Trailblazers of Venture Capital: Preserving the Rich History of Industry Leaders

NVCA and the Computer History Museum (CHM) co-hosted a special breakfast event last Thursday morning at CHM, where we announced a new partnership between NVCA and CHM and honored and celebrated several trailblazers of venture capital.

Through NVCA’s new partnership with CHM announced last week, a rich set of transcripts of 17 venture industry luminaries that have been compiled over the past fifteen years by NVCA is now available through the new NVCA Oral History Collection at CHM. We’re thrilled to feature these 17 pioneers of the industry in this Collection:

The NVCA partnership with CHM captures and shares the untold stories of pioneering venture capitalists and their partnerships with disruptors and innovators that extend from idea to IPO and beyond. The NVCA-CHM partnership also provides the rich context necessary for an in-depth understanding of venture’s history and impact that will hopefully inspire generations to come.

At last week’s event at CHM, we were honored to convene a group of 50 individuals from across the entrepreneurial ecosystem to celebrate our exciting partnership but more importantly to hear insights from several industry trailblazers. Christy Chin moderated a panel with Bill Draper, Dick Kramlich, and Pitch Johnson, where they discussed their most memorable entrepreneur, lessons learned from decades in the industry, VC challenges and opportunities, and their one word of advice for an entrepreneur.

Chuck Newhall, who was the driving force behind NVCA’s oral history project from its early days, gave closing remarks reiterating the importance of telling the story of venture capital and why it is important. We capped off the event with participants adding their one word of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs in the museum’s “One Word” collection.

We also filmed the event – you may view a recording here.

NVCA and CHM will work together to expand the NVCA Oral History Collection to include additional oral histories. In the meantime, enjoy the first 17!

A huge thanks to Marguerite Gong Hancock and Doug Fairbairn at CHM for their leadership on this partnership and event!

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