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Ron Conway

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Ron Conway
Born
Ronald Crawford Conway

(1951-03-09) March 9, 1951 (age 73)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Alma materSan Jose State University
OccupationAngel investor
SpouseGayle Conway

Ronald Crawford 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 strong networker.[2]

Early career

Conway graduated from San Jose State University[3] with a bachelor's degree in Political Science.

Conway knew little about technology on his first entry to the business, but became one of the most influential tech investors in American history.[4] 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.[5] He was the CEO of Personal Training Systems (PTS) from 1991 to 1995. PTS was acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft.[6]

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".

Dot Com era

Conway's first fund, Angel Investors I, raised and invested in 1998, generated a 700% return, and his second, raised and invested during 1999, saw a 150% return. Conway invests with SV Angel, his investment firm.[7]

List of investments

Among Conway's 650[8] or more 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.[17]

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 donated $1 million to fund the Firearms Challenge of the Smart Tech Challenges Foundation, a nonprofit organization he founded with the mission to promote firearms safety through technology and innovation.

Politics

Conway has been highly critical of President Donald Trump, especially on the issues of gun control and immigration. He is reportedly spending more than $1 million and raising millions more to support efforts to win Democratic control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. Recode recently named him one of ten major Silicon Valley donors and fundraisers for the 2018 November midterm elections (https://www.recode.net/2018/8/20/17693048/silicon-valley-tech-donors-midterms-2018-democrats-donald-trump-list).

Conway was the single largest campaign contributor to 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.[18]

Conway was also an early supporter of Mayor London Breed, though in 2018 his focus remained on national issues over local San Francisco elections. https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Ron-Conway-says-he-s-too-busy-to-get-involved-12725887.php

In 2014 Conway, along with fellow Airbnb investor Reid Hoffman, donated a total of $685,000[19] to David Chiu in support of Chiu's tightly fought Assembly campaign against current San Francisco supervisor and 2015 Prop F supporter David Campos.[20]

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.[21]

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.[22][23][24]

References

  1. ^ Ricadela, Aaron (April 2, 2007). "VCs Aim to Out-Angel the Angels". Business Week.
  2. ^ Hodge, Patrick (Feb 26, 2010). "Ron Conway raising $10M to invest". San Francisco Business Times. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 2011-09-30. Conway is a former computer company chief executive and uber-Silicon Valley networker...
  3. ^ Ron Conway stays invested
  4. ^ Gary Rivlin on the 'Godfather of Silicon Valley'
  5. ^ Miguel Helft (February 10, 2012). "Ron Conway is a Silicon Valley startup's best friend". CNNMoney. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  6. ^ Belsener, Elin. "San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee And Ron Conway Are Ready To Rock Out At Disrupt SF". TechCrunch.
  7. ^ SV Angel on CrunchBases
  8. ^ "Ron Conway Stanford Startup School 2012 Part 1 of 3".
  9. ^ "Crunchbase". crunchbase.com/company/140-proof. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  10. ^ Attributor scans web for copyright violations
  11. ^ Blippy Shows Its Own Funding On Blippy. And Now Everyone Can See.
  12. ^ Ron Conway Investments
  13. ^ [1] Ron Conway's Big Deals: How He Found Google and Facebook
  14. ^ [2] Ron Conway's Big Deals: How He Found Google and Facebook
  15. ^ Alyson Shontell (2012-03-23). "Ron Conway Saved OMGPOP's Life Over And Over Again - Business Insider". Articles.businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
  16. ^ "Fundraising for Reddit". 30 September 2014.
  17. ^ O'Reilly Conferences on Ron Conway
  18. ^ Smith, Matt (March 31, 2012). "As Mayor Cultivates New Business, Treatment of Backer Is Questioned". The New York Times / Bay Citizen. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  19. ^ . SF Weekly. July 27, 2015 http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2015/07/27/pro-airbnb-campaign-racks-up-political-endorsements. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  20. ^ "2015 Prop F San Francisco". KQED. Oct 6, 2015.
  21. ^ "Our supporters". FWD.us. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
  22. ^ http://www.onecitysf.org/home/initiatives/
  23. ^ http://www.antievictionmappingproject.net/conway.html
  24. ^ http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/justicemobile-app-development-process-calls-into-question-sfciti-involvement/Content?oid=2678645
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