Mohr Davidow Ventures
Encyclopedia
Mohr Davidow Ventures is a venture capital
firm that invests in early stage technology companies. For over 28 years, Mohr Davidow has helped to build more than 250 startup companies. The firm has $1.85B under management. Its managing and general partners are engaged with over 50 portfolio companies, assisted by Venture Partner Geoffrey Moore
, Emeritus Partners Nancy Schoendorf and Bill Davidow
. The company is located in Menlo Park, California
on Sand Hill Road
.
, formerly senior vice president at Intel during the time the 8086 architecture became the industry standard. The firm's investments initially focused on semiconductor
startups and related high-tech companies. Notable early investments was the funding of MIPS Technologies
(1985), the seed-funding of Rambus (1990), Agile Software
(1995), the investment in Zip2 (1995) for $3.5M started by Elon Musk
(co-founder of PayPal) which sold in 1999 for $307M, and Brocade (1996). Mohr Davidow continued growing with its investment in Shutterfly
, ONI Systems, nLight, as well as Panasas
, Pacific Biosciences
(public offering October 27, 2010), and Proofpoint, Inc.
. The firm started their Cleantech initiative in 2004.
Mohr Davidow's partners have a total of 200 years of industry experience ranging from Paul Cleveland (joined 2011) to Jon Feiber, Managing Partner who joined the company in 1991.
Successful returns via acquisition include MDV portfolio companies:
, Venture Partner
Books by Bill Davidow
, Partner Emeritus
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firm that invests in early stage technology companies. For over 28 years, Mohr Davidow has helped to build more than 250 startup companies. The firm has $1.85B under management. Its managing and general partners are engaged with over 50 portfolio companies, assisted by Venture Partner Geoffrey Moore
Geoffrey Moore
Geoffrey Moore is a Silicon Valley based high technology consultant, venture partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures and author.His books are derived from his Silicon Valley consulting work at The McKenna Group and The Chasm Group , and earlier work by Everett Rogers on adopter categories and diffusion...
, Emeritus Partners Nancy Schoendorf and Bill Davidow
Bill Davidow
William H. DavidowBill Davidow is a Silicon Valley engineer, marketing executive, author and venture capitalist. Davidow served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Intel Corporation in the 1980s, and was part of an early group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists...
. The company is located in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
on Sand Hill Road
Sand Hill Road
Sand Hill Road is a road in Menlo Park, California, notable for its concentration of venture capital companies. Its significance as a symbol of private equity in the United States may be compared to that of Wall Street in the stock market...
.
History
Mohr Davidow was founded in 1983 by Larry Mohr and Bill DavidowBill Davidow
William H. DavidowBill Davidow is a Silicon Valley engineer, marketing executive, author and venture capitalist. Davidow served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Intel Corporation in the 1980s, and was part of an early group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists...
, formerly senior vice president at Intel during the time the 8086 architecture became the industry standard. The firm's investments initially focused on semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
startups and related high-tech companies. Notable early investments was the funding of MIPS Technologies
MIPS Technologies
MIPS Technologies, Inc. , formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of pioneering RISC chips. MIPS provides processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications.MIPS Computer Systems Inc. was...
(1985), the seed-funding of Rambus (1990), Agile Software
Agile Software Corporation
Agile Software Corporation , based in San Jose, California, manufactures product lifecycle management software.In February, 2005, Agile Software Corporation acquired Cimmetry Systems Corporation, a privately owned software developer specializing in enterprise visualization, for approximately...
(1995), the investment in Zip2 (1995) for $3.5M started by Elon Musk
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is an American engineer and entrepreneur heritage best known for co-founding PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity...
(co-founder of PayPal) which sold in 1999 for $307M, and Brocade (1996). Mohr Davidow continued growing with its investment in Shutterfly
Shutterfly
Shutterfly is an Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service. Shutterfly's flagship product is its photo book line. It is based in Redwood City, California.-Features:...
, ONI Systems, nLight, as well as Panasas
Panasas
Panasas, Inc., is a private, multinational computer storage company based in Sunnyvale, California. It specializes in high-performance scale-out network-attached storage optimized for Linux clusters.- History :...
, Pacific Biosciences
Pacific Biosciences
Pacific Biosciences is a biotechnology company founded in 2004 that develops and manufactures systems for gene sequencing and some novel real time biological observation. They describe their platform as single molecule real time sequencing , based on the properties of zero-mode waveguides...
