An early screening of the first documentary film about the founders of Silicon Valley’s venture capital industry mesmerized an audience of investment bankers and VCs, lawyers, entrepreneurs, technologists and others when it was unveiled by the Western Association of Venture Capitalists as a work-in-progress at a reception last night at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
“MORE THAN MONEY: The Untold Tale of Risk, Reward and the Original Venture Capitalists” is scheduled to be “widely released” in the Fall of 2010. First hand stories of how Apple, Atari, Cisco, Genentech, Intel, Tandem Computers and others once knocked on these VC’s doors looking for funding unfold as humorous vignettes from the memories and anecdotes of Silicon Valley’s Illuminati — those early venture capitalists and gutsy entrepreneurs of the late 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.
Featured Venture Capitalists
These are the men who decided against the odds to fund then unknowns such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (despite their long hair and need for showers — major issues as we learn in the film), the raw, but brilliant Texan Jimmy Treybig who founded Tandem Computers, Atari’s colorful Nolan Bushnell and Robert Campbell (PDF file) who had a vision that was nearly derailed before it hit the streets as Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Bill Bowes (US Venture Partners)
- Reid Dennis (Institutional Venture Partners)
- Bill Draper (Draper Richards)
- Bill Edwards (Bryan & Edwards)
- Jim Gaither (Sutter Hill Ventures)
- Pitch Johnson (Asset Management Co)
- Dick Kramlich (NEA)
- Tom Perkins (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers)
- Arthur Rock (Arthur Rock & Co)
- Don Valentine (Sequoia Capital)
Featured Entrepreneurs
These are the the men whose brilliance so many overlooked until the early venture capitalists took notice.
- Dr. Herbert Boyer (Genentech)
- Nolan Bushnell (Atari)
- Wilif Corrigan (LSI Logic)
- Robert Campbell (PowerPoint)
- Jimmy Treybig (Tandem)
- Mike Markkula (Apple)
- Gordon Moore (Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel)
- John Morgridge (Cisco)
The film’s executive producers are Paul Holland and Molly Davis. Paul is a General Partner of Foundation Capital, and a member of the board of directors of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. Molly is a founding partner of Rainmaker Communications, and a colleague and friend of mine.
We were told not to expect a Ken Burns documentary because the film is still a “work-in-progress” and won’t debut until the Fall, but the executive producers and their talented film makers, Geller Goldfine Productions, have already created slick, cinematic footage that kept last night’s audience glued to their seats for 90 minutes. In the coming months, an original music score and celebrity narration will be added, along with sophisticated animation, said Paul Holland during his welcome address.
You won’t want to forget to add this one to your NetFlix queue.
Tags: Apple, Arthur Rock, Atari, Bill Bowes, Bill Draper, Bill Edwards, Cisco, Dick Kramlich, Don Valentine, Dr. Herbert Boyer, Fairchild Semiconductor, Foundation Capital, Geller Goldfine Productions, Genentech, Gordon Moore, Intel, Jim Gaither, Jimmy Treybig, John Morgridge, LSI Logic, Mike Markkula, Molly Davis, More Than Money, Nolan Bushnell, Paul Holland, Pitch Johnson, Rainmaker Communications, Reid Dennis, Robert Campbell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Tandem Computers, Tom Perkins, Venture capital, Wilif Corrigan
Update: 3/14/2011: The film now called “Something Ventured: Risk, Reward and the Original Venture Capitalists” had its first public screening at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival in Austin in March 2011.
See JAGWIRE Group’s updated review entitled “Early Venture
Capitalists Immortalized in Film.”
http://www.jagwiregroup.com/wp/2011/03/14/early-venture-capitalists-immortalized-in-film/