7 ms·

Don Valentine has died

284 points by gatsby 7y ago

LeonM 7y ago
If you want to learn more about Don and how influential his work has been, I recommend listening the recent Acquired episode about Don and Sequoia [0]. [0] https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1 https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1
- mathattack 7y ago
  Just listened to it. He’s a giant!
- chriselles 7y ago
  Great episode. Will listen to it again on a long walk today. I’ve always sought commentary and quotes from Don Valentine to help me learn more about being an angel investor the same way I have have always Warren Buffett’s commentary and shareholder letters to learn how to be a better long-term investor.
z3ncyberpunk 7y ago
Oh well
scapecast 7y ago
One of his great talks at Stanford: “Target Big Markets” https://youtu.be/nKN-abRJMEw https://youtu.be/nKN-abRJMEw
- joeblau 7y ago
  I loved watching this talk — After watching this I gained a new level of appreciation for the VC model they pioneered.
  - scapecast 7y ago
    If you then also listen to the episode on Acquired, it’s eye-opening on how he / sequoia decide on making investments.
    - joeblau 7y ago
      Just listened to it[1] twice; Thanks for the recommendation! [1] - https://castro.fm/episode/bwHpe7 https://castro.fm/episode/bwHpe7
some1svalentine 7y ago
lmao owned
- wyxuan 7y ago
  Very insensitive....
ChuckMcM 7y ago
Don was a pretty amazing guy. He was the chairman at NetApp when I was there and told me I was crazy to be pushing NetApp to use an untested AMD processor (Opteron) for the high end filer of the time. What resulted was a solid discussion that ranged from how reliable AMD was to how important Intel was to Netapp, and how to measure the "betterness" of one technology over another. I really respected that he could be opinionated and listen at the same time, always willing to cede to a well reasoned argument about how he might be wrong about something. He was also really good at poking holes in an argument so I found myself on the defensive a lot!
- tyingq 7y ago
  Great share. I remember the inflection point that Opteron was. Essentially, it killed Sparc, PA-RISC, Alpha, Itanium, etc. That was a unique moment in time. Hearing a personal anectode between someone relatively junior at the time, and a legend, is very interesting to me. It was, really, the moment Linux/x86 "won". That 64 bit hurdle defined where we are today. At the time, it inspired me to make a pitch that "RISC was dead", despite it's technical superiority. Kind of a VHS vs Betamax moment. My pitch worked out, and was probably the defining moment of my career. I'm pretty happy that AMD is, again, riding high. Underdog stories are more rare these days. And you had a not insignificant part in that.
  - gumby 7y ago
    > At the time, it inspired me to make a pitch that "RISC was dead", despite it's technical superiority. Is it? The microarchitectures of the big MPUs is essentially RISC -- as it always has been, but microcode isn't written 100% by scratch any more. At the compiler level it's kind of true, and for what turned out to be generally good reasons such as compilers aren't as smart as Radin & co thought they'd be, or concomitant ideas like delay slots turned out to be incompatible with advances in memory architecture. So in that regard I'd say that it isn't technically superior at all, which was a surprise to me and many may people. However CISC evolved too. The original CISC architectures that RISC was a reaction to had lots of features for programmers (think VAX string processing or function call instruction!). Nobody writes code like that (except for MPUs); those residual instructions are in fact much slower than compiled code because Intel et al won't pay anyone to optimize them. Instead the focus (apart from vector and some housekeeping) has been on writing instructions that communicate better to the CPU's instruction interpreter and scheduler what the programmer's overall intent was. And structured in a way that is easier for compilers than for humans. So which won?
ruden 7y ago
Some rich guy died, so what?
gumby 7y ago
Really a great, supportive guy, and very kind in a pitch meeting, even when you are completely losing it. In general I've found the sequoia folks to be a class act (with a couple of, to me, egregious exceptions)
jeremyspurz 7y ago
Welcome to illuminati brotherhood where you can become rich famous and popular and your life story we be change totally. I am here to share my testimony on how I join the great brotherhood Illuminati and my life story was change immediately . I was very poor no job and I have no money to even feed and take care of my family I was confuse in life I don’t know what to do I try all my possible best to get money but nothing works out for me each day I shared tears, I was just looking out for my family no money to take care of them until one day I decided to join the great Illuminati , I come across them in the internet I never believe I said let me try I email them. all what they said we happen in my life just started it was like a dream to me they really change my story totally . They give me the sum of $500,000,000 and many other things as benefits. through the Illuminati I was able to become rich, and have many investments on my own and become famous and popular in my country , today me and my family is living happily and I am the most happiest man here is the opportunity for you to join the Illuminati and become rich and famous in life and be like other people and your life will be changed totally. If you are interested in joining the great brotherhood of Illuminati Visit Illuminati World Now on their official website at http://www.illuminatiworldnow.com/ http://www.illuminatiworldnow.com/
chriselles 7y ago
I first recall reading about Don Valentine in the October 1982 issue of National Geographic on Silicon Valley. An excellent snapshot of Silicon Valley and a glimpse of Don Valentine’s role in it. http://blog.modernmechanix.com/high-tech-high-risk-and-high-life-in-silicon-valley/ http://blog.modernmechanix.com/high-tech-high-risk-and-high-... Risk/Venture Capital, despite valid criticisms of it, has had an outsized effect on our world in the last 50+ years. And Don Valentine played an outsized role in it.
jorgenveisdal 7y ago
Rest in peace Don!
melling 7y ago
“ his high school friend, Steve Wozniak.” This can’t be right.
- sokoloff 7y ago
  That line also gave me pause, but I think it was meant to say that Woz was Jobs’ high school friend (which is also wrong, but much less wrong).
foreign-inc 7y ago
The guy who was responsible for firing the most number of founders from their own company is gone. RIP vulture capitalist.

