Ron Conway

Ron Conway
Born	Ronald Crawford Conway (1951-03-09) March 9, 1951 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Residence	San Francisco
Alma mater	San Jose State University
Occupation	Angel investor
Spouse(s)	Gayle Conway

Ronald Crawford "Ron" Conway (born March 9, 1951) is an American angel investor and philanthropist, often described as one of Silicon Valley's "super angels".^[1] Conway is recognized as a politically-connected philanthropist^[2], strong networker and savvy business investor.^[3] Despite his investing successes and broad network, however, Conway has a mixed reputation within Silicon Valley circles and has been known to bully, threaten and even humiliate to achieve his goals: in an article titled "Ron Conway: The Scariest Main In Silicon Valley," Business Insider noted that ^[4][5][6] "Conway is a bare-knuckled bruiser who will bully and intimidate fellow investors and his own entrepreneurs if they cross him, or do something he doesn't like."^[7]

The San Francisco Chronicle called Conway a visionary: "an angel investor whose savvy and instincts helped myriad startups get off the ground, and his early-stage investments include Google, Ask Jeeves and PayPal. He has been no less ambitious and prescient in identifying and funding civic and philanthropic causes that need a boost." ^[8]

Early career

Conway graduated from San Jose State University^[9] with a bachelor's degree in Political Science.

Conway knew little about technology on his first entry to the business, but became a very influential tech investor.^[10] Conway worked with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions from 1973 to 1979, and at Altos Computer Systems as President and CEO from 1988 to 1990.^[11] He was the CEO of Personal Training Systems (PTS) from 1991 to 1995. PTS was acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft.^[12]

Investing

As founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds, he was an early stage investor in Google, Ask Jeeves and PayPal. He began investing independently in 2005, and by 2006 had achieved sixth place in the Forbes magazine Midas list of top "dealmakers". [source needed]

Some Valley observers, notably VentureBeat, have been critical of Ron Conway for his investments during the Internet boom, believing them to be "symbolic of the era’s hubris."^[13] Conway developed a reputation for throwing lavish cocktail parties and raising cash from a diverse group of celebrities, sportspeople, and political figures such as Henry Kissinger, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods, and Shaquille O'Neal, which he then ploughed into start-ups.

Controversial Tactics

Conway pushed Dave Morin, the founder of Path, to sell his company. However, contrary to Conway's wishes, Morin opted to continue to build his company. "When Morin made it clear he wouldn't sell, Conway went ballistic. He was in "full on rage mode," personally threatening Morin, promising to ruin him."^[14] When Morin would not comply, Conway attempted to publicly shame him: "Beyond merely threatening Morin behind closed doors, we're told Conway tried to humiliate Morin by sending details of the Path offer to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch."^[15]

Conway had an acrimonious dispute with his former partner in SV Angel, David Lee. Although Lee and Conway were polite in their formal communications to investors, Fortune magazine reported that "Conway's verbal conversations with LPs were much more critical of Lee than was his official letter."^[16] Despite previously signing the agreements, when Conway later learned of some of the details he had previously ignored of Lee's compensation and ownership of SV Angel, "he blew a gasket." Fortune further noted that "When Ron is your friend, he is your best and most loyal friend in the world," says another SV Angel limited partner. "But when he feels betrayed... well, you don't want to piss him off.""^[17]

Another of the stories of Conway bullying one of the entrepreneurs he invested in was chronicled by Business Insider: "the entrepreneur got a phone call from Conway which he later told people was "the scariest of my life." Conway was berating him, the entrepreneur told people, saying things like, "you fucking fuck, I'll squash you like an ant."^[18] Business Insider further reported that "entrepreneurs need to be warned about this guy" and "we had already heard Conway referred to as a bully, but this person says the behavior was worse than verbal bullying. He said the verbal beating from Ron was 'violent.'"

In what TechCrunch labeled "AngelGate" Conway also publicly berated several prominent angel investors, such as Chris Sacca and Dave McClure over a disagreement over the rationale for a series of meetings held without inviting him, calling the group "despicable and embarrassing."^[19] McClure noted Conway's hypocrisy in criticizing a gathering that was attended by his SV Angel partner at the time, David Lee: "Ron is throwing us under a bus and it’s chickenshit that he writes that after David Lee comes to both meetings.”^[20] Later, TechCrunch reported that Chris Sacca, an early investor in such companies as Twitter and Uber who also appears on ABC's Shark Tank,^[21] responded to Conway's vitriolic email and subsequent attacks by saying; "this message, and the ferocity and ad hominem attacks that you include, hurt. Both what you wrote to me before (calling this group “dirtbags”) and in this message above. I am not sure why it needed to get personal."^[22]

List of investments

Among Conway's ^[23] investments are:

Philanthropy

Civic and Public Health

Conway is active in community and philanthropic activities, serving as Vice Chairman of UCSF Medical Foundation in San Francisco and also as co-chair of the "Fight for Mike" Homer and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. He is on the development committees of UCLA, St. Francis High School, Sacred Heart Schools, The UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, Packard Children's Hospital, Legacy Ventures, and Ronald McDonald House at Stanford. He serves on the Benefit Committee of the Tiger Woods Foundation.^[30] In January 2015, Ron Conway and his family donated $40 million to the UCSF Medical Center to fund the Outpatient Medical Building, which will be named after the Ron Conway Family ^[31].

