Mohr Davidow Ventures

Mohr Davidow Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early stage technology companies. Over the course of 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.

History

Mohr Davidow was founded in 1983 by Larry Mohr and Bill Davidow, 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. 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 Law.
• Managing Partner: Jon Feiber. Serves on the board of Carrier IQ, IronKey, Proofpoint, and Panasas. 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 Biosciences, Crescendo Biosciences, Raindance Technologies and Navigenics.
• 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 ParAccel, Mantara and Aryaka.
• General Partner: Bryan Stolle - entrepreneurial focus on technology companies. He joined Mohr Davidow in 2008. He serves on the Boards of Coupa and Rally Software. As a volunteer he serves on the boards of the San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum 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 Nanosolar, 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

Among the many MDV funded companies that have gone public are:

Successful returns via acquisition include MDV portfolio companies:

Other Activities

Member and Sponsor of the Stanford Racing Team.

External Links

• Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV)
• Twitter (Pamela Mahoney)

Further Reading

Books by Geoffrey Moore, Venture Partner

• Crossing the Chasm: 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 [...] 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, Partner Emeritus

• Marketing High Technology (1986)
• Total Customer Service: The Ultimate Weapon, with Bro Uttal
• [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0887306578 The Virtual Corporation: Structuring and Revitalizing the Corporation for the 21st Century] (1993), with Michael S. Malone
• Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet, Delphinium Books (2011)