Franklin Pitcher Johnson Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Johnson Jr. in 2014 | |
| Born | 1928 (age 94–95) |
| Education |
|
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Known for | Founder of Asset Management Company |
| Spouse | Catherine Johnson |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent |
|
Franklin Pitcher Johnson Jr., or Pitch Johnson, (born 1928 in Quincy, Illinois) is an American venture capitalist and founder of multiple companies. [1] [2] [3]
Franklin Pitcher Johnson Jr. was born in 1928 in Quincy, Illinois and is the son of Franklin Pitcher "Pitch" Johnson, an Olympic track and field athlete and college coach. When he was 12 years old his family moved to Palo Alto, California. He studied at the Palo Alto High School where he ran on the track team. According to Johnson Jr., he was not as good at running as his father. Despite that, according to him, he has learned a lot of things from his father, "My dad taught me to shake hands with my opponents after the race, win or lose." [4]
Johnson Jr. studied mechanical engineering at Stanford University (1946–50). [1] After attending Harvard Business School (1950–52) he joined the US Air Force (1952–54) as an aircraft maintenance officer and worked in the Inland Steel Company's Indiana Harbor Works. [4]
He has a wife Catherine, three sons, and one daughter. He describes himself as an Episcopalian and a Republican. [1]
The US Congress passed a law in 1958 to foment the creation of venture capital under which the government would lend private capital. [1] Johnson and his friend, Bill Draper, decided to co-found a venture capital company in Palo Alto. [4] With a combination of savings and family loans, they formed Draper and Johnson Investment Company (D+J) in 1962. [5] Johnson then took courses at Stanford at age 35 to study molecular biology and computer science. These studies were later useful for his investments in biotechnology and informatics. According to him, being "a local guy" has helped him since he knew many local entrepreneurs, lawyers, and other professionals and was easier for him to "check out" potential business partners. [1]
In 1965 he founded a venture capital company, Asset Management Company, which is still in operation. [2] Apart from that, he has also helped found other companies including Amgen, Biogen Idec and Tandem. [1] He said that as a rough estimate, of every 10 companies that he helped find, one would return 20 or more times the investment, 3 or 4 doubled it, and the rest didn't lose nor win money, and they had to be sold, sometimes with losses and sometimes ending even. [1]
He was director of the National Venture Capital Association and of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, and also a trustee of the Foothill–De Anza Community College District for 12 years. [2] He taught a class in entrepreneurship and venture capital for 12 years at The Stanford Graduate School of Business, beginning in 1979 and he remained active in the faculty through 2009. [2] [3] During his period of teaching at the Stanford Graduate School of Business Johnson gave a paper "The Entrepreneurial Climate" to the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris in 1982. The paper was published by Harvard Business School and the phrase "The Entrepreneurial Climate" became used in academic and government circles.
Since 1990, Johnson has been an advisor to various eastern European countries. Collaborating alongside the Amro Bank of the Netherlands, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and Polish, Czech and Slovak entrepreneurs and venture managers he aided in forming a venture investment company called European Renaissance Capital. Its goal has been to invest in and help new companies in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia. Additionally, he has been involved in the creating of a buy-out fund in Romania and venture capital funds in Russia, Norway, and New Zealand. He was a member of the board of international advisers to the IESE Business School in Barcelona. [3]
Sand Hill Road, often shortened to just "Sand Hill" or "SHR", is an arterial road in western Silicon Valley, California, running through Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Woodside, notable for its concentration of venture capital companies. The road has become a metonym for that industry; nearly every top Silicon Valley company has been the beneficiary of early funding from firms on Sand Hill Road.
Vinod Khosla is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas such as networking, software, and alternative energy technologies. He is considered one of the most successful and influential venture capitalists.
Venture capital is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
William Henry Draper III is an American venture capitalist.
Stephen Leo Poizner is an American businessman, technology entrepreneur and former Republican California Insurance Commissioner and Gubernatorial candidate. Poizner also was an independent candidate in the 2018 California Insurance Commissioner election.
Stephen T. Jurvetson is an American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. Formerly a partner of the firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), he was an early investor in Hotmail, Memphis Meats, Mythic and Nervana Systems. He is currently a board member of SpaceX and served on Tesla's board from 2006–2020, among others. He later co-founded the firm Future Ventures with Maryanna Saenko, who worked with him at DFJ.
