Mohr, Davidow Names New Partner, East Coast Presence –

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Mohr, Davidow Ventures in mid-August hired Partner Michael Sheridan to lead the firm’s effort to establish an East Coast presence, said Jon Feiber, a co-managing partner at the firm.

Sheridan was not actively looking for a position in a venture capital firm when the opportunity to join Mohr, Davidow arose, although he knew both Feiber and Nancy Schoendorf, a partner at the firm, and had been referring entrepreneurs to Mohr, Davidow for some time, he said.

The new partner joined Mohr, Davidow from his most recent position as vice president of strategic businesses for Novell Inc., a provider of net services software. Prior to Novell, he was a senior director at Sun Microsystems Inc., which he joined when Sun acquired Folio Inc., a provider of tools for the creation and use of advanced graphics, a company Sheridan founded. Additionally, while general manager of the Green/Java project, he and a small team created the Java programming language.

Sheridan is in the process of locating office space for the firm and is keying in on Reston, Va., as the firm believes that the area is not well served, but growing quickly, Sheridan noted.

The firm’s first deal orchestrated out of the new location will be in a network infrastructure company in Pennsylvania, Shreidan said, but he would not divulge any other details because the deal had not closed at press time.

The East Coast office is the second established by the firm this year. In March, Mohr, Davidow opened an office in Seattle to compliment its original Menlo Park, Calif. location. Founded in 1983, Mohr, Davidow invests in early-stage technology companies. The firm’s portfolio includes Accrue Software Inc., Agile Software Corp., Brocade Communications Systems Inc., Broadbase Software Inc. and ChannelPoint Inc.

At press time, the firm’s most recent fund, the $300 million Mohr, Davidow Ventures V LLC, which closed in November 1999, backed about 16 companies, Feiber said. Average initial investments are $10 million, with totals in each portfolio company reaching about $25 million over several rounds, Feiber said. The firm is planing to raise another fund in the fall, Feiber said.

Mohr, Davidow’s limited partner base is dominated by endowments and foundations, which are accompanied by a handful of fund-of-funds and a select number of pension funds, Feiber said.

With the addition of Sheridan, Mohr, Davidow’s team of investment professionals now totals 14, including Rob Chaplinsky, Bill Davidow, Bill Ericson, Geoffrey Moore, Donna Novitsky, Michael Solomon, Randy Strahan, Erik Straser, Mo Virani, George Zachary, Feiber and Schoendorf.