Co-founded in 1995 by Jay Hoag and Rick Kimball, Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) was formed to invest in the Internet with a new philosophy. The "crossover" in the firm's name refers to TCV's practice of investing in both privately and publicly held companies. This blending of public market and venture capital investing makes TCV an attractive, long-term investor for companies in the market for capital. Currently, the firm has over $700 million in capital under management.

Investment philosophy

By investing in both the private and public markets, TCV has a unique perspective to offer start-up companies. While a traditional VC firm will invest in a company as it grows and then try to cash out at the public offering, TCV often invests in a company in private equity rounds and purchases additional shares at the company's IPO. According to Upside, buying a "substantial amount of stock at the IPO" is a staple item on TCV's term sheet for investing in private rounds. In certain cases, TCV will purchase additional shares long after the initial offering if it perceives a strong buying opportunity. As Jay Hoag, a founding general partner of TCV, explained to Upside, "Younger and younger companies are going public, so in addition to company-building skills, VCs need to understand the stock market. Because we pay a lot of attention to the stock market, we really add value." Generally, TCV invests in Internet and technology companies in five industry sectors: Internet infrastructure, e-business applications, Internet services, business to consumer, and business to business. Since inception, TCV has invested in over 70 companies and usually invests between $3 and $30 million per company. TCV completed a burst of investments during 1999 when it invested in 40 companies. From July to December of 1999, TCV invested over $250 million. Since TCV's founding, 27 of its investment companies have executed IPOs.

Portfolio

Internet infrastructure companies in TCV's portfolio include Alteon WebSystems and iBasis. TCV has invested in e-business application companies such as Firepond and Onyx Software. LogicTier and Viant represent two of TCV's investments in the Internet services space. TCV's business-to-consumer companies include household names like CNET, Autoweb.com, Mortgage.com, Petopia.com, and iVillage. Business-to-business investment companies include Sonnet Financial and Career Central. Fifteen TCV companies completed IPOs during 1999 including Alteon, Mortgage.com, Autoweb.com, HomeStore.com, Ariba, iBasis, MyPoints.com, CacheFlow, Intraware, Onyx, Copper Mountain, iVillage, and Viant.

Partners

Jay Hoag spent 12 years with Chancellor Capital Management and Rick Kimball spent 10 years with Montgomery Securities before co-founding TCV. In the last year, Hoag has attracted a great deal of press for TCV by speaking and writing on venture capital topics. In a recent issue of Forbes, Hoag explained that "VCs have to build a brand. It's the price of admission."