Palo Alto, California
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1999
I started C2C twenty-four years ago to help computer scientists, professors, and graduate students start technology companies based on their research. We believe that a small number of companies are formed every year with foundational technologies that will change the world. We aspire to identify those companies and partner with their founders at the earliest stage to become a trusted source of capital and advice. C2C was the first investor in companies that have been acquired for more than $2 billion in cash. C2C companies have raised more than $70 million in seed-stage venture capital and $525 million in follow-on capital from Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Bezos Expeditions, Founders Fund, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Union Square Ventures, and other leading VC firms. We invite potential partners to check us out by contacting anyone with whom we have done business in the past. You’ll find that we are unusual: we prefer academic founders who lead their companies as full-time members of the management team; we are very patient capital that is focused on the long game (no pressure for an “exit”); our own management structure and ownership is predictable for decades to come. We were among the first VC investors in Stack Overflow (started in 2010, acquired in 2021 by Prosus for $1.8 billion in cash), Sentry (started at Disqus in 2013), Cellular Research, Inc. (started at Stanford in 2013, acquired in 2015 by Becton, Dickinson for $120 million in cash), BioImagene (started at UCLA in 2003, acquired in 2010 by Roche for $100 million in cash), and other companies. We are an active partner at the earliest stage (often before there is a company). We prefer to invest at the seed stage. In addition to providing capital, we help founders close initial customers, find product-market fit, license their technology from their university, recruit a team, and turn ideas and products into successful businesses.
2017
2017
Vanedge Capital is a venture capital fund family with $300 million in capital under management across three funds. Vanedge is a thematic investor, meaning its partners form an overall investment strategy around technology areas that are evolving quickly and markets that are undergoing rapid growth or change. The Vanedge team (based in Vancouver, Canada) helps entrepreneurs with cross-border operational experience to rapidly scale product development, marketing and sales. In 2017, C2C formed a strategic partnership with Vanedge Capital and I joined Vanedge II as a General Partner and Vanedge III as a Venture Partner.
2006 - 2014
2006 - 2014
Nine years as a faculty member at Stanford. My research focused on discovering commercial applications of new software and hardware technologies in engineering and life sciences. Research interests included scientific instrumentation, molecular biology tools and AI systems. I joined the faculty in the School of Engineering at Stanford in 2006 and returned to investing full-time in 2015. From 2006 to 2013, I taught the graduate-level course Business for Engineers (EE204). The course was directed to Engineering and Computer Science graduate students at Stanford and covered the basic principles of business, from the engineer's perspective. Subject material of EE204 included new product development, marketing, intellectual property, accounting and finance, with a focus on building profitable and well-funded technology companies based on high-profile academic research. My students at Stanford have gone on to start a number of successful Silicon Valley companies such as Gusto, Notion, Visby Medical, Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn for $90 million in 2013), Katango (acquired by Google in 2011), and other companies. At Stanford, I frequently made personal investments at the earliest stage in companies formed by students, often before there was a company. However, my primary objective was to support the research and educational mission of the university. Former students are always welcome to reach out to me directly at msiegel@c2cventures.com.
2010 - 2013
2010 - 2013
Director of $75 million private equity patent investment fund that focused on buying patents in new technology markets where there was no current patent infringement. Intellectual Ventures was a large private equity investment fund family (total capital > $5 billion) dedicated to patented and patentable inventions, with over 30,000 patents and applications under management. Directed small teams that acquired large patent portfolios. Developed new licensing programs in a variety of technology markets involving patent valuation models, royalty analyses, apportionment, exhaustion issues, and licensing revenue projections.