Larry's VC View is the bi-weekly blog by photonics entrepreneur and budding venture capitalist Dr. Larry Marshall who shares his thoughts and reflections on the VC scene, as he makes the transition from serial entrepreneur and engineer, to Venture capitalist. He hopes to share his experiences, lessons and mistakes with fellow entrepreneurs seeking venture funding.
He recently completed the first IPO of a Silicon Valley company on the Australian exchange, and is now a Partner at the first Australian financed Venture fund to operate in Silicon Valley, leveraging his entrepreneurial experience to help budding companies find their niche in Silicon Valley.
He has lived in the USA for the past 18 years, and founded 6 successful companies in biotechnology, photonics, and semiconductors, two of which achieved successful IPOs, and the remainder resulted in high-return trade sales. He holds 18 patents and has over 100 publications and presentations. Larry was born in Sydney Australia, and received his BS Honors from Macquarie University (Sydney), and PhD from the Commonwealth Centre of Excellence
Sarah began her career in 1986 as a co-op student working in the Solid State Laser Materials Lab at the NASA Langley Research Center, where she was part of the team that developed titanium-doped sapphire as a laser medium. She has also held research and management positions at The Analytic Sciences Corporation (TASC), where she worked at Brooks Air Force base on eye-damage studies and laser-eyewear development, and Lightwave Electronics as a manufacturing supervisor of diode-pumped solid state lasers. In 1999, Sarah started a training company to help Silicon Valley laser manufacturers train their technical workforces in the fundamentals of lasers and optics, including optics inspection, handling, and cleaning, optical alignment, and geometric optics. Her newest venture is a consulting firm that helps photonics companies improve their bottom lines through corporate audits of critical processes and implementing in-house certification programs.
Sarah received degrees in applied physics from Old Dominion University (Hampton, VA) and the University of Texas (San Antonio, TX), and in philosophy from DePaul University (Chicago, IL). Sarah is also a CAT I and CAT II certified laser safety officer.
