Kevin McQuillan, B.B.A.'78
The Adventure of Venture
Kevin McQuillan is the cofounder and general partner of Focus Ventures, a venture capital firm, located in Palo Alto, California, that offers financing for communications, internet and software companies who have completed product development and are seeking additional capital to boost sales and marketing efforts. The company seeking funding must illustrate “proprietary technology, a rapidly-growing market, strong management team, market leadership, demonstrated market acceptance, and previous backing from top-tier venture capital firm(s).”
Focus Ventures is aptly named. The firm itself is extremely focused as is company cofounder, Kevin McQuillan, who not only holds his B.B.A. in finance from WMU but also a J.D. from Thomas Cooley Law School and an MBA from Golden Gate University. He has been listed on Forbes Magazine’s Midas list as a top technology investor for four of the past five years. In 2008, he was ranked 41st on the Midas list, and in 2007, he was ranked 36th. McQuillan’s focus is on investments in the software, semiconductor, internet and communications markets.
He has led the firm's investments in such companies as Active Software (WebMethods), Agile Software (Oracle), Alteon Websystems (Nortel), Aruba Networks, Commerce One, Com21, Copper Mountain, Pixelworks, Vina and Virtusa, all of which became public companies. In addition, Centrality was acquired by SiRF, DATAllegro was acquired by Microsoft, edocs was acquired by Siebel Systems, Kazeon was recently acquired by EMC and Orchestria was acquired by CA, all projects that McQuillan managed. Current investments under McQuillan’s management include Cedar Point, Data Robotics, Delivery Agent, Fanfare, Financial Engines, Kace, LogLogic, Panasas, Ruckus Wireless and Sepaton.
His experience in the Haworth College of Business prepared him well for a career spent in taking calculated risks and providing a return on investments. He fondly remembers a finance class where he and fellow students learned to manage a bank through a simulation exercise. These sorts of practical illustrations of financial principles piqued his interest in financial management and investments. Today, he is giving back to Western by serving as a WMU Foundation Investment Committee member.
McQuillan’s focus has yielded an interesting professional life. His proudest accomplishment to date? “Being an investor in a company that increased shareholder value from $100 million to $3.5 billion in less than two years,” McQullian says. And his career path has afforded some great opportunities to meet other venture capitalists. When asked to name the most interesting or influential person he has met in his work life, McQuillan responds, “John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). He has been very successful by investing in such startup companies as Sun Microsystems, Amazon, Yahoo, and Google, among others.”
McQuillan enjoys his work and the possibility of helping to finance the next wave of influential businesses, which provide technological advancement and job creation as they gain more exposure and a firmer footing in the marketplace. McQuillan loves making the “adventure of venture,” his daily focus.