C. Richard Kramlich, initial investor in Silicon Valley, dies at 89

C. Richard Kramlich, an early investor at Silicon Valley, who co-established the new Enterprise Associates, a giant, which helps fuel the rapidly growing technical industry, died at his home in San Francisco on Saturday. He was 89 years old.

His death was announced by the New Enterprise Associates.

Shri Kramlich (pronunciation Kram-Lick), whose career was spread over five decades, was one of the early backers of the computer; Software companies silicon graphics and macromedia; And computer networking companies Junipar Network and 3com, whose founders invented the Ethernet.

He co-established his own firm, New Enterprise Associates or NEA, produced it one from the initial $ 16 million funds in the 1970s, now oversees an investment of about $ 26 billion.

But he stood among the ocean of the Silicon Valley’s swashbuckling financers due to his grace and kindness, said Scott Sandle, NEA Chief Investment Officer and Executive Chairman Scott Sandal. “He believed that the enterprise business was a business business, and he worked accordingly,” he said.

Charles Richard Kramlich was born on 27 April 1935 in Green Bay, Vis. His father, Irwin Kramlich, was a grocery items that launched a series of 25 food stores that Krroger bought in 1955; His mother, Dorothy (Earl) Kramlich, was an aeronautical engineer who later oversee the house.

When he was 13 years old, Dick started his own “Little Lightball Company”, following his father’s entrepreneurship, he said in a 2015 interview. Computer history museum“My father encouraged me to do so if I used my money, and so I bought half a train car car from Silvania Corporation” and prepared them from my bedroom.

He said: “I come from entrepreneurs for three generations, and once you get it in your DNA, everything else is boring.”

He attended Northwestern University, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Russian history in 1957, and served in the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command Division. After obtaining a master’s degree from Harvard Business School, he went to work for Kroger, and then learned investment ropes while working for a firm in Boston.

In 1969, he took off a prestigious job at Arthur Rock & Co., which was one of the first investment firms to make high-risk bets on the unproven technology start-up. He defeated more than one thousand other applicants, he said in the 2015 interview, saying a handwritten letter to Mr. Rock, expressing his desire to find “a big life out there”.

In 1977, he launched the NEA with Chak Nuhol and Frank Bonsal, two investors who found him in Boston. It took more than a year to persuade others to return their new funds, and during that time Mr. Kramlich met a pair of entrepreneurs named both Steve (Jobs and Wozniaq).

His company, Apple Computer, was not good as two other individual computer companies in the market, Mr. Kramlich said in 2015. But the spirit of his design and entrepreneurship spark was impressive. “He had Pizz,” he said, “where the other two companies were more engineering oriented.”

He felt forced to invest and used his money to do so. This payment was three years later, in 1980, when Apple became public. That investment made it possible for Shri Kramlich to buy the 1927 Tudor House in the San Francisco’s Presidio Heights in the neighborhood; She fashioned the bronze apple as the front gate dorknobs to remind her of the windfall. (Last year, that Listed Home for sale for $ 19.5 million.)

Not after a long time, he met Pamela’s Palmer through a mutual friend; She married in 1981.

Venture capital investment is designed to absorb several losses in search of a home-run deal, leaving a cemetery of failed start-up on the way. But Mr. Kramlich was known for sticking with long -standing investment investment when others left him.

“He used to say,” Never say, “said Mr. Sandal.

In the early 1980s, the start-ups behind the PowerPoint software, the furtho were about to get out of the money, and the NEA partners refused more pony. So Mr. Kramlich assured his wife that he should work at the house he was building on Stinson Beach and instead use cash to keep the company alive. Gamble paid: In 1987, Microsoft bought Purvabhas for $ 14 million, and PowerPoint became one of the world’s most famous software programs.

The financial engine, an investment advisor supported by NEA, started to go publicly to go publicly and “went through five separate business models,” said Jeff Magionekel, the company’s Chief Executive Officer. NEA, he said, patiently held his shares throughout the time.

Thanks to that patience, and for the kindness of Mr. Kramlich, the main authorities had fired him or threatened to set him on fire, never wanted to work with him.

James Clarke, founder of computer software and hardware company Silicon Graphics, said, “People do not leave a relationship with dick with any anger,” “he is just a fundamentally good man.”

In 2002, Mr. Cremleich told Mr. Magionaklda that if things did not change, they would be pushed out by the end of the year. But the delivery of Mr. Kramlich inspired the trust instead of fear, Mr. Magionakalda recalled: “He said it with a peace and a support.” The company recovered, and Mr. Magionekel led it through an initial public offering in 2010.

After retiring from NEA at Mr. Kramlich 2012, he continued to chase a passion for the art collection. He and Ms. Kramlich were one of the first private collectors to focus on the new media as it emerged as an art in the late 1980s, and he collected a comprehensive collection, including audio and computer art, videos, The film and the photographic slide were emphasized. His collection of videos and establishments increased to more than 300 pieces-so much that he built a three-level house in the NAPA valley to display it.

In addition to Ms. Kramlich, she is alive by two children, Christina and Richard Kramlich; A step daughter, Mary Donna Meredith; And six grandchildren. A son, Peter died in 2024. Mr. Kramlich was married to Debora (Durbro) Kramlich before two times, which he divorced in 1966, and Lynn (Shambarra) Kramlich, who died in 1981.

In retirement, Mr. Kramlich continued the mentor to founders and investors. He also launched a new firm, Green Bay Ventures, including Anthony Schiller, a liquidized natural gas entrepreneur. The firm’s investment includes Databricics, AI data company; Dropbox, file storage company; And Xiaomi, Consumer Electronics Company.

In his 12 years of working together, Mr. Shiller said in a statement, he learned a lot from Shri Kramlich.

“There will be a very well qualified recognition for the mythological career of the dick,” he said. “But he was extraordinary as a person. He taught me about the dream of big, loyalty, pride and alignment. ,