Jonathan Heiliger thinks he's getting old. At 22, Heiliger is set to beco=
me
a venture capitalist heading a $100 million fund for telco Frontier
GlobalCenter =E2=80=93 as long as things remain on course after the compa=
ny's
agreement to merge with Global Crossing. Heiliger just completed a stint =
as
Frontier's CTO. Before he even turned 18, he had already run or helped ru=
n
operations for two Internet startups. No wonder he feels old.
Heiliger is a true child of Silicon Valley. Raised in Palo Alto, Calif., =
he
was exposed to a level of technology and science few see at such a young
age. In high school, he worked in an electric-car research institute and =
at
the linear particle accelerator at Stanford University, where he sat in o=
n
the lectures of famous physicists. He skipped college and went to work fo=
r
Stanford's BARRNet =E2=80=93 one of the first national ISPs =E2=80=93 as =
an engineer and
network architect. Soon after, he was the third employee at Aimnet, anoth=
er
ISP. But, Heiliger says, "I got bored with small companies. I wanted to w=
ork
for someone with deep pockets." At MFS, the telecommunications giant tha=
t
was soon swallowed by WorldCom, Heiliger met Bill Foss, cofounder of
Netscape Communications. Foss was discussing the sale of his Web-hosting
operation, ISI, to MFS. After meeting Heiliger during negotiations, Foss
began calling him regularly for his thoughts on Web hosting. When Foss
launched GlobalCenter, Heiliger helped raise the funds. GlobalCenter was
eventually consumed by Frontier, a 100-year-old telephone company that wa=
s
making an aggressive move to build a data-networking business. Heiliger
became CTO of the new Frontier GlobalCenter. Again, he got bored. "On one
hand, the job was just too much for me. Of 200-plus people, more than 100
reported directly to me," says Heiliger. "I also worried that I've been
doing pretty much the same thing for almost three years now, and that's j=
ust
too long for me." He decided he wanted only the sexiest Silicon Valley gi=
g:
venture capitalist. So he began to meet with VCs, trying to learn how to
become one of them. They told him he needed an undergraduate degree and a=
n
MBA. "A few offered me a second route by becoming an entrepreneur in
residence," he says. "Forget that. People are telling me if you go become=
a
VC, that'll be your life. I only want to try this for a few years." The
typical VC track proved too slow for his tastes, so Heiliger sent a
three-page proposal to Frontier's CEO and CFO outlining a VC fund with $3=
0
million, to be headed by him. Top execs jumped at the opportunity =E2=80=93=
but
allocated $100 million instead of the proposed $30 million. If things don=
't
change postmerger, the fund will promote companies and technologies that
will be useful to Frontier GlobalCenter. Five to 10 investments are plann=
ed
for this year, with the first to come in the next 60 days.
What's next? "I really want to be a CEO someday soon, and I'm learning th=
e
art of the deal," he says. "I've already got some ideas for a software
company. Who knows, I might like one of our investments enough to join th=
e
company."
Copyright =C2=A9 1999 The Industry Standard
source: The industry Standard, April 12, 1999 issue
http://www.thestandard.com/articles/display/0,1449,4101,00.html
Tushar J. Mehta
email: [email protected]
voicemail: (425)558-1101