Martin Roscheisen
Encyclopedia
R. Martin Roscheisen is an Austrian-American
technology entrepreneur
based in Silicon Valley.
. Martin Roscheisen was born and raised in Munich, Germany, as an Austrian citizen. Attending Feodor Lynen high school near Munich, he graduated valedictorian in 1987. While still a teenager, he spent a year at the legendary Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC
) in Silicon Valley. He subsequently studied computer science and electrical engineering at Munich Technical University, graduating at the top of his class. In 1992, he moved to California to earn a doctorate in engineering at Stanford University
(with fellow students in Terry Winograd
's group of the same year including Sergey Brin
and Larry Page
.)
In 1995, Roscheisen co-founded FindLaw
, which became the most widely used Internet legal site, for the first time making U.S. case law including all Supreme Court decisions accessible to the public. FindLaw is now a business unit of Thomson's West Group.
In 1997, Roscheisen, with Stanford professor Yoav Shoham, created TradingDynamics, an enterprise software company which was acquired by Ariba
for $740 million in 2000.
In 1998, Roscheisen became founder & CEO of eGroups
, an email messaging company, which was financed by Sequoia Capital
and ultimately acquired by Yahoo for $450 million. (Google founder Larry Page's brother Carl was a co-founder of eGroups too.)
In 2000, Roscheisen teamed up with Mark Pincus
(today CEO of Zynga
) to form an incubator called Tank Hill Projects (named after a neighborhood hill in the vicinity of which both reside in San Francisco) to create a series of new companies. Funded with an initial $10 million, the entity rapidly expanded to a headcount of 50 but shut down by October of the same year to return capital at minimum loss.
In 2002, Roscheisen co-founded and became Chairman & CEO of the first solar energy company in Silicon Valley focused on making solar power broadly affordable: Nanosolar
. Nanosolar pioneered a fast process for simply printing solar cells on low-cost metal foil. Roscheisen raised more than $500 million in capital for Nanosolar (starting with Google
founders, angels like Reid Hoffman
and Sunil Paul and VC Benchmark Capital
), built two factories of substantial production capacity, and secured $4.1 billion in customer supply contracts. Under Roscheisen, Nanosolar became a Silicon Valley flagship company in green technology, widely featured in the media including Fortune, Gigaom, the SJ Merc, Wired, VentureBeat, EDN, Motley Fool's, Business Week, USA Today, and receiving a number of outstanding awards such as the #1 technology innovation award in 2007 by Popular Science Magazine and TIME magazine's innovation of the year award as well as the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer award. After eight years as Chairman & CEO, Roscheisen left the company in 2010, with no reason announced.http://www.rmartinr.com/index.html.
Austrian-American
Austrian Americans are Americans of Austrian descent. According to the 2000 US census, there are 735,128, or 0.3% Americans of full or partial Austrian descent. The states with the largest Austrian American populations are New York , California , Pennsylvania , Florida and New Jersey...
technology entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
based in Silicon Valley.
Background and Education
According to a profile in German business journal HandelsblattHandelsblatt
The Handelsblatt is a leading German language business newspaper, published in Düsseldorf by the Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt. It has a circulation of 145.437 daily copies. Its editor-in-chief is Gabor Steingart...
. Martin Roscheisen was born and raised in Munich, Germany, as an Austrian citizen. Attending Feodor Lynen high school near Munich, he graduated valedictorian in 1987. While still a teenager, he spent a year at the legendary Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC
PARC
PARC or Parc may refer to:* PARC , the Palo Alto Research Center * PARC Management, a theme park and entertainment venue operator...
) in Silicon Valley. He subsequently studied computer science and electrical engineering at Munich Technical University, graduating at the top of his class. In 1992, he moved to California to earn a doctorate in engineering at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
(with fellow students in Terry Winograd
Terry Winograd
Terry Allen Winograd is an American professor of computer science at Stanford University, and co-director of the Stanford Human-Computer Interaction Group...
's group of the same year including Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the largest internet companies. , his personal wealth is estimated to be $16.7 billion....
and Larry Page
Larry Page
Lawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google. As of April 4, 2011, he is also the chief executive of Google, as announced on January 20, 2011...
.)
