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Venture Capitalists at Work How Vcs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes Venture Capitalists at Work How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes Tarang Shah Sheetal Shah Venture Capitalists at Work Copyright © 2011 by Tarang Shah and Sheetal Shah All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record- ing, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-3837-9 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-3838-6 Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringe- ment of the trademark. President and Publisher: Paul Manning Lead Editor: Jeff Olson Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Morgan Ertel, Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Robert Hutchinson, Michelle Lowman, James Markham, Matthew Moodie, Jeff Olson, Jeffrey Pepper, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Gwenan Spearing, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh Coordinating Editor: Jessica Belanger Editorial Assistant: Rita Fernando Copy Editor: Kimberly Burton Compositor: Mary Sudul Indexer: SPi Global Cover Designer: Anna Ishschenko Distributed to the book trade worldwide by Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 233 Spring Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013. Phone 1-800-SPRINGER, fax 201-348- 4505, e-mail [email protected], or visit http://www.springeronline.com. For information on translations, please contact us by e-mail at [email protected], or visit http://www.apress.com. Apress and friends of ED books may be purchased in bulk for academic, corporate, or promotional use. eBook versions and licenses are also available for most titles. For more information, reference our Special Bulk Sales–eBook Licensing web page at http://www.apress.com/bulk-sales. The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Al- though every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author(s) nor Apress shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the infor- mation contained in this work. For our son Raj, our parents, and Gurudev Contents Foreword by Gus Tai.......................................................................................................vii Foreword by George Zachary.................................................................................... ix About the Authors ........................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgments........................................................................................................... xiii Introduction....................................................................................................................... xvii Chapter 1: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital: YouTube, Xoom, Green Dot, Dropbox, AdMob ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Mike Maples, FLOODGATE Fund: Twitter, Chegg, Digg, Demandforce, ngmoco:), SolarWinds, ModCloth .......................................................................11 Chapter 3: George Zachary, Charles River Ventures: Twitter, Yammer, Millennial Media, Jambool, Scribd, Metaplace ....................................................23 Chapter 4: Sean Dalton, Highland Capital Partners: Starent Networks, Altiga Networks, Telica, PA Semi........................................................................39 Chapter 5: Alex Mehr, Zoosk......................................................................................55 Chapter 6: Howard Morgan, Idealab: Overture/GoTo, Citysearch, eToys, Snap; First Round Capital: Mint, myYearbook ..............................................................75 Chapter 7: Tim Draper, DFJ: Baidu, Skype, Overture, Hotmail, Parametric Technologies, Focus Media, AdMob....................................................................91 Chapter 8: Osman Rashid, Chegg...........................................................................101 Chapter 9: Harry Weller, NEA: Groupon, Opower..................................................115 Chapter 10: David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners: LinkedIn, Smule, Zoosk........133 Chapter 11: Michael Birch, Bebo, Birthday Alarm .....................................................149 Chapter 12: Mitchell Kertzman, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners...................165 Chapter 13: Scott Sandell, NEA: Salesforce, WebEx, Bloom Energy ..........................177 Chapter 14: Gus Tai, Trinity Ventures: Blue Nile, Photobucket, Modulus, zulily, Trion Worlds ...................................................................................................191 v Chapter 15: Steven Dietz, GRP Partners: DealerTrack, TrueCar, Bill Me Later, Koral, UGO Entertainment.............................................................................. 209 Chapter 16: Paul Scanlan, MobiTV ........................................................................... 219 Chapter 17: Ann Winblad, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners: Hyperion, The Knot, Dean & Deluca, Net Perceptions .................................................... 237 Chapter 18: Jim Goetz, Sequoia Capital: AdMob ........................................................ 253 Chapter 19: Roger Lee, Battery Ventures: Groupon, Angie’s List, TrialPay ................... 259 Chapter 20: Ken Howery, Founders Fund: PayPal, Facebook, SpaceX, ZocDoc......... 275 Chapter 21: Alfred Lin, Sequoia Capital: Zappos........................................................ 289 Chapter 22: Kevin Hartz, Xoom, Eventbrite ............................................................. 301 Chapter 23: Eric Hippeau, Lerer Ventures; SoftBank Capital: The Huffington Post, Yahoo!, Danger............................................................................................... 315 Chapter 24: David Lee, SV Angel: Twitter, Foursquare, Flipboard, Dropbox, AirBnB..... 327 Chapter 25: Ted Alexander, Mission Ventures: MaxLinear, RockeTalk, Enevate ..... 337 Chapter 26: Robert Kibble, Mission Ventures: Greenplum, Shopzilla, Sandpiper Networks ....................................................................................... 353 Chapter 27: Rajiv Laroia, Flarion Technologies .......................................................... 365 Chapter 28: Jim Boettcher and Kevin McQuillan, Focus Ventures: PCH International, Starent, Pure Digital, PA Semi, Aruba Networks, Financial Engines, Centrality, DATAllegro......................................................... 379 Chapter 29: Mike Hodges, ATA Ventures: Tellium, Zoosk, Biometric Imaging ........... 393 Chapter 30: Alan Patricof, Greycroft Partners: Apple, AOL, Office Depot, Audible, The Huffington Post........................................................................... 409 Chapter 31: Ben Elowitz, Blue Nile, Wetpaint .......................................................... 419 Chapter 32: Vish Mishra, Clearstone Venture Partners: PayPal, Overture, Cetas, Mimosa, Ankeena, Kazeon ............................................................................. 429 Chapter 33: Rich Wong, Accel Partners: Angry Birds, Atlassian, AdMob, 3LM............. 437 Chapter 34: Randy Komisar, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers: LucasArts, WebTV, TiVO, Pinger, Transphorm ................................................................. 443 Chapter 35: Peter Wagner, Accel Partners: Fusion-io, Opower, ArrowPoint Communications, Riverbed Technology, Redback Networks............................. 459 Index ....................................................................................................................... 471 vi Foreword There have been a number of books written on venture capital, but very few capture its heart and soul. Ostensibly, venture capital is about predicting the future. Venture capitalists predict a distinct type of future: one where a new- comer unexpectedly seizes a discontinuity, and transforms the way societies and businesses behave. The fastest-growing transformations at first appear innovative yet dubious. But they quickly mature into something that feels familiar and perhaps obvious. Such were the cases for companies like You- Tube, Facebook, Groupon, LinkedIn, and Twitter, all mentioned in this book. In this sea of potential, what a venture capitalist does is assess the future of the start-ups that he or she meets. But what’s often underappreciated is that at its core, venture capital is in- tensely personal. It is an unnerving task. What is obvious is often less valuable. What is dubious might become the next big winner. To manage the ambiguity, a VC will use his or her history, expertise, and outlook as guideposts in deci- sion making. He or she will draw upon his or her partnership for input and insight. However, in a world where a start-up’s uniqueness often wins big— and conventionality might not win at all—there’s a premium for original think- ing. At the end of the day, it’s a deeply personal process that a venture capi- talist goes through to render a decision. Equally personal is what happens after funding a start-up. After funding, a venture capitalist then focuses on doing whatever he or she can to help im- prove the start-up’s ability to thrive. Sometimes
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