No Track Record? No Connections? If You Have the Money and Will, You Can Still Break into Silicon Valley
A new seed-stage fund has quietly emerged in Silicon Valley called Quest Venture Partners. Based in Menlo Park and managed by brothers Andrew and Marcus Ogawa, the firm invests between $100,000 and $1.5 million in nascent digital media companies. Here's what's unusual: the brothers, who were born and raised in Japan, hadn't previously worked for a venture firm. They weren’t seasoned entrepreneurs before opening Quest. Thirty-seven-year-old Andrew spent more than a decade as a manager at Daimler AG, while Marcus, 30, had developed Web apps for various companies and was co-founder of a small, now-defunct startup called Enterprise Great Solutions. Their backgrounds don’t necessarily stand out in competitive, clubby Silicon Valley. Yet some helpful introductions, an impressive array of co-investors, and deep family pockets have won them a seat at the table, and it’s a game they now intend to play for life, if they can play their cards right.