284 points by gatsby 7y ago

If you want to learn more about Don and how influential his work has been, I recommend listening the recent Acquired episode about Don and Sequoia [0]. [0] https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1 https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1

mathattack 7y ago
Just listened to it. He’s a giant!
chriselles 7y ago
Great episode. Will listen to it again on a long walk today. I’ve always sought commentary and quotes from Don Valentine to help me learn more about being an angel investor the same way I have have always Warren Buffett’s commentary and shareholder letters to learn how to be a better long-term investor.

z3ncyberpunk 7y ago

Oh well

scapecast 7y ago

One of his great talks at Stanford: “Target Big Markets” https://youtu.be/nKN-abRJMEw https://youtu.be/nKN-abRJMEw

joeblau 7y ago
I loved watching this talk — After watching this I gained a new level of appreciation for the VC model they pioneered.
- scapecast 7y ago
  If you then also listen to the episode on Acquired, it’s eye-opening on how he / sequoia decide on making investments.
  - joeblau 7y ago
    Just listened to it[1] twice; Thanks for the recommendation! [1] - https://castro.fm/episode/bwHpe7 https://castro.fm/episode/bwHpe7

some1svalentine 7y ago

lmao owned

wyxuan 7y ago
Very insensitive....

ChuckMcM 7y ago

Don was a pretty amazing guy. He was the chairman at NetApp when I was there and told me I was crazy to be pushing NetApp to use an untested AMD processor (Opteron) for the high end filer of the time. What resulted was a solid discussion that ranged from how reliable AMD was to how important Intel was to Netapp, and how to measure the "betterness" of one technology over another. I really respected that he could be opinionated and listen at the same time, always willing to cede to a well reasoned argument about how he might be wrong about something. He was also really good at poking holes in an argument so I found myself on the defensive a lot!

tyingq 7y ago
Great share. I remember the inflection point that Opteron was. Essentially, it killed Sparc, PA-RISC, Alpha, Itanium, etc. That was a unique moment in time. Hearing a personal anectode between someone relatively junior at the time, and a legend, is very interesting to me. It was, really, the moment Linux/x86 "won". That 64 bit hurdle defined where we are today. At the time, it inspired me to make a pitch that "RISC was dead", despite it's technical superiority. Kind of a VHS vs Betamax moment. My pitch worked out, and was probably the defining moment of my career. I'm pretty happy that AMD is, again, riding high. Underdog stories are more rare these days. And you had a not insignificant part in that.
- gumby 7y ago
  > At the time, it inspired me to make a pitch that "RISC was dead", despite it's technical superiority. Is it? The microarchitectures of the big MPUs is essentially RISC -- as it always has been, but microcode isn't written 100% by scratch any more. At the compiler level it's kind of true, and for what turned out to be generally good reasons such as compilers aren't as smart as Radin & co thought they'd be, or concomitant ideas like delay slots turned out to be incompatible with advances in memory architecture. So in that regard I'd say that it isn't technically superior at all, which was a surprise to me and many may people. However CISC evolved too. The original CISC architectures that RISC was a reaction to had lots of features for programmers (think VAX string processing or function call instruction!). Nobody writes code like that (except for MPUs); those residual instructions are in fact much slower than compiled code because Intel et al won't pay anyone to optimize them. Instead the focus (apart from vector and some housekeeping) has been on writing instructions that communicate better to the CPU's instruction interpreter and scheduler what the programmer's overall intent was. And structured in a way that is easier for compilers than for humans. So which won?

ruden 7y ago

Some rich guy died, so what?

gumby 7y ago

Really a great, supportive guy, and very kind in a pitch meeting, even when you are completely losing it. In general I've found the sequoia folks to be a class act (with a couple of, to me, egregious exceptions)

jeremyspurz 7y ago

Welcome to illuminati brotherhood where you can become rich famous and popular and your life story we be change totally. I am here to share my testimony on how I join the great brotherhood Illuminati and my life story was change immediately . I was very poor no job and I have no money to even feed and take care of my family I was confuse in life I don’t know what to do I try all my possible best to get money but nothing works out for me each day I shared tears, I was just looking out for my family no money to take care of them until one day I decided to join the great Illuminati , I come across them in the internet I never believe I said let me try I email them. all what they said we happen in my life just started it was like a dream to me they really change my story totally . They give me the sum of $500,000,000 and many other things as benefits. through the Illuminati I was able to become rich, and have many investments on my own and become famous and popular in my country , today me and my family is living happily and I am the most happiest man here is the opportunity for you to join the Illuminati and become rich and famous in life and be like other people and your life will be changed totally. If you are interested in joining the great brotherhood of Illuminati Visit Illuminati World Now on their official website at http://www.illuminatiworldnow.com/ http://www.illuminatiworldnow.com/

chriselles 7y ago

I first recall reading about Don Valentine in the October 1982 issue of National Geographic on Silicon Valley. An excellent snapshot of Silicon Valley and a glimpse of Don Valentine’s role in it. http://blog.modernmechanix.com/high-tech-high-risk-and-high-life-in-silicon-valley/ http://blog.modernmechanix.com/high-tech-high-risk-and-high-... Risk/Venture Capital, despite valid criticisms of it, has had an outsized effect on our world in the last 50+ years. And Don Valentine played an outsized role in it.

jorgenveisdal 7y ago

Rest in peace Don!

melling 7y ago

“ his high school friend, Steve Wozniak.” This can’t be right.

sokoloff 7y ago
That line also gave me pause, but I think it was meant to say that Woz was Jobs’ high school friend (which is also wrong, but much less wrong).

foreign-inc 7y ago

The guy who was responsible for firing the most number of founders from their own company is gone. RIP vulture capitalist.