SAN FRANCISCO (Wall Street Journal) — Steve Young was one of the most successful quarterbacks in National Football League history. Now he hopes to hit pay dirt as a venture capitalist.
Young, who just retired from the San Francisco 49ers, plans to team up with David Bradford, who is resigning as the longtime general counsel of Novell Inc., to start a new technology investment firm.
Dubbed FirstLight Venture Partners, Bradford said the firm will be based in Utah, the home state of both Young and Novell, and will also keep an office in Palo Alto, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley. Bradford said the company plans to invest primarily in technology concerns in the "intermountain" region, including Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona and southern Idaho.
The firm hasn't raised its initial funding yet, but Bradford isn't expecting any trouble. There is Young's name and business savvy — he is already chairman of a start-up called Found Inc. — and his partner's record for dogged hard work: At Novell, Bradford has been helping the government in investigations of Microsoft Corp. for nearly a decade.
Via Associated Press