Steve O'Hara

Experience

Founder, Managing Partner 2013 - Present (over 13 years)

Valley Capital Partners is a leading early stage venture capital firm investing time and money in highly technical, mission-driven founding teams in enterprise infrastructure,... more

Founder

Nebula, Valley Capital Partners, CoreLogic, Inc., OnFiber Communications

Employee

Nortel Networks, Xerox PARC

Projects

Archimedes Project at XEROX Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)

Error reduction for xDSL using image processing waveforms

Software Engineer (Matlab) · Total 4 U.S. patents; using image processing waveforms to develop adaptive echo cancellation techniques and optimization… · More

Education

About

Achievements

Founded and operated 3 VC-backed companies. All three acquired by Fortune 500 companies:

Nebula (Oracle), backed by KPCB, Comcast, Highland, A. Bechtolsheim, R. Shriram, D. Cheriton, E. Schmidt, S. McNeely.

OnFiber (Qwest), backed by KPCB, Bear Stearns, Bechtel, GE, Amerindo, A. Bechtolsheim, D. Cheriton, S. McNeely, M. Volpi.

CoreLogic (Micron), backed by Intel Capital, Mitsubishi.

2 U.S. patents, adaptive echo cancellers using image processing waveforms while at Xerox PARC.

Arista Networks (IPO)
Infinera (IPO)
StorageNetworks (IPO)
Digital Island (IPO)
Legato Systems (IPO)
NetScreen (IPO), acquired by Juniper for $4.65 billion)
QuantumScape (IPO)
Affirm (IPO)
Pure Digital (acquired by Cisco for $540M)
Cerent (acq by Cisco for $7.2 billion)
SiByte (acq by Broadcom for $2.1 billion)
Acclaim (acq by Level One for $165M, then acquired by Intel for $2.2 billion)
Ipsilon (acq by Nokia for $140M)
EuPhonics (acq by 3Com for $55M)
Simility (acquired by PayPal)
Renasar (acquired by EMC)
Parastructure (acquired by Dropbox)

Describe the most impressive thing you've done.

Locations

Silicon Valley

Q&A

What was the most impactful class you took in school?

Immanuel Kant, Convex Quadrilaterals, Contemporary American Literature (where Maya Angelou was our surprise guest speaker on the last day of class

What's something you wish you had done years earlier?

Care-free remote travel and finish my MS

What's the most useful business-related book you've ever read?

Measure what Matters by John Doerr

What's your favorite non-business book?

The Alchemist

What words of advice would you give your younger self?

Study abroad for a year in college. Play a lot, travel, have fun, work hard, be generous, be kind to others but above all pick your spouse very, very carefully.

What's the most creative thing you've ever done?

Wrote a short story that got published. Painted a mural that got laughed at.

Which founders or startups do you most admire?

Jagdeep Singh, Andy Bechtolsheim, Max Levchin,

What's your super power?

Helping entrepreneurs solve problems

What's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

What words of wisdom do you live by?

Love many, trust a few, always row your own canoe.

What aspects of your work are you most passionate about?

Teaming with exceptional founders and helping them build their companies.