(public offering October 27, 2010), and Proofpoint, Inc.
Proofpoint, Inc.
Proofpoint, Inc. is based in Sunnyvale, California and provides SaaS and on-premises solutions for inbound email security, outbound data loss prevention, privacy protection, email encryption, electronic discovery and email archiving.-Founding:...
. The firm started their Cleantech initiative in 2004.
Mohr Davidow's partners have a total of 200 years of industry experience ranging from Paul Cleveland (joined 2011) to Jon Feiber, Managing Partner who joined the company in 1991.
Managing and General Partners
- Managing Partner: Bill Ericson - Investment Focus: data rich, complex domains of life sciences and internet media. He serves on the Boards of Ticketfly, AudienceScience, and RocketFuel, as well as the Board of Northwestern University School of LawNorthwestern University School of LawThe Northwestern University School of Law is a private American law school in Chicago, Illinois. The law school was founded in 1859 as the Union College of Law of the Old University of Chicago. The first law school established in Chicago, it became jointly controlled by Northwestern University in...
. - Managing Partner: Jon Feiber. Serves on the board of Carrier IQCarrier IQCarrier IQ is a privately-owned mobile software company founded in 2005 and based in Mountain View, California. It provides mobile analytics services for smartphones to the Wireless industry...
, IronKeyIronKeyIronKey is an Internet security and privacy company located in Sunnyvale, California that was formed in 2005 by David Jevans, with the stated aim of providing security and privacy solutions to both consumers and enterprises. IronKey's founding was partially funded by the U.S...
, Proofpoint, and PanasasPanasasPanasas, Inc., is a private, multinational computer storage company based in Sunnyvale, California. It specializes in high-performance scale-out network-attached storage optimized for Linux clusters.- History :...
. Mr. Feiber also serves on California Institute of Technology's Information Science and Technology Advisory Board . Mr. Feiber is currently teaching a class at Stanford University on entrepreneurship titled The Lean Launch Pad: Teaching Entrepreneurship as a Management Science.
- General Partner: Paul Cleveland, formerly CFO of Affymax.
- General Partner: Josh Green - Investment Focus: Cleantech which includes a wide range of startups including those focused on Lithium production, biochemicals, and LED lighting. Josh Green joined Mohr Davidow’s Cleantech team in 2006. He serves on the Boards of iRhythm Technologies, Simbol Materials, and Genomatica.
- General Partner: Sue Siegel - Investment Focus: technology in the Life Sciences category. Ms. Siegel joined MDV in 2007 and was named a Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal: Woman of Influence 2011. She serves on the Boards of Pacific BiosciencesPacific BiosciencesPacific Biosciences is a biotechnology company founded in 2004 that develops and manufactures systems for gene sequencing and some novel real time biological observation. They describe their platform as single molecule real time sequencing , based on the properties of zero-mode waveguides...
, Crescendo Biosciences, Raindance Technologies and NavigenicsNavigenicsNavigenics, Inc. is a privately held personal genomics company, based in Foster City, California, that uses genetic testing to help people determine their individual risk for dozens of health conditions....
. - General Partner: Jim Smith - Investment Focus: hardware startups that will provide the infrastructure for what Mohr Davidow calls “the data deluge.” Mr. Smith joined MDV in 1999. He serves on the Boards of ParAccelParaccelParAccel, Inc. is a vendor in the data warehouse appliance market category. Vendors in this category provide a purpose-built database management system used for data warehousing, business intelligence and analytic processing and, according to Hackathorn and White, there are varying degrees of...
, Mantara and AryakaAryakaAryaka is a technology company that provides cloud-based WAN optimization and application acceleration services. The company is headquartered in Milpitas, California with development offices in Bangalore, India and has 100+ employees....
. - General Partner: Bryan Stolle - entrepreneurial focus on technology companies. He joined Mohr Davidow in 2008. He serves on the Boards of Coupa and Rally SoftwareRally SoftwareRally Software, founded in 2002, offers SaaS-based Application Lifecycle Management platform and products, Agile coaching services, courses through and online forums focused on Agile and Lean practices...
