Michael Moritz is the chairman of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital. The firm's investments include Google, Yahoo!, and PayPal (founded by fellow alumnus Elon Musk, W’97), as well as technology luminaries Apple, Cisco, and eBay. Recently, Sequoia made an estimated $480 million in profit in less than a year by backing YouTube, the video-sharing business founded by two PayPal coworkers and acquired by Google, and sold Atom Entertainment in 2006 to Viacom for $200 million. It’s not surprising, then, that Moritz tops the list of technology deal-makers produced by Forbes magazine in 2006 and 2007.

Moritz joined Sequoia in 1986, after working as a reporter for Time, writing the 1984 book "The Little Kingdom: the Private Story of Apple Computer," and co-founding Technologic Partners, a technology newsletter and conference company. When it comes to investing in Internet start-ups, Moritz has a preference for youth over maturity and looks for people with their own ideas for doing something better.

Technology, Innovation, Business Leadership, Thought Leaders, Information Technology, Silicon valley, Investing, Startups, Start-Up Founder,