Category Archives: Sequoia Capital

Mark Logic Highlighted in San Jose Mercury News Story on Venture Capital

Posted on November 23, 2009 | Leave a comment

I’m pleased to report that Mark Logic was highlighted in a San Jose Mercury News story published yesterday about the resurgence of VC-backed startups one year after the famous Sequoia Rest in Peace Good Times meeting.

The story was published as part of the Mercury New’s quarterly venture capital survey.

The story begins:

When Dave Kellogg arrived at Sequoia Capital on that day in early October 2008, “the last chair in the room was in the front row,” he recalled. “My penance for being a little bit late.”

Kellogg is the CEO of Mark Logic, a startup that helps business clients make sense of the chaos of unstructured data. He wound up with an excellent seat for an auspicious moment in Silicon Valley lore — the “R.I.P. Good Times” briefing that drove home the severity of the financial industry crisis for the startup economy. Initially intended exclusively for leaders of companies backed by Sequoia’s investments, it would be inadvertently leaked by one CEO and sail around the Web like an early Halloween ghoul.

Not only has the story received great visibility in Silicon Valley, a quote of mine from it was picked up by the Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch blog, here.

The full story is available here. The Mercury News quarterly venture capital survey is here. Another recent piece of Mark Logic business press coverage, from the San Jose Buisness Journal, is here.

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Posted in Mark Logic, Sequoia Capital, Venture Capital

Mark Logic Closes $15M Third-Round Financing

Posted on July 16, 2007 | Leave a comment

I’m pleased to announce that Mark Logic has closed a $15M third-round financing, lead by Sequoia Capital with participation from Lehman Brothers.

The official press release is here.

As mentioned in the press release, this means that Mark Logic now has plenty of fuel in the tank to fund its future growth, specifically:

  • To expand our presence in our existing core segments of media (aka publishing) and government
  • To expand both domestic and international distribution channels (did you know we have created a UK subsidiary and already have 4 staff on board?)
  • To develop new vertical markets including financial services and life sciences

I’m coming up on 3 years at Mark Logic and when you compare our expected sales this quarter (3Q07) to the quarter I joined (3Q04), we will have multiplied the company 8-fold — that’s a 100% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during that time period.

I’d like to thank Mark Logic customers for their business, belief, and support and to thank all Mark Logic employees for their contribution to this success.

I’d like to thank our investors for participating in this financing and say that it has been a pleasure to be associated both with Sequoia Capital (which has been behind so many of Silicon Valley’s great successes, and whose companies now account for something like 10% of the value of the NASDAQ) and with Lehman Brothers which has provided support in many ways, both financial and operational.

Finally, I’d like to thank Bob Clarkson and the team at Jones Day who supported us in closing this transaction.

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Posted in Lehman Brothers, Sequoia Capital

Moritz Tops Forbes Midas List

Posted on January 30, 2007 | Leave a comment

Forbes has published its Midas List, an annual ranking of top venture capitalists. Topping the list this year is Mike Moritz of (Mark Logic investor) Sequoia Capital. Moritz beat out John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins for the top slot.

By virtue of running Mark Logic, I’ve had the opportunity to meet Mike a few times, and I’d say he merits all the positive press he’s getting. He strikes me as one of those guys who doesn’t say too much, but when he does talk, you should listen to each and every word.

While Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins still rank in most surveys as the top two VC firms in the valley, I’d say that momentum appears to be on Sequoia’s side. In fact, the Silicon Valley gossip blog, Valleywag, recently called for Doerr to step down from Kleiner Perkins arguing that he’s missed Web 2.0 and over-committed to clean technology.

The full Midas List story is here.

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Posted in Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Venture Capital, Web 2.0