SoftTech VC is an early stage venture capital firm managing a $15M seed stage fund, SoftTech VC II. Jeff Clavier, one of the most active Web 2.0 early stage investors - often dubbed a "super angel" or "micro-cap VC", announced the fund and its four initial investments, at the TechCrunch40 conference in September 2007. SoftTech VC II is backed by a mix of institutional and private investors. In its 30 months of activity, the fund has invested in 40+ companies, most of them still operating in stealth/pre-launch mode.
Jeff Clavier's Bio
Based in Palo Alto, California, Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is
the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech
VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. Since
2004, Jeff has invested in more than 70 consumer Internet companies in areas like social media, communities,
search, gaming or consumer infrastructure, almost exclusively in Silicon Valley. With over 20 years of operational,
entrepreneurial and venture capital experience, Jeff is able to add relevant
perspective and value to his companies as they grow from inception to maturity, and hopefully, success.
In 2007, Jeff was recognized as one of the 13 “Web
2.0 King Makers” by (late) Business 2.0, and in 2008, BusinessWeek
named him one of "The
25 Most Influential People on the Web". He is often noted for his
investments in categories such as “passion-centric communities” or online
gaming, or for having sold a number of his Web 2.0 startups to the likes of Yahoo,
AOL, Intuit or more recently Twitter.
In September 2007, Jeff announced the formation
of SoftTech VC II, L.P. – a $15M seed fund backed by a mix of
institutional and private investors that will invest in 50 consumer
Internet companies over 3 years. During its first 24 months of activity, the fund has
closed 40+ investments, most of them still operating in stealth/pre-launch mode.
A popular speaker and moderator, Jeff appears at dozens of industry events per year. Ranging from local Silicon Valley keynotes or panel discussions to international conferences, he shares his passion for building Internet startups, angel and VC investing, innovation and entrepreneurship. Jeff has produced a number of technology conferences and is a founding co-chair of the SDForum Search Special Interest Group.
Believing that you have to practice what you invest in, and vice-versa, Jeff started Software Only in 2004, one of the early venture capital blogs where he primarily covered social media, search, online communities and investing. After a few years of active posting, Jeff switched to micro-blogging, and a less time consuming production, mostly through @jeff on Twitter.
Prior to founding SoftTech VC, Jeff spent more than 16 years in the enterprise software world as an entrepreneur, senior executive and venture capitalist. Throughout his career, he was exposed to global markets leading development teams in Europe and on Wall Street, designing products sold internationally and investing in software infrastructure startups across the U.S. and Europe.
In 2000, Jeff became President of RVC Capital, the firm managing the Reuters Greenhouse Fund with $600M invested in 82 companies, including Yahoo!, Verisign, Phone.com and Infoseek. He joined the venture arm of Reuters from the company’s product development division, where he was leading a 250+ staff in Paris, London and New York, and was responsible for the Risk Management and Desktop products. Jeff joined Reuters through the acquisition of Effix Systems, a Paris-based startup company he helped develop in 1989 while still in school.
Jeff was born, raised and educated in France, earning a MS in Computer Science and a research degree in Distributed Computing. He has been happily living in Silicon Valley since 2000 with his wife @Bernadette and their two children. When he is not busy working, Jeff likes to spend time with his family and friends, cook, collect wine and wander around Northrend on his hunter. He also skies, hikes, dives and plays golf so poorly it is not even funny.
Updated: January 2010
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