Michael Moritz

Michael Moritz
Moritz in 2013
Michael Moritz
Born	Michael Jonathan Moritz 12 9, 1954
Birthplace	Cardiff, Wales
Nationality	British, American
Occupation	Venture capitalist, author, philanthropist
Known for	Former Partner at Sequoia Capital, author of The Little Kingdom
Education	Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (MBA)
Spouse(s)	Harriet Heyman
Children	2
Awards	Knight Bachelor (2013), Forbes Midas List No. 1 (2006, 2007)
Website	[http://www.sequoiacap.com/ Official site]

Sir Michael Jonathan Moritz (born 12 September 1954) is a Welsh-born billionaire venture capitalist, philanthropist, and author who built one of the most consequential careers in Silicon Valley technology investing. As a longtime partner at Sequoia Capital, the storied venture capital firm, Moritz participated in early-stage investments in some of the most significant technology companies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including Google. Before entering venture capital, Moritz worked as a journalist at Time magazine and authored two notable business books: The Little Kingdom, the first comprehensive history of Apple Inc., and Going for Broke, an account of Lee Iacocca's efforts to rescue Chrysler. Born in Cardiff, Wales, Moritz studied at the University of Oxford before earning an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was ranked the No. 1 venture capitalist on the Forbes Midas List in both 2006 and 2007, a recognition of the extraordinary returns generated by his investments. Moritz was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to business and philanthropy. Through substantial charitable gifts—including a donation of £75 million to the University of Oxford—he has become one of the most prominent philanthropists in higher education and the arts.

Early Life

Michael Jonathan Moritz was born on 12 September 1954 in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. His family was of Jewish heritage. Growing up in the Welsh capital during the postwar decades, Moritz developed early intellectual interests that would shape his later career as a writer and investor. His family background included connections to continental Europe; genealogical records indicate that the Moritz family had roots in the broader European Jewish diaspora.

Moritz left Wales to pursue higher education in England, attending the University of Oxford, where he studied history. His time at Oxford proved formative, exposing him to rigorous academic inquiry and critical thinking that would later inform both his journalism and his approach to evaluating companies and entrepreneurs. The university would remain an institution of deep personal significance to Moritz throughout his life, as evidenced by his later philanthropic commitments to the school.

After completing his studies at Oxford, Moritz moved to the United States to attend graduate school, a transition that placed him in the orbit of American business culture and, eventually, the emerging technology industry of Silicon Valley. His decision to cross the Atlantic proved to be a pivotal turning point, establishing the geographic and professional foundation upon which his entire subsequent career would be built.

Education

Moritz earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford, where he studied as part of the university's rigorous tutorial system. His academic formation at Oxford grounded him in historical analysis and argumentation, skills that he would apply in his later careers in journalism and venture capital.

Following Oxford, Moritz enrolled at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the premier business schools in the United States, where he earned a Master of Business Administration degree. The combination of a humanities education at Oxford and a business degree from Wharton gave Moritz an unusual dual perspective—an ability to think both analytically about market structures and narratively about the human stories behind companies. He was also a recipient of the Thouron Award, a prestigious fellowship that supports graduate study between the United Kingdom and the United States, further underscoring his academic accomplishments.

Career

Journalism and Writing

Before entering the world of venture capital, Moritz established himself as a journalist and author. He joined Time magazine as a staff writer, covering business and technology during a period of rapid transformation in American industry. His reporting brought him into close contact with the entrepreneurs, executives, and innovators who were reshaping the American economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Moritz's journalistic work led directly to his first major book, The Little Kingdom: The Private Story of Apple Computer (1984), which is recognized as the first comprehensive history of Apple Computer. The book provided an inside account of the founding and early growth of Apple, drawing on Moritz's extensive access to the company's principals, including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The Little Kingdom offered a detailed, narrative-driven portrait of the personalities, conflicts, and technical breakthroughs that defined Apple's formative years. The book was later revised and reissued under the title Return to the Little Kingdom.

Moritz also authored Going for Broke: Lee Iacocca's Battle to Save Chrysler, an account of Lee Iacocca's leadership of the Chrysler corporation during its financial crisis. The book examined the corporate turnaround that Iacocca engineered, including the controversial government loan guarantees that kept the automaker afloat. Both books demonstrated Moritz's ability to combine deep reporting with compelling storytelling, qualities that would prove valuable in his later career as an investor evaluating entrepreneurs and business models.

His journalism career, while relatively brief in comparison to his decades in venture capital, had a lasting impact on Moritz's worldview. The experience of interviewing founders, observing corporate cultures, and analyzing business strategies from the outside gave him an unusual vantage point when he later transitioned to the investment side of the technology industry. He has credited his reporting background with sharpening his ability to assess the character and capabilities of entrepreneurs—a skill that became central to his investment philosophy at Sequoia Capital.

Technologic Partners

After leaving journalism, Moritz founded Technologic Partners, a technology research and consulting firm. This venture represented a bridge between his career as a writer covering the technology industry and his subsequent role as a venture capitalist. Technologic Partners allowed Moritz to deepen his understanding of technology markets and business models, building relationships within the industry that would prove valuable when he joined Sequoia Capital.

Sequoia Capital

Moritz joined Sequoia Capital in the 1980s and went on to become one of the firm's most prominent and successful partners. Sequoia, founded by Don Valentine in 1972, had already established itself as one of Silicon Valley's preeminent venture capital firms, with early investments in companies such as Atari, Apple, and Oracle. Moritz's arrival added a distinctive sensibility—informed by his background in journalism and historical analysis—to the firm's investment approach.