Homelessness

Conway has a long history of philanthropy and charity to organizations combatting homelessness, especially in San Francisco. He helped found and fund Project Homeless Connect under former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ^[32]. More recently, Conway spearheaded a drive to raise $5 million to help build 101 units of new housing for formerly homeless veterans in San Francisco ^[33] and is partnering with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to raise $10 million from fellow technology philanthropists on a three-year plan to end chronic family homelessness in San Francisco. Conway contributed $1 million of his own money towards this initiative, "another reminder that this legendary angel investor has emerged as an active philanthropist with significant resources to deploy (he's also very close to Benioff).^[34]

Gun Violence

Conway is on the advisory board of Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization founded by the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Conway is also donates to support the San Francisco Police Department's FUTURE GRADS program to help at-risk San Francisco youth gain valuable early job experience and life skills through paid summer internships with technology and other companies^[35]

Politics

Conway was the single largest campaign solicitor for Edwin M. Lee in his successful campaign for Mayor of San Francisco in November 2011; Conway raised $600,000 for Lee through independent expenditure committees. Since then questions have been raised about whether Lee has taken actions to benefit companies in which Conway has investments.^[36]

According to San Francisco Magazine, Conway used inappropriate tactics to damage the candidacy of Aaron Peskin.^[37] Conway appeared before a group of donors with Mayor Ed Lee, his chief of staff, Steve Kawa, and top adviser, Tony Winnicker, "Per witnesses, Conway said, “Well, I think we heard it pretty clear from the mayor. We’d better not have anybody here give to Aaron Peskin, or there’ll be problems with Ed Lee.” Conway then purportedly confided that he had contributed heavily to swamp David Campos’s 2014 assembly run, but feared that if he did the same for Christensen, it would bounce back on both of them. Conway then allegedly informed the assembled movers and shakers that they must pony up for Christensen. He would in turn make them whole by giving to their preferred causes."^[38]

Conway has also been a strong supporter of State Senator Scott Wiener, Assemblyman David Chiu, Supervisor Mark Farrell, Board of Supervisors President London Breed and U.S. Senator Kamala Harris ^[39].

In 2014 Conway, along with fellow Airbnb investor Reid Hoffman, donated a total of $685,000^[40] to independent expenditure efforts in support of David Chiu's tightly fought Assembly campaign against former San Francisco supervisor and 2015 Prop F supporter David Campos.^[41]

Conway's political interests, however, have been criticized for their occasional "hypocrisy."^[42] In an article in Pando, Paul Carr notes: "Whatever your views on Ron Conway as political kingpin, it’s hard to argue with the notion of Ron Conway as hypocrite. This is a man who sends outraged emails about the tech industry exposing “the gross collusion that occurred” in San Francisco politics while at the same time being one of San Francisco’s most effective colluders."^[43] Carr later comments on Conway's actions in the Fall of 2016 elections: "Ron Conway’s behavior during the recent San Francisco municipal elections: Instructing his portfolio CEOs and their employees how to vote, promising quid pro quos to donors if they support his pet causes and threatening dire consequences if they did not."^[44]

In April 2013, a lobbying group called FWD.us (aimed at lobbying for immigration reform and improvements to education) was launched, with Ron Conway listed as one of the supporters.^[45]

In 2012 Conway founded the San Francisco Citizens Initiative for Technology and Innovation, or sf.citi, a 501(c)6 non-profit organization that advocates for the technology community and is involved in a number of public initiatives, and private/public partnerships involving tech companies partnering with public agencies such as the San Francisco Health Dept., the Office of Emergency Management, the police dept., and the school district.^[46][47][48]

Conway has also been a consistent opponent of the four members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who voted in 2012 to reinstate former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who was convicted of domestic abuse in 2012 and failed to win re-election in 2015. Conway funded successful independent expenditure campaigns to defeat former Supervisor Christina Olague in 2012, former Supervisor David Campos in 2014, and against Supervisor Jane Kim in 2016 in her failed bid to win election to the California State Senate ^[49].

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ron Conway.

• Video and podcast of Ron Conway speaking at Stanford
• The New York Times: "A Silicon Valley Vision for San Francisco"
• Ron Conway on IMDb
• Ron Conway on Twitter
• Ron Conway on Crunchbase
• SV Angel