Jim Goetz Is Silicon Valley's New God

WhatsApp just sold to Facebook in a $19 billion deal, and it only raised $8 million in outside capital. The only investor in WhatsApp is Sequoia Capital, and the deal was led by Jim Goetz, who now looks like a god.

Who is Jim Goetz?

Goetz grew up in the Midwest. He graduated with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and went on to get an MS from Stanford. Goetz got started on a PhD but says he gave it up to start a project manager career. He held a variety of PM roles first at SynOptics and later at AT&T.

Before Goetz was an investor he was an entrepreneur. He co-founded a company called VitalSignals. From there Goetz went to Accel Partners, a prominent venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. He joined Sequoia Capital in 2004 and focuses on startups in the mobile and enterprise space. "I'm inspired by founders who aim to disrupt the enterprise (Jive Software, Nimble Storage, Palo Alto Networks), or change the mobile landscape," he says.

Goetz serves on the board of Whatsapp and Jive Software, as well as number of other companies. WhatsApp was the only consumer bet Goetz has made at Sequoia.