Founded in 1989, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners was the first venture capital firm to focus on software companies. With $500 million in capital, Hummer Winblad is not part of the elite $1 billion club of venture capital firms, but has received many accolades from industry experts. Upside columnist Tish Williams dubbed the team members "Net VCs extraordinaire." Forbes observed that John Hummer (6' 10") and Ann Winblad (5' 2") are the tallest and shortest VCs in the business, and evidently among the most successful. In its 11 year history, Hummer Winblad has invested in over 60 companies.

Investment Strategy: lots of attention

While the company is open to opportunities at any stage, Hummer Winblad literature expresses a particular interest in early stage investment opportunities. The ability to nurture young companies and take a dedicated interest in each portfolio company's evolution is something the partners pride themselves on. Hummer Winblad partners each serve on a maximum of five or six boards at any given time, a number that (according to the company) is "well below the industry average." The company will invest anywhere from $100,000 to $5 million in any one company. According to a 1998 issue of Fortune, since Hummer Winblad's founding, the firm has returned over 40 percent annually to its investors.

Portfolio: software's seven wonders

Hummer Winblad focuses on software, and divides its portfolio into seven categories: enterprise applications (Excelergy), enterprise systems (Envive Corporation), development tools (HAHT Software), Internet, which represents the largest portion of the portfolio (BigMove.com, HomeGrocer.com, MyPrimeTime.com, Pets.com), scientific and engineering (Escalade), consumer software (Pop Rocket), and desktop applications and utilities.

VC Madness in March

Before entering the world of venture capital, co-founding partner John Hummer spent six years as a player with the National Basketball Association. In early 2000, the company planned an Internet business plan competition for college students, organized in college basketball tournament style. The company selected 64 Internet related business plans submitted by teams of students across the world. Eventually the 64 will be narrowed down to a "sweet 16." Those sixteen teams will be flown to one of four universities in the U.S. (University of Louisville, MIT Sloan School, Purdue University and Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of Business Management) where they will present their plans to Hummer Winblad partners. Winners at each of the four universities will participate in a "final four" round, and the winner is guaranteed funding from Hummer Winblad. Given Hummer's history with the NBA and the format of the competition, the firm believed March Madness would be an excellent name for the clever tournament. However, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N.C.A.A.), organizer of a basketball tournament also known as March Madness balked. Prior to his professional basketball career, Hummer was the starting center in 1969 for Princeton University in the N.C.A.A. tournament. Rather than cause a fuss, Hummer Winblad changed the name of the competition to the February Madness Start-up Tournament: Nothin' but the Net.

Partners in the news

While Hummer Winblad portfolio companies are top newsmakers, the partners of the firm have also been known to make some appearances in the headlines. Founding partner Ann Winblad is well-known for her venture capital acumen (she was ranked 64 on Upside's Elite 100 list of the top "movers and shakers of the digital world)." She has also received a great deal of press stemming from her friendship with Bill Gates. According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, "several newspapers reported that the two dated during the 1980s." Whatever the nature of the personal friendship, the two have certainly forged a professional relationship. Gates filed papers with the SEC indicating that he is a limited partner at Hummer Winblad.

The partners of Hummer Winblad also made headlines in VC circles in March 1999. Bill Gurley, a partner at Hummer Winblad for just 20 months, left the firm to join rival firm Benchmark Capital. According to Red Herring, Gurley was "renowned as one of the most influential investors of the digital age." Gurley explained his exit resulted from outstanding opportunities at Benchmark rather than any negative situation at Hummer Winblad.