Don Valentine has died

[ChuckMcM]

Don was a pretty amazing guy. He was the chairman at NetApp when I was there and told me I was crazy to be pushing NetApp to use an untested AMD processor (Opteron) for the high end filer of the time.

What resulted was a solid discussion that ranged from how reliable AMD was to how important Intel was to Netapp, and how to measure the "betterness" of one technology over another. I really respected that he could be opinionated and listen at the same time, always willing to cede to a well reasoned argument about how he might be wrong about something. He was also really good at poking holes in an argument so I found myself on the defensive a lot!

[tyingq]

Great share. I remember the inflection point that Opteron was. Essentially, it killed Sparc, PA-RISC, Alpha, Itanium, etc. That was a unique moment in time. Hearing a personal anectode between someone relatively junior at the time, and a legend, is very interesting to me. It was, really, the moment Linux/x86 "won". That 64 bit hurdle defined where we are today.

At the time, it inspired me to make a pitch that "RISC was dead", despite it's technical superiority. Kind of a VHS vs Betamax moment. My pitch worked out, and was probably the defining moment of my career.

I'm pretty happy that AMD is, again, riding high. Underdog stories are more rare these days. And you had a not insignificant part in that.

[jacquesm]

Did he yield?

[LeonM]

If you want to learn more about Don and how influential his work has been, I recommend listening the recent Acquired episode about Don and Sequoia [0].

[0] https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1

[chriselles]

Great episode. Will listen to it again on a long walk today.

I’ve always sought commentary and quotes from Don Valentine to help me learn more about being an angel investor the same way I have have always Warren Buffett’s commentary and shareholder letters to learn how to be a better long-term investor.

[mathattack]

Just listened to it. He’s a giant!

[scapecast]

One of his great talks at Stanford: “Target Big Markets” https://youtu.be/nKN-abRJMEw

[joeblau]

I loved watching this talk — After watching this I gained a new level of appreciation for the VC model they pioneered.

[chriselles]

I first recall reading about Don Valentine in the October 1982 issue of National Geographic on Silicon Valley.

An excellent snapshot of Silicon Valley and a glimpse of Don Valentine’s role in it.

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/high-tech-high-risk-and-high-...

Risk/Venture Capital, despite valid criticisms of it, has had an outsized effect on our world in the last 50+ years.

And Don Valentine played an outsized role in it.

[gumby]

Really a great, supportive guy, and very kind in a pitch meeting, even when you are completely losing it. In general I've found the sequoia folks to be a class act (with a couple of, to me, egregious exceptions)

[melling]

“ his high school friend, Steve Wozniak.”

This can’t be right.

[sokoloff]

That line also gave me pause, but I think it was meant to say that Woz was Jobs’ high school friend (which is also wrong, but much less wrong).

[jorgenveisdal]

Rest in peace Don!

[wyxuan]

Very insensitive....