. As a volunteer he serves on the boards of the San Jose Children’s Discovery MuseumChildren's Discovery Museum of San JoseChildren's Discovery Museum of San Jose is located on Woz Way in downtown San Jose, California. Woz Way is named after Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, whose nickname is "Woz," and who was the single largest private donor during the original capital campaign that funded the...
and Montalvo Arts Center. - General Partner: Erik Straser - Investment Focus: technology-driven companies that can bring new supply or efficiency to the industrial market. He joined Mohr Davidow in 1998 and in 2004 started the Cleantech group. He serves on the Board of the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency at Stanford. He serves on the Boards of NanosolarNanosolarNanosolar 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...
, ZeaChem, and OPX Biotechnologies among others.
Investment Areas of Focus
- Technology: Communications, Networking, Data, Storage, Management, Cloud
- Life Sciences: Health, Monitoring, Medicine, Management, Clinical, Genomics, Therapies, Diganostics
- Cleantech: Energy, Power, Electrical, Grid, Solar, Storage
Significant Investments
MDV funded companies that have gone public:| Company | IPO Date |
|---|---|
| Actuate | 1998 |
| Agile Software | 1999 |
| Auspex Systems | 1993 |
| Cats Software | 1995 |
| Accure Software | 1999 |
| S3 | 1993 |
| Vantive | 1995 |
| Vitesse | 1991 |
| Power Integrations | 1997 |
| FormFactor | 2003 |
| Pacific Biosciences | 2010 |
| Shutterfly | 2006 |
| Power Integrations | 1997 |
| Broadbase | 1999 |
| Critical Path | 1999 |
| Viant | 1999 |
| Rambus | 1997 |
Successful returns via acquisition include MDV portfolio companies:
| Company | Acquisition | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Parallele Bioscience | Affymetrix | 2005 |
| Collabra | NetScape | 1995 |
| Freshwater Software | Mercury Interactive | 2001 |
| Ipsilon Networks | Nokia | 1997 |
| Kalpana | Cisco | 1994 |
| Numerical Technologies | Synopsys | 2003 |
| Oni Systems | Ciena | 2002 |
| nChip | Flextronics | 1995 |
| Silicon Architects | Synopsys | 1995 |
| Knowledge Adventure | CUC International | 1997 |
| ICverify | Cybercash | 1998 |
| Epigram | Broadcom | 1999 |
| Investools | Telescan | 1999 |
| Zip2 | Compaq | 1999 |
| Kendara | Excite@Home | 2000 |
| Sabrix | Thomson-Reuters | 2009 |
| Recurrent Energy | Sharp Corporation | 2010 |
Other Activities
Member and Sponsor of the Stanford Racing Team.External Links
Further Reading
Books by Geoffrey MooreGeoffrey Moore
Geoffrey Moore is a Silicon Valley based high technology consultant, venture partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures and author.His books are derived from his Silicon Valley consulting work at The McKenna Group and The Chasm Group , and earlier work by Everett Rogers on adopter categories and diffusion...
, Venture Partner
- Crossing the ChasmCrossing the ChasmCrossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers or simply Crossing the Chasm , is a marketing book by Geoffrey A. Moore that focuses on the specifics of marketing high tech products during the early start up period...
: Marketing and Selling High-tech Products to Mainstream Customers (1991, revised 1999) - ISBN 0-06-051712-3 - Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge (1995) revised as Inside the Tornado: Strategies for Developing, Leveraging, and Surviving Hypergrowth Markets (2004) - ISBN 0-88730-824-4
- The Gorilla Game: An Investor's Guide to Picking Winners in High Technology (with Paul Johnson and Tom Kippola, 1998) revised as The Gorilla Game : Picking Winners in High Technology (1999)
- Living on the Fault Line : Managing for Shareholder Value in the Age of the Internet (2000), revised as Living on the Fault Line, Revised Edition: Managing for Shareholder Value in Any Economy (2002)
- Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution (2005)
- Escape Velocity: Free Your Company's Future from the Pull of the Past (2011)
Books by Bill Davidow
Bill Davidow
William H. DavidowBill Davidow is a Silicon Valley engineer, marketing executive, author and venture capitalist. Davidow served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Intel Corporation in the 1980s, and was part of an early group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists...
, Partner Emeritus
- Marketing High Technology (1986)
- Total Customer Service: The Ultimate Weapon, with Bro Uttal
- The Virtual Corporation: Structuring and Revitalizing the Corporation for the 21st Century (1993), with Michael S. MaloneMichael S. MaloneMichael Shawn Malone is an American author, columnist, editor, investor, business-man, television producer, and has been the host of several shows on PBS...
- Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, Delphinium Books (2011)