Arthur Rock The Father of Venture Capital
Before venture capital existed as an industry there was Arthur Rock working in his father's candy store in Rochester New York After World War II he earned his MBA at Harvard on the GI Bill and became a young investment banker in Manhattan In 1957 everything changed 8 frustrated engineers at Shockley Semiconductor sent a letter asking for help Rock's advice was radical "Don't look for a job start your own company." He flew to California met the traitorous eight and convinced Sherman Fairchild to back them Fairchild Semiconductor was born and Silicon Valley ignited Rock moved West founded Davis & Rock and helped write the venture playbook He raised two and a half million for Intel in days from a short memo and later invested early in Apple backing Jobs and Wozniak His philosophy was simple Invest in people not just ideas Before there was an ecosystem there was one man willing to believe in founders first
