Something Ventured: Risk, Reward, and the Original Venture Capitalists
“Writing the check is the easy part.” Genentech, Apple, Intel, Cisco, Oracle, … none of them would exist, nor would a hundred others that created billions of dollars worth of new wealth by delivering new inventions. More than the money – though there was that – venture capitalists brought expertise in management and marketing, guiding start-ups, connecting people with each other, sometimes even making the most difficult of all decisions, to fire the founder CEO for the good of the company.
Everyone knows Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak; many recognize Nolan Bushnell, Gordon Moore, and Mike Markkula. Fewer have heard of Arthur Rock, Tom Perkins, or Don Valentine. Something Ventured (website here) is their story, the viewpoint of the venture capitalist. They are a humble lot. At the end of the movie, they admit that writing the check is the easy part. Without the inventors, the creators, the innovators, the visionaries, they would have nothing in which to invest. But, invest they did – and do.
“They saw opportunity where others only saw risk.”
Arthur Rock was working as an investment banker when his firm received a letter from a group of engineers and scientists who were unhappy working for Nobel laureate William Shockley and were looking for an employer to take them all as a group. Rock convinced them to start their own company. Rock approach thirty-five companies – Chrysler, National Cash Register, Curtiss Wright, Borg Warner, Ford, Champion, Motorola, Magnavox, … - and no one wanted to invest. Then, Arthur Rock met Sherman Fairchild.
Fairchild Semiconductor led to the “Fairchildren” the entrepreneurs within the “Traitorous Eight” of Shockley’s lab who would go on to form their own firms with other venture capitalists backing them.
The Austrian School of Economics advocates consistent laissez faire. They are different from the Chicago School, made famous by Milton Friedman. The Chicago school argues macro-economic policies with its Keynesian rivals. The Austrians focus on individuals. Israel Kirzner, Frank Knight, Peter Klein, and others have attempted to understand and formalize—and continue to investigate – entrepreneurship. However, as individualists, they argue what the word means, not how to produce more of the same by some cookie-cutter process. That cannot be done.This film glorifies that individualist tradition of entrepreneurship and investment capital. No formula exists. No formula can exist. Each of the venture capitalists in this documentary has a unique narrative. In every case it reduces to the same primary: “I thought that it was a good idea.”
“There are no firm rules in the venture capital business, except that there are no firm rules.” Reid Dennis
“I would trust him with my life, but not with my money.” Eugene Kleiner.
"You gotta get money from strong people because weak people don’t invest in tough times, but that is when most of the big winners are created. ”Jimmy Treybig, co-founder Tandem Computers.
“I am not interested in entrepreneurs who want to do things our way. I am not interested in entrepreneurs who come with a dress code. I am interested in entrepreneurs who want to something new that preferably becomes big.” -- Don Valentine.
Everyone knows Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak; many recognize Nolan Bushnell, Gordon Moore, and Mike Markkula. Fewer have heard of Arthur Rock, Tom Perkins, or Don Valentine. Something Ventured (website here) is their story, the viewpoint of the venture capitalist. They are a humble lot. At the end of the movie, they admit that writing the check is the easy part. Without the inventors, the creators, the innovators, the visionaries, they would have nothing in which to invest. But, invest they did – and do.
“They saw opportunity where others only saw risk.”
Arthur Rock was working as an investment banker when his firm received a letter from a group of engineers and scientists who were unhappy working for Nobel laureate William Shockley and were looking for an employer to take them all as a group. Rock convinced them to start their own company. Rock approach thirty-five companies – Chrysler, National Cash Register, Curtiss Wright, Borg Warner, Ford, Champion, Motorola, Magnavox, … - and no one wanted to invest. Then, Arthur Rock met Sherman Fairchild.
Fairchild Semiconductor led to the “Fairchildren” the entrepreneurs within the “Traitorous Eight” of Shockley’s lab who would go on to form their own firms with other venture capitalists backing them.
The Austrian School of Economics advocates consistent laissez faire. They are different from the Chicago School, made famous by Milton Friedman. The Chicago school argues macro-economic policies with its Keynesian rivals. The Austrians focus on individuals. Israel Kirzner, Frank Knight, Peter Klein, and others have attempted to understand and formalize—and continue to investigate – entrepreneurship. However, as individualists, they argue what the word means, not how to produce more of the same by some cookie-cutter process. That cannot be done.This film glorifies that individualist tradition of entrepreneurship and investment capital. No formula exists. No formula can exist. Each of the venture capitalists in this documentary has a unique narrative. In every case it reduces to the same primary: “I thought that it was a good idea.”
“There are no firm rules in the venture capital business, except that there are no firm rules.” Reid Dennis
“I would trust him with my life, but not with my money.” Eugene Kleiner.
"You gotta get money from strong people because weak people don’t invest in tough times, but that is when most of the big winners are created. ”Jimmy Treybig, co-founder Tandem Computers.
“I am not interested in entrepreneurs who want to do things our way. I am not interested in entrepreneurs who come with a dress code. I am interested in entrepreneurs who want to something new that preferably becomes big.” -- Don Valentine.
SOURCE URL: http://www.somethingventuredthemovie.com/
