Tong Family

Short Ignition Descriptors. I’ve been doing a bunch of introduction mail lately. Here are I think the best introductions for later use of what I do over there…just putting here to clip in for later

Two line email introduction

Rich Tong is a partner at Ignition, an early-stage fund based in Seattle (Rich was Vice President of marketing at Microsoft, where he headed the Windows, Office and server efforts).

One screen of email introduction

As a quick overview, we are a vc firm established in 2000 in Seattle. Our first fund was $160m and our second, raised last November, is $285m. The partners are a group of ex Microsoft and McCaw execs who have built some of the biggest technology businesses in the world, including Windows and the McCaw cellular companies. We build on our real world experience and relationships to help premier entrepreneurs create the next generation of successful technology businesses. How we work…

• Invest in areas of expertise. We invest only in those areas we know — communications and information technology — where we can add the most value.
• Apply proven business values. They have served us well in our careers and we apply them to the companies we invest in.
• Invest selectively. We give our companies our full time and attention. We are actively involved. We strive to be the first person the CEO turns to for advice.
• Team approach. We apply the full resources of Ignition to each investment. We have world class experts in a broad range of functions, including executive leadership, marketing, technology, finance, sales, and engineering.

One page introduction

Ignition Partners was formed about three years ago to invest selectively in areas that we understand in software and telecommunications. We are looking for folks who like us think that this difficult economic time is a good time to invest in real businesses and that require investors with operating experience to get directly involved. We find we work really well with others with operating experience and great understanding of sectors. We have made new investments in four companies this year and continue to be active.
There are seven general partners each with at least 10 years senior management operating experience. Brad Silverberg is the managing general partner, he led the Windows and Internet Explorer efforts at Microsoft and was previously head of development at Borland International. Joining him is Steve Hooper, former CEO of AT&T Wireless, Nextlink and Teledesic. Other folks include Jon Anderson, former controller for Microsoft and architect of its enterprise licensing programs, Cam Myhrvold, head of developer relations and telecommunication sales at Microsoft as well as Rich Tong, former head of marketing for Microsoft enterprise products and desktop applications.
Based in Seattle, we have about $400M under management and raised our second fund early in 2002. Key limited partners include Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, General Motors, Dartmouth, Duke, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon, Washington University and a host of other institutions.Half of our investments are in the Bay Area and co-investors include Greylock, Sequoia, Mobius and OVP.