Education and work
Michael Goguen is a well-known venture capitalist and philanthropist. He has had a long and industrious career, which is close to 3 decades at Sequoia Capital, where he focused on tech investments, internet, and energy. During his young years, Goguen attended Cornell University in the 80s, where he graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He later completed his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.
After completing his college education, Michael worked for a decade in various firms across a number of industries, such as product management, research, and engineering. He was given essential roles at Centillion, SynOptics, and DEC. He was also a Technical Chairman of the ATM Forum was established in the early 90s to be the industry consortium to promote Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology used in Telecomm networks. Additionally, he worked at Bay Networks (NT) as the director of engineering.
The former engineer and veteran VC will return to the Midas List this year, which ranks the best contributors in high-tech and life science venture capital annually. He returns as Sequoia's go-to partner for chip investments, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and enterprise Information Technology. He supports fast-growing startups and established companies and is on the board of Synapsense, Clean Cell, Infoblox (IPO 2012), Litepoint, vIPtela, Versa Networks, R2 Semiconductors, Clickatell Inc., Quantenna Communications, LogLogic, OpenDNS and Think Finance.
One of Michael Goguen's significant achievements at Sequoia is the team's effort to make FireEye public (IPO 2013). The firm is now worth over $6billion. He also led close to 50 tech investments which include Redback Networks ($18.1B peak mkt cap, 2000), Avanex ($10B peak mkt cap, 2000), Netscreen ($4B by JNPR, 2004), Litepoint ($580M by TER, 9/14/11), Virident ($685M by WDC, 9/13/13), OpenDNS ($635M by CSCO, 6/30/15), and StemCentrx ($10.2B by ABBV, 4/28/16), among others.
Philanthropy
Michael is focused on providing solutions to individuals and firms across Montana, the United States, and beyond. He is a role model for young serial entrepreneurs who want to be successful in a variety of industries. With local and statewide knowledge of Montana, he has improved the lives of MT residents. Michael has worked with great entrepreneurs and investors to create and support potential enterprises that improve our lives.
Goguen is supportive of various agencies in Montana that focus on helping people. One of his significant contributions is catering for all costs of the Two Bear Air program in Montana's Flathead County. This program focuses on providing the best aviation education and training to search and rescue teams in the county. He also supports other agencies in other regions.
Not long ago, Goguen decided to focus his energy and resources on seeking solutions to cure Alzheimer's, cancer, and other critical diseases that affect our health. His primary focus is on gene editing and on exploring and developing its technology. One of the most significant attributes of Michael Goguen is his generosity. Over the years, Michael has assisted several charities, organizations, and individuals. He has made a substantial impact on many lives in America and abroad.
Michael, a New England native, now spends most of his time is his lovely home in Whitefish, Montana.
