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.
Early career
Goetz was raised in the
Midwestern United States, and attended the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44, ...
, where he received a
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
in
electrical
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
and
computer engineering
Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers ...
.
Afterward, he attended
Stanford University and earned an
M.S.
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
in computer systems.
Goetz started a Ph.D. but chose instead to pursue a career in product management, with early stints working at
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...
and
SynOptics
SynOptics Communications was a Santa Clara, California-based early computer network equipment vendor from 1985 until 1994. SynOptics popularized the concept of the modular Ethernet hub and high-speed Ethernet networking over copper twisted-pair a ...
,
which later became
Bay Networks
Bay Networks was a network hardware vendor formed through the merger of Santa Clara, California based SynOptics Communications and Billerica, Massachusetts based Wellfleet Communications on July 6, 1994. SynOptics was an important early innov ...
.
Goetz became a vice president at Bay Networks,
then left in 1996 to co-found a software company, VitalSigns.
With co-founders Rajiv Batra
and Monty Kersten,
Goetz raised $5.5 million from
Sequoia Capital and
Austin Ventures
Austin Ventures (AV) is a private equity firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments in business services and supply chain, financial services, new media, Internet, and information services companies nationally with a focus on T ...
in April 1997. The same month, the company released a "browser companion" application, NetMedic, enabling users to identify and correct network performance issues.
In October 1998, the company agreed to be acquired by
International Network Services.
Following the sale, Goetz joined the venture capital firm
Accel.
Sequoia Capital
Goetz joined Sequoia Capital in 2004,
where he has focused on
mobile and
enterprise startup investments.
As of March 2018, Goetz sits on the board of five
unicorn companies. At Sequoia, he has spoken publicly in favor of immigration as a boon to entrepreneurship, and supported initiatives to bring a closer gender balance at startups and venture firms.
Goetz has been ranked on the
''Forbes'' Midas list of top 100 venture capitalists, and occupied the top spot each year from 2013 to 2017.
In 2018, he dropped to number three.
In 2015, Goetz was named "VC of the Year" at the
Crunchies
The Crunchies was an industry award given out from 2007 to 2017 by several technology blogs to the Silicon Valley companies and venture capitalists they cover.
The awards have been sponsored and co-hosted by blogs such as GigaOm, TechCrunch, Vent ...
award show, hosted by the publication
TechCrunch.
Major investments
Major investments by Goetz leading to IPOs have included
Ruckus Wireless
Ruckus Networks (formerly known as Ruckus Wireless) is a brand of wired and wireless networking equipment and software owned by CommScope. Ruckus offers Switches, Wi-Fi access points, CBRS access points, Controllers, Management systems, Cloud m ...
and
Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The core products is a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls t ...
in 2012,
Nimble Storage
Nimble Storage, founded in 2008, produced hardware and software products for data storage, specifically data storage arrays that use the iSCSI and Fibre Channel protocols and includes data backup and data protection features. Nimble is now a sub ...
and
Barracuda Networks
Barracuda Networks, Inc. is a company providing security, networking and storage products based on network appliances and cloud services. The company's security products include products for protection against email, web surfing, web hackers ...
in 2013,
and
HubSpot in 2014.
Notable acquisitions from Goetz investments have included
AdMob, acquired by
Google for $750 million in 2009,
Clearwell Systems, acquired by
Symantec Symantec may refer to:
*An American consumer software company now known as Gen Digital Inc.
*A brand of enterprise security software purchased by Broadcom Inc.
Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier ...
for $410 million in 2011,
Appirio
Appirio, a Wipro company, was an information technology consulting company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana (United States) that offered technology and professional services to companies wishing to adopt public cloud applications. This i ...
's acquisition by
Wipro for $500 million in 2016,
and
GitHub, acquired for $7.5 billion by
Microsoft in 2018.
Goetz's most successful investment was in
WhatsApp, in which Sequoia was the only outside investor prior to its acquisition by
Facebook for $19 billion in February 2014.
Sequoia's stake, led by Goetz, returned $3.5 billion on an approximate $60 million investment.
TechCrunch described the deal as the "largest acquisition of a venture-backed company in history",
and it earned Goetz a reputation as one of Silicon Valley's "biggest rainmakers".
Leadership transition
In January 2017, Goetz stepped back from his day-to-day management role as one of the firm's three "stewards", transitioning this role to
Roelof Botha
Roelof F. Botha (born 19 September 1973) is a South African actuary, venture capitalist and company director.
Botha is a partner at Sequoia Capital and as of 2022 sits on the boards of MongoDB, Evernote, Bird, Ethos, Natera, Square, Unity, and ...
, and other duties associated with Sequoia's U.S. venture business to
Alfred Lin
Alfred Lin is an American venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital.Arrington, Michae"Alfred Lin Has The Midas Touch: The Man With $2 Billion In Acquisitions Under His Belt" ''TechCrunch'', July 28, 2009. Lin was the COO, CFO, and Chairman of Zapp ...
. Goetz said at the time that he would continue to make investments and represent Sequoia on boards, but would also turn his attention to other projects.
References
External links
Sequoia profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goetz, Jim
University of Cincinnati alumni
Stanford University alumni
American venture capitalists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)