
after graduating from arizona state university in 2014, lily worked as a lead recruiter for the it staffing company, insight global. lily was quickly promoted to become an account manager, managing accounts with leading technology companies such as yahoo, netapp and lockheed martin .
in this role lily clearly demonstrated her exceptional abilities to seamlessly coordinate and schedule a high volume of meetings between clients and potential candidates resulting in customer success and increased new business. lily brings her talent and enthusiasm to eclipse where she managers all office operations .
angela manages investor and portfolio relations for eclipse, including fundraising, lp relations, company communications, and outreach. she joined the team from formation 8 .
prior to joining formation 8, angela was the director of the stanford entrepreneurship network. while there she mentored stanford entrepreneurs, developed a robust network of investors and strategic advisors and led the communications / outreach strategy. additionally, she was a board member of bases, the business association of stanford entrepreneurial students .
greg has spent his career building and leading teams to help scale technically complex products from initial concept to high - volume production. most recently, greg was tesla’s executive leader of global manufacturing, factory / automation engineering, supply chain, and product excellence. while at tesla, he led growth from low volume roadster production to the fully integrated manufacturing of the model s and x, and a revenue run rate of over $ 8b .
prior to tesla, greg was the senior vice president of operations at sunpower, and led the growth of manufacturing operations from pilot scale to over $ 2b in annual revenue. in this role, he was responsible for the rapid implementation and growth of advanced silicon, cell, and panel manufacturing operations globally. earlier in his career, greg held various roles in manufacturing and quality in the semiconductor industry .
greg has a bs in mechanical engineering from the university of minnesota. outside of work, greg enjoys developing software, diving, and mountain biking .
prior to joining the investment team at eclipse, justin built and led the commercial operations at misfit, a wearable technology company acquired by the fossil group for more than $ 250m. before misfit, justin managed the commercialization efforts in the foods, fuels, and chemicals spaces at synthetic genomics, a leading synthetic biology company .
at sgi, justin’s efforts led to first - in - class technology development, licensing, and commercialization deals with companies such as adm, and other fortune 100 food and chemicals companies .
justin received his bs in chemical engineering from ucsb, and his mba from mit sloan. justin is an avid cyclist and triathlete, and is on the advisory board of cyclekids, a nonprofit focused on strengthening the physical and emotional health of children .
seth is a partner at eclipse where he invests in strong leaders building full - stack hardware technology companies that improve the physical world. he focuses his time on building businesses that use automation technologies to improve the movement of people and goods; next generation manufacturing technologies, and consumer hardware that pushes the state of the art in machine learning .
his investments include: 6 river systems, clearpath robotics, and marble. additionally, he is a board observer for eclipse portfolio companies: light, kindred, and swift navigation .
prior to helping launch eclipse, seth was an original member of the ge ventures advanced manufacturing investment practice where he invested in robotics, additive manufacturing, and industrial iot technologies. seth is a graduate of claremont mckenna college. he spends his free time running / cycling, snowboarding, surfing, and enjoying the beautiful norcal outdoors .
lior also co - founded farm 2050, an agtech collective, with innovation endeavors to address the global food challenge. prior to labix, he was part of the founding team of elementum, flextronics’ proprietary saas platform which was later spun out. before moving to silicon valley, lior was a serial entrepreneur in tel aviv, where he helped build intucell which was sold to cisco in 2012 .
, provides solutions for reconfigurable rtl in chip and system designs using embedded fpga ip cores and software. the company' s technology platform delivers significant customer benefits by dramatically reducing design and manufacturing risks, accelerating technology roadmaps, and bringing greater flexibility to customers' hardware. flex logix is backed by
based eclipse ventures supports iconic entrepreneurs building vertically - integrated, full - stack companies, incorporating hardware, software, and data. the team is comprised of passionate and experienced individuals with both investment and operational backgrounds. eclipse has made 27 investments to date.
pierre r lamond ( born 1930 ) is a venture capitalist in silicon valley , who has specialised in semiconductors , systems and cleantech . he was a partner at sequoia capital based in menlo park , california from 1981 until he left to join vinod khosla 's khosla ventures as general partner in march 2009 . he left khosla ventures in 2013 and joined eclipse ventures as a partner in 2014
pierre r lamond (born 1930) is a venture capitalist in silicon valley, who has specialised in semiconductors, systems and cleantech. he was a partner at sequoia capital based in menlo park, california from 1981 until he left to join vinod khosla's khosla ventures as general partner in march 2009. he left khosla ventures in 2013 and joined eclipse ventures as a partner in 2014
pierre r lamond (born 1930) is a venture capitalist in silicon valley, who has specialised in semiconductors, systems and cleantech. he was a partner at sequoia capital based in menlo park, california from 1981 until he left to join vinod khosla's khosla ventures as general partner in march 2009. he left khosla ventures in 2013 and joined eclipse ventures as a partner in 2014