Over the course of his career at Sequoia, Moritz was involved in investments in numerous technology companies that went on to achieve significant scale. Among the most notable of these was Google, in which Sequoia made an early-stage investment. Moritz served as a member of Google's board of directors, participating in the governance of the company as it grew from a Stanford University research project into one of the largest corporations in the world. His board service at Google placed him at the center of one of the most consequential corporate growth stories of the internet era.

Moritz's investment approach at Sequoia was characterized by an emphasis on the quality and determination of founding teams, a focus on large addressable markets, and a willingness to back companies at very early stages of development. His journalism background informed his process: he was known for conducting extensive due diligence, asking probing questions, and developing detailed assessments of both the people and the products behind the companies he considered for investment.

In 2006 and 2007, Forbes magazine ranked Moritz as the No. 1 venture capitalist on its annual Midas List, a ranking of the most successful technology investors based on the performance of their portfolio companies. The back-to-back No. 1 rankings reflected the cumulative performance of Moritz's investments, particularly those that had produced large returns through initial public offerings or acquisitions.

Moritz's tenure at Sequoia coincided with a period of extraordinary expansion in the technology sector, spanning the rise of personal computing, the growth of the internet, the emergence of mobile technology, and the development of cloud computing. Through these successive waves of technological change, Moritz and his colleagues at Sequoia maintained a consistent focus on identifying and supporting founders with the ambition and ability to build enduring companies.

In later years, Moritz transitioned from his role as an active investing partner to a less operational position at the firm, though he remained closely associated with Sequoia and its legacy of technology investing.

Philanthropy

Moritz has been one of the most significant philanthropists in the areas of higher education and the arts. Together with his wife, Harriet Heyman, he has made substantial charitable donations to a range of institutions and causes.

The most prominent of these gifts was a donation of £75 million (approximately $115 million) to the University of Oxford, his alma mater. The gift, one of the largest in Oxford's history, was directed toward expanding access and supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds. The donation reflected Moritz's stated belief in the transformative power of higher education and his desire to ensure that talented students from all economic backgrounds could benefit from an Oxford education.

Moritz and Heyman have also supported the arts, including contributions to the Juilliard School in New York City. The Juilliard School's Music Advancement Program, which provides music education to young people from underserved communities, has been among the recipients of their philanthropy.

Moritz is a signatory to The Giving Pledge, the commitment initiated by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in which billionaires pledge to give away the majority of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetimes or in their wills. His participation in the Giving Pledge placed him among a select group of the world's wealthiest individuals who have made formal commitments to large-scale philanthropy.

Beyond education and the arts, Moritz and Heyman have engaged with civic issues in San Francisco, where they have resided. In 2016, Moritz was among the prominent technology investors involved in public debates over homelessness policy in San Francisco, including discussions surrounding Proposition Q, a ballot measure addressing homeless encampments.

Personal Life

Moritz is married to Harriet Heyman, an author and entrepreneur. The couple has two children. They reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Sequoia Capital is headquartered.

Moritz holds dual British and American citizenship. Despite his decades in the United States, he has maintained close ties to his Welsh homeland and to British institutions, as reflected in his philanthropic commitments to the University of Oxford and his acceptance of a knighthood from the British Crown.

Moritz's personal interests extend beyond technology and business. His early career in journalism and his authorship of two books reflect a deep engagement with writing and storytelling. His philanthropic support for music education at Juilliard and other arts organizations further illustrates the breadth of his cultural interests.

Recognition

Moritz has received numerous honors and awards over the course of his career, reflecting both his professional accomplishments and his philanthropic activities.

In 2013, he was awarded a Knight Bachelor in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to business and philanthropy, entitling him to the style "Sir." The knighthood recognized both his contributions to the technology industry and his extensive charitable giving.

As noted, Forbes ranked Moritz as the No. 1 venture capitalist on its Midas List in 2006 and 2007, a distinction that placed him at the apex of the global venture capital profession.

Moritz has received honorary recognition from several universities. Cardiff University, the principal university in his hometown, awarded him an honorary fellowship in 2010, recognizing his achievements and his connection to the city. Aberystwyth University, another Welsh institution, also recognized Moritz with an honorary award. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology recognized Moritz at its 22nd Congregation ceremony.

These recognitions, spanning multiple countries and institutions, reflect the international scope of Moritz's career and influence.

Legacy

Michael Moritz's career spans two distinct but interrelated domains: journalism and venture capital. In each, he achieved a level of distinction that few of his contemporaries matched. As a journalist and author, he produced the first major history of Apple Computer at a time when the company's significance was only beginning to be understood. As a venture capitalist, he participated in some of the defining investments of the internet age, contributing to the growth of companies that reshaped global commerce, communication, and information access.

Moritz's trajectory from Time magazine staff writer to Sequoia Capital partner illustrates a broader pattern in Silicon Valley's evolution: the increasing role of individuals who combined analytical rigor with narrative understanding in identifying and nurturing transformative companies. His journalism background gave him a distinctive perspective among venture capitalists, enabling him to assess not only the financial merits of potential investments but also the human qualities of the entrepreneurs behind them.

His philanthropic commitments, particularly the major gift to Oxford, have had a tangible impact on access to higher education. By directing resources toward expanding opportunity for students from underrepresented backgrounds, Moritz has sought to use his wealth to address structural inequalities in educational access—a concern that reflects his own experience as a student who benefited from the opportunities provided by a world-class university.

The knighthood conferred upon him in 2013 represented formal recognition by the British state of both his business achievements and his charitable contributions, marking him as one of the most prominent Welsh-born figures in the global technology industry.

At Sequoia Capital, Moritz helped to sustain and extend the firm's reputation as the preeminent venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, contributing to a legacy of technology investing that stretches back to the founding of the firm in the early 1970s. His two consecutive No. 1 rankings on the Forbes Midas List remain a benchmark of achievement in the venture capital profession.