Entrepreneurial Financing Series: What makes a startup attractive for a VC to put down a termsheet (Pete Moran, DCM Ventures)

Pete Moran, General Partner of DCM Ventures will talk about how decisions are made inside VC firms based on his experience of working many years in venture capital.

Pete Moran is a General Partner with DCM Ventures based in Silicon Valley. DCM Ventures is a venture capital firm with $4 billion under management that has invested in more than 300 technology companies across the U.S. and Asia since 1996.

Pete currently focuses on Digital Health (Augmedix, Athos, RayVio, and Stride Health) and Tech Enabled Education (LearnZillion). Over the past 18 years, he led DCM Ventures into new sectors including interactive Gaming (Trion Worlds), altering Consumer Experience (FreedomPop), and a diverse array of Enabling Technology including novel energy storage solutions (Enovix), companies focused on improving energy efficiency via LED lighting (Bridgelux, acquired by China Electric Corp(CEC)), and next gen semiconductors (Analogix, acquired by Shanhai Capital). Pete previously led many of DCM Venture's investments including NxEdge (acquired by Trive Capital), SMIC (NYSE: SMI), SigmaTel (Nasdaq: SGTL) and Slice (acquired by Rakuten). He also serves on the Boards of El Camino Hospital and the Stanford School of Engineering.

Prior to joining DCM Ventures, Pete helped launch and subsequently led the Computer Products business for Arrow Electronics. Previously, Pete worked at McKinsey & Co. where he managed engagements with a wide range of electronics, entertainment and communications industry clients. He was also a core leader of the founding team of McKinsey's Silicon Valley Office. Prior to McKinsey, Pete worked at Hewlett-Packard on high performance mixed signal semiconductors and helped manage the growth of KLA Instruments' wafer inspection division from infancy to worldwide market leadership.
Born in the Philippines, Pete lived the nomadic childhood of a military son. Though his early years were spent in the Mojave Desert, England and Singapore, Pete will tell you New Orleans, where he attended high school, is where he hails from. Recently he spent the summer hiking the John Muir Trail, where he realized that even with a satellite phone, business calls from the mountains can be tricky. An Eagle Scout, Pete continues to be involved in Scouting, acting as an Eagle Advisor and leading outdoor climbing trips. Currently he strives to continually perplex his family with the foods he enjoys as a vegan. Pete received a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He also earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Leaders for Manufacturing Fellow, and an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Co-hosted with: Venture Capital and Private Equity Club