Timothy Cook Draper is an American venture capital investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Draper University, Draper Venture Network, Draper Associates and Draper Goren Holm. His most prominent investments include Baidu, Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, AngelList, SolarCity, Ring, Twitter, DocuSign, Coinbase, Robinhood, Ancestry.com, Twitch, Cruise Automation, PrettyLitter and Focus Media. In July 2014, Draper received wide coverage for his purchase at a US Marshals Service auction of seized bitcoins from the Silk Road website. Draper is a proponent of Bitcoin and decentralization. Draper was also one of the first investors in Theranos.
Demir Sabanci is a Turkish entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Sedes Holding and its subsidiaries. His businesses range from the largest personal care market chain in Turkey, to real estate management and development in New York City.
The American Business Association of Russian-Speaking Professionals (AmBAR) is a non-profit organization founded to support the Russian-speaking professional community in the United States. The organization's headquarters is located in Palo Alto, California.
Thomas Jefferson Davis Jr. (1912–1989) was an American businessman and investor. He was an early Silicon Valley venture capitalist and founder of the Mayfield Fund.
The early history of private equity relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.
DFJ Frontier is an American venture capital firm with offices in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Santa Barbara, California as well as Portland, Oregon. The firm invests in seed and early-stage technology companies on the West Coast, initially funding companies with between $100,000 and $1 million. The firm has approximately $80 million under management in two funds, DFJ Frontier Fund I, LP and DFJ Frontier Fund II, LP. DFJ Frontier typically leads the first round of investment, with one of its partners serving on the board of the portfolio company.
Sutter Hill Ventures is an American private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in technology-based start-up companies. Founded in 1964, Sutter Hill is one of the oldest venture capital firms still in operation. Based in Palo Alto, CA, the firm is primarily focused on investments in the fields of networking and computer technology, business and financial services, healthcare, web development, and pop culture, and have been known to invest in angel funds. The firm currently holds positions in a number of publicly traded companies, including Restoration Robotics (HAIR), Pure Storage (PSTG), Mattersight (MATR), Forty Seven (FTSV), Threshold Pharmaceuticals (THLD), Molecular Templates (MTEM), Cardica (CRDC), and Corcept Therapeutics (CORT). The firm has also incubated and invested in Snowflake Computing (SNOW) which had the record-setting technology IPO in 2020.
Jim Goetz is an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur who is a partner with Sequoia Capital. Goetz is known for his focus on mobile and enterprise startups, including successful investments in AdMob, WhatsApp, Chartboost and GitHub. In 2017, Goetz announced he was stepping back from his leadership duties with Sequoia, but continues to invest and represent the firm on company boards.
Michelangelo "Mike" Volpi is an Italian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He worked as an engineer, eventually becoming chief strategy officer at Cisco Systems during the company’s growth era, acquiring over 70 companies in less than five years. He co-founded Index Ventures’ San Francisco office with Danny Rimer in 2009.
"Something Ventured" is a 2011 documentary film investigating the emergence of American venture capitalism in the mid-20th century. Something Ventured follows the stories of the venture capitalists who worked with entrepreneurs to start and build companies like Apple, Intel, Genentech, Cisco, Atari, Tandem, and others, and looks at the influence of Georges Doriot. It is a full-length independent film which includes interviews with prominent American venture capitalists and entrepreneurs of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, as well as archival photography and footage. The film has aired across the US on local PBS stations as well as on public television in Norway.
David Lawrence Cremin is an American venture capitalist and co-founder of the seed stage venture capital firm DFJ Frontier.
George Blatz Rathmann (1927–2012) was an American chemist, biologist, pioneer in biotechnology and corporate executive. In 1980 he co-founded and served as the first CEO of Amgen, and later founded Icos.
Bill Bowes was a venture capitalist, philanthropist, and co-founder of U.S. Venture Partners. He co-founded U.S. Venture Partners in 1981.
Elias "Eli" Zelkha was an Iranian-American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and professor. He was the inventor of ambient intelligence.
| Authority control: National |
|---|
