Pierre Lamond

Pierre R Lamond (1931- ) is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, who has specialised in semiconductors. He was a partner at Sequoia Capital based in Menlo Park from 1981 until he left to join Vinod Khosla's Khosla Ventures as General Partner in March 2009.[1]

"Typically our style of investment is to invest early. First, we try to identify potentially profitable sectors of the market before everyone else does. At that point, we can get involved in the seed and first financing rounds, become active at the board level and participate in establishing strategy and start recruiting a management team."

—Lamond in 1999.[2]

Lamond was born in France and he studied Electrical Engineering at Toulouse University as an undergraduate, where he also received a Masters Degree in Physics. He then gained another Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University. His first job was as an engineer with Transitron Electronics in 1957.[3] In January 1962 he joined Gordon E. Moore's Fairchild Semiconductor, before he left in 1967 to run that company's spin-off, National Semiconductor, with Charles Sporck and Robert Widlar.[3][4]:259 At National Semiconductor they made the-then bold move of assembling all their microprocessors outside the US, in Hong Kong and Singapore.[4]:272 He has also been an executive at Coherent Radiation, where he was CEO until January 1976, and Advent Corp., a home-entertainment equipment company, where he was CEO from March 1976 until May 1977.[5][6][7] He was chairman at Cypress Semiconductors until 1998.[8] He is a past president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. He had intended to retire in 2009, but instead joined Khosla, who specialise in energy-related companies, after being impressed with their focus on investing in research-based ventures.[1][9] He is still on the boards of the Sequoia companies Luxim, Santur, and Achates Power.[5]

While at Sequoia he acted as a mentor for the founders of YouTube.[10] Despite being an early investor in several social network startups, he said in 2007 that "We're in Web 2.0 bubble in my opinion."[11]

Lamond is married. His daughter is married to Mark Kvamme of Sequoia, and his son David is an investor at Artis Capital.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Marshall, Matt (3 March 2009). "Pierre Lamond, the VC who scared the YouTube guys, joins Khosla". VentureBeat. http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/03/pierre-lamond-the-vc-who-scared-the-youtube-founders-joins-khosla/. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 
  2. ^ Dubow, Charles (21 April 1999). "Turning acorns into trees". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/1999/04/21/feat.html. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 
  3. ^ a b Lojek, Bo (2007). "National Semiconductor — A New Type of Semiconductor Company". History of Semiconductor Engineering,. Springer. pp. 291–316. http://www.springerlink.com/content/r2835722q6447173/. 
  4. ^ a b Lécuyer, Christophe (2006). Making Silicon Valley: innovation and the growth of high tech, 1930-1970. MIT Press. ISBN 0262122812. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VRz9LfC85pYC&pg=PA259. 
  5. ^ a b Miller, Claire Cain (3 March 2009). "Khosla Ventures Goes Retro for New Blood". Bits (New York Times). http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/khosla-ventures-goes-retro-for-new-blood/. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 
  6. ^ "Pierre Lamond Resigns Coherent Radiation Posts". Wall Street Journal. 30 January 1976. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/djreprints/access/71571236.html?dids=71571236:71571236&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+30%2C+1976&author=&pub=Wall+Street+Journal&desc=Pierre+Lamond+Resigns+Coherent+Radiation+Posts&pqatl=google. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 
  7. ^ Gumpert, David (18 May 1977). "Advent's President Yields Reins; Duties Assumed by Chairman". Wall Street Journal. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/djreprints/access/103729932.html?dids=103729932:103729932&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=May+18%2C+1977&author=&pub=Wall+Street+Journal&desc=Advent%27s+President+Yields+Reins%3B+Duties+Assumed+by+Chairman&pqatl=google. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 
  8. ^ Pasiuk, Laurie (2005). Vault guide to the top tech employers. Vault Inc.. p. 88. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MxiSI1SM5AwC&pg=PA88. 
  9. ^ Buckman, Rebecca (3 March 2009). "Sequoia Partner Joins Khosla Ventures". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/03/khosla-ventures-sequoia-technology_khosla.html. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 
  10. ^ Cloud, John (16 December 2006). "The Gurus of YouTube". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570721-3,00.html. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 
  11. ^ Needle, David (4 May 2007). "Pitfalls Ahead for Social Networks?". Internetnews.com. http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3675736. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 
  12. ^ Marshall, Matt (13 December 2006). "YouTube and Sequoia Capital’s family ties". VentureBeat. http://venturebeat.com/2006/12/13/youtube-and-sequoia-capitals-family-ties/. Retrieved 8 January 2011. 

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