Ron Conway Analyzes (Finally) His Portfolio’s Performance - Venture Capital Dispatch. Ron Conway (RonConway) Ron Conway’s SVAngel Closes $20 Million Venture Fund. He Tells Us How He’ll Invest It [Video] In February we reported that legendary angel investor Ron Conway was raising a small seed fund for SV Angel from outside investors – which is notable because for the last decade or so he has only invested his own money in startups. Today Conway came by our studio for an unscheduled talk and right off the bat announced that the new fund is now closed, and that over demand led the SV Angel team to double the size of the fund to $20 million. Around fifteen investments have now been closed in the new fund. Conway also spoke about the big trends in tech right now. There are three “megatrends” as he puts it – real time data, the social web and flash marketing.
These are all “billion dollar industries” he says. Real time data startups “employ crowd sourcing or collective wisdom to create highly relevant and current data.” The explosive growth of Facebook and Twitter illustrates that social media is here to stay, he says. Sounds hard? Ron Conway. Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. Ron was previously with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions from 1973-1979, and Altos Computer Systems as a co-founder, President and CEO from 1979-1990.
He eventually took Altos public in 1982 and served as CEO of Personal Training Systems (PTS) from 1991-1995. PTS went on to be acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft. Ron was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top "deal-makers" in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Conway is also featured in Gary Rivlin's book The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ron Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms, described as 'the man who has placed more bets on Internet start-ups than anyone else in Silicon Valley.' See Less. Ron Conway. Ron Conway is an American angel investor, often described as one of the "super angels".[1] Conway is recognized as a strong networker[2] and is based in Silicon Valley. Early career[edit] A former salesman who had made a fortune in the computer business, Conway knew little about technology on his first entry to the business.[3] Ron Conway graduated from San Jose State University[4] with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science.
Conway previously worked with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions (1973–1979), Altos Computer Systems, as a co-founder, President and CEO, (1979–1990) and Personal Training Systems (PTS) as CEO (1991–1995). PTS was acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft.[5] Investing[edit] As founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds, he was an early stage investor in Google, Ask Jeeves and PayPal.
Dot Com era[edit] List of investments[edit] Among Conway's 650[9] or more investments are: Philanthropy[edit] Politics[edit] References[edit]