Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Heidi Roizen is a Venture Partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. She has spent her life immersed in the Silicon Valley ecosystem as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, educator and member of the boards of directors of private and public companies, trade associations and nonprofit institutions.
After receiving her undergraduate and MBA degrees from Stanford University, Roizen co-founded T/Maker Company (an early personal computer software company) in 1983, where she served as CEO from inception through its acquisition by Deluxe Corporation in 1994. In 1996, Roizen joined Apple as Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations. From there, Roizen entered the venture capital world, serving as a Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital from 1999 to 2007.
Roizen is also a Fenwick and West Entrepreneurship Educator in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where she teaches the course Spirit of Entrepreneurship. She is a member of the boards of directors of TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO), Prysm, TrustedID, ShareThis and XTime, and serves on the advisory boards of Springboard Enterprises and the National Center for Women in Information Technology.
Related Links: http://www.dfj.com/
Last Updated: Tue, Sep 25, 2012
| Category | Title | Author/Speaker | Organization | Length | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video | Why Take Venture Capital? | Heidi Roizen | Mobius | 02:27 | 01/2002 |
| Video | Venture Capital vs. Corporate Funding | Heidi Roizen | Mobius | 01:45 | 01/2002 |
| Video | The M&A Market | Heidi Roizen | Mobius | 01:54 | 01/2002 |
| Video | Picking vs. Running | Heidi Roizen | Mobius | 03:32 | 01/2002 |
| Video | Successful Teams and Ventures | Heidi Roizen | Mobius | 02:20 | 01/2002 |
| Video | The Best Money: Customer Money | Heidi Roizen | Mobius | 01:08 | 01/2002 |
| Video | What Numbers Do VC's Look At? | Heidi Roizen | Mobius | 01:51 | 01/2002 |
| Video | Tips For a Good Pitch | Heidi Roizen | Mobius | 03:39 | 01/2002 |
Roizen talks about her experience in taking venture capital. She learned that if one can use venture funds judiciously to raise the inflection point, then it makes sense to do it. For her, it was an economic decision. Other reasons to take VC money involve credibility issues. Customers want to see that you have partners and money in the bank to prove that you will be around, she says.
VCs give entrepreneurs money and want to get a lot more of it back sometime in the future, Roizen says. Unlike VCs, corporate investors generally want an early view into the technology and sweet deals from a business development perspective. If you are taking money from corporate investors, Roizen cautions, make sure you know what they want and what you want.
Roizen believes the M&A market has always been a primary source of liquidity. She explains why big companies examine burn rate and ways to cut cost before they purchase smaller companies who may not be breaking even.
Roizen believes the biggest impact VCs can have is recruiting. At Mobius, she says, they have four fulltime recruiters to find the right people for all their companies. VCs also call the issues, and thus play a very critical role.
The most successful teams and ventures demonstrate passion and the ability to solve problems and create solid business plans, Roizen says. Yet, they were not in it to get wealthy. The strength of the team was their cohesiveness, she says.
Roizen talks about the importance of customers. She shares a story where an entrepreneur identified a problem, took time to develop a solution, and got real customers to pay him to make the product.
Roizen believes that in the VC business, most companies fail. Therefore, the rare successes of their portfolio companies has to be big. Often you hear 10X, i.e. you should see 10 times your capital coming back, she says. It is also calculated as dollars in, dollars out, or internaI rate of return (IRR). The Mobius fund today has an IRR of 90%. Roizen notes you will almost never hear a VC use IRR.
Roizen provides tips for giving good pitches. First, focus on getting to the next step. The day you come in for an hour-long meeting, she says, plan on a 20 min. presentation (no more); get to the value proposition in 5 minutes; be articulate; manage the meeting; show experience and establish credibility.