In Memory of

Eugene Kleiner passed away Monday at the age of 80. Kleiner started his career as a scientist, then an entrepreneur and finally a venture capitalist founding the firm that bears his name. After leaving Austria during WWII, Kleiner settled in the Valley and was recruited by William Shockley, along with seven other scientists to build transistors, which Shockley is credited with inventing. Kleiner and the seven rebelled and became known as the Traitorous Eight. The Eight used their own money to develop a new process for building multiple transistors on a single wafer. The group, which included Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Jay Last and Sheldon Roberts, went on to raise $1.5m from Fairchild Camera and founded Fairchild Semiconductor.

Kleiner virtually invented modern venture capital.

Comments

[robertk]

Thank you for posting this. From fairchild came many great companies that shaped the lives we live today!