Entrepreneurship
In the 1990s, Roscheisen was among the first generation of entrepreneurs pursuing opportunities in the commercial Internet; and in 2000+, he was one of the first entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to focus on green energy technology.In 1995, Roscheisen co-founded FindLaw
FindLaw
FindLaw is a business of Thomson Reuters that provides online legal information and online marketing services for law firms. FindLaw was created by Stacy Stern, Martin Roscheisen and Tim Stanley in 1995, and was acquired by Thomson West in 2001....
, which became the most widely used Internet legal site, for the first time making U.S. case law including all Supreme Court decisions accessible to the public. FindLaw is now a business unit of Thomson's West Group.
In 1997, Roscheisen, with Stanford professor Yoav Shoham, created TradingDynamics, an enterprise software company which was acquired by Ariba
Ariba
Ariba is a software and information technology services company located in Sunnyvale, California.- Early life :Ariba was founded in 1996 by Bobby Lent, Boris Putanec, Paul Touw, Rob Desantis, Ed Kinsey, Paul Hegarty, and Keith Krach on the idea of using the Internet to enable companies to...
for $740 million in 2000.
In 1998, Roscheisen became founder & CEO of eGroups
EGroups
eGroups.com was an email list management web site. The site allowed users to create their own mailing lists and allowed others to sign up for membership on the list. The web site provided archives of the messages as well as list management functionality. Each group also had a shared calendar, file...
, an email messaging company, which was financed by Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
and ultimately acquired by Yahoo for $450 million. (Google founder Larry Page's brother Carl was a co-founder of eGroups too.)
In 2000, Roscheisen teamed up with Mark Pincus
Mark Pincus
Mark Jonathan Pincus is an Internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Zynga, which makes online social games. Pincus also founded Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and SupportSoft. Pincus currently serves as CEO of Zynga, which had 232 million monthly active users as of July 1, 2011...
(today CEO of Zynga
Zynga
Zynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....
) to form an incubator called Tank Hill Projects (named after a neighborhood hill in the vicinity of which both reside in San Francisco) to create a series of new companies. Funded with an initial $10 million, the entity rapidly expanded to a headcount of 50 but shut down by October of the same year to return capital at minimum loss.
In 2002, Roscheisen co-founded and became Chairman & CEO of the first solar energy company in Silicon Valley focused on making solar power broadly affordable: Nanosolar
Nanosolar
Nanosolar is a developer of solar power technology. Based in San Jose, CA, Nanosolar has developed and commercialized a low-cost printable solar cell manufacturing process. The company started selling panels mid-December 2007, and plans to sell them at around $1 per watt...
. Nanosolar pioneered a fast process for simply printing solar cells on low-cost metal foil. Roscheisen raised more than $500 million in capital for Nanosolar (starting with Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
founders, angels like Reid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman
Reid G. Hoffman is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.-Early education and career:...
and Sunil Paul and VC Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups. In 1997, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999. Other high-profile investments include Ariba, Juniper Networks, Red...
), built two factories of substantial production capacity, and secured $4.1 billion in customer supply contracts. Under Roscheisen, Nanosolar became a Silicon Valley flagship company in green technology, widely featured in the media including Fortune, Gigaom, the SJ Merc, Wired, VentureBeat, EDN, Motley Fool's, Business Week, USA Today, and receiving a number of outstanding awards such as the #1 technology innovation award in 2007 by Popular Science Magazine and TIME magazine's innovation of the year award as well as the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer award. After eight years as Chairman & CEO, Roscheisen left the company in 2010, with no reason announced.http://www.rmartinr.com/index.html.
Miscellaneous
- In 2003 (Sep 15, 2003), Fortune Magazine named Roscheisen as one of United States' "40 under 40"40 under 40 (Fortune Magazine)Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 List details the young stars in business across the globe.Mark Zuckerberg topped the 2011 list. Facebook now has over 800 million users.-External links:***...
(Fortune Top 40 Under 40).
- In 2007, along with GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's Larry PageLarry PageLawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google. As of April 4, 2011, he is also the chief executive of Google, as announced on January 20, 2011...
and Sergey BrinSergey BrinSergey Mikhaylovich Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the largest internet companies. , his personal wealth is estimated to be $16.7 billion....
, Roscheisen was an executive producer of an independent film IMDB:Roscheisen.
- Roscheisen's San Francisco home was featured on the cover of Dwell magazine in 2002 for its award winning design.
- Roscheisen was awarded a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2007 and a TIME magazine award for most innovative product of the year.