Apple IPO Party
I found this photo on my drive with no idea where it came from, but seeing my childhood hero brings back many memories. It prompted me to look up the IPO prospectus for Apple, and I noticed the executives on p.21
Markkula, the first investor
Jobs as Vice President
And Peter Crisp
On my first week on the job as a newbie VC, we were on the road to New York to fund raise. We had $26M under management (tiny for our business), and we were meeting with our cadre of current investors, one of whom was Peter Crisp of the Rockefeller family and Venrock funds. I did not know of his Apple connection at the time, but I vividly remember his words to me: he said that he envied us and wished he could be reentering the venture business as a young man (this was just before any hint of an Internet boom)… and he had one piece of advice for me. Looking back from the vantage point of great success, he wished that he had never sold. He realized that for all the temporal gain of market timing, he missed the sea change of history. I have never forgot that, and have not sold a single share of our DFJ investments. I want to see how that turns out versus the common wisdom to “diversify”… but frankly, even though it seems to be the better strategy so far, it is so much more satisfying to not have to double guess when you should stop believing.
Which brings me to another peculiar detail of that Apple prospectus. I heard from another VC recently that Sequoia disposed of all of their shares in Apple before the IPO. That is so unusual that I had to check, and I could not find any mention of them in the prospectus. In any case, they did help finance the company in a critical period… but like Peter Crisp, who sold long after the IPO, they probably wish they had kept the faith.
My Jobs eulogy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/6218487522
Apple IPO prospectus: http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/Apple/Apple_IPO.pdf
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