The Midas Touch | Dixon Doll
About Dixon Doll
For more than 35 years, Dixon has influenced and guided entrepreneurs, investors and executives in the computer, communications, and internet industries. Dixon was named to the Forbes Midas List for four consecutive years and received the 2013 Special Achievement Award in VC from the International Business Forum. He was elected to the Board of the National Venture Capital Association in 2005 serving on the Executive Committee and as Chairman in 2008/9. Under Dixon’s leadership, the NVCA developed a widely embraced set of recommendations (NVCA 4-Pillar Plan) to stimulate liquidity in the U.S. venture capital industry. This plan resulted in bipartisan Congressional support for new job creation legislation and simplification of the IPO process for young emerging companies. Known as the JOBS Act, President Obama signed it into law in 2012. Dixon led DCM’s investments in About.com (Acquired by The New York Times Co.), @Motion (Acquired by Openwave), CENX (Chairmen), Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR), Coradiant (Acquired by BMC), Force10 Networks (Acquired by Dell), Foundry Networks (Nasdaq: FDRY), Internap (Nasdaq: INAP), Ipivot (Acquired by Intel), Keep.com, Neutral Tandem (Nasdaq: TNDM) and Mobileum (formerly Roamware). He is the past Chairman of Network Equipment Technologies (NWK) and serves on the Board of Directors of DIRECTV (DTV). Prior to co-founding DCM, Dixon launched the venture capital industry’s first fund focused solely on telecom, investing in such noteworthy companies as Alantec, Bridge Communications, Centillion Networks, Network Equipment Technologies, Optilink, Picturetel, Polycom and UUNet. He also founded and ran a strategic technology consulting firm, served on the faculty of the IBM Systems Research Institute in New York City for 10 years and published a seminal text Data Communications which was adopted as course text by more than 60 universities worldwide.
Dixon has traveled extensively to six continents to serve on advisory boards and give highly sought after presentations on entrepreneurship, technological trends, job creation, government policy and innovation. He also serves on the Executive Committee and Advisory Board for the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research Institute (SIEPR) and is on the Board of Overseers at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. His non-profit activities also have included serving as Chairman of San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum and as a trustee at the University of San Francisco where he currently chairs the Investment Committee.
Interview Transcript of: The Midas Touch | Dixon Doll
Dixon Doll: It’s a very cyclical industry. And you can have a discussion about what is the nature of the length of each cycle, the last period of time when the public markets were this healthy, was back in the 99 and 2000 timeframe. I personally don’t think that the market is as out of control now or is, you know, you know, is overly exuberant, back in 99 and 2000, we had companies going public that didn’t have any revenues. And they’d be getting, you know, several 100 million and valuations or more, and there was no drop, no supporting business fundamentals. One of the biggest differences between now and back in 99, and 2000, was that the, the IPO market now has gone global. And you have all these Chinese companies or these Indian companies going public. In the New York exchanges. We had a very vibrant amount of IPO activity in in Asia this year, on on for some non venture backed companies. That was one of the best years that the industry has seen in a long time. So I’m quite optimistic that the good times are going to continue to be experienced here. But just with this difference now that we have to think about the market as a global phenomenon, and these companies they need to build up their distribution strategies and their technologies, and they need to get out into all the corners of the marketplace where they need to be and they need to do it quickly.
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Alan Olsen, is the Host of the American Dreams Show and the Managing Partner of GROCO.com. GROCO is a premier family office and tax advisory firm located in the San Francisco Bay area serving clients all over the world.
Alan L. Olsen, CPA, Wikipedia Bio
GROCO.com is a proud sponsor of The American Dreams Show.
The American Dreams show was the brainchild of Alan Olsen, CPA, MBA. It was originally created to fill a specific need; often inexperienced entrepreneurs lacked basic information about raising capital and how to successfully start a business.
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For more than 35 years, Dixon Doll has influenced and guided entrepreneurs, investors and executives in the computer and communications industries. In recognition of his accomplishments in venture capital, Dixon received the 2013 Special Achievement Award from the International Business Forum. Dixon was also named by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 100 venture investors on its Midas List for four consecutive years. In April, 2005, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) in Washington, D.C. He also served as NVCA Chairman from 2008-2009 and as a member of their Executive Committee from 2007-2009. Under Dixon’s leadership and direction as Chairman, the NVCA developed a widely embraced set of recommendations (NVCA 4-Pillar Plan) to help enhance liquidity in the U.S. venture capital industry. These recommendations have resulted in bipartisan Congressional support for new legislation to simplify the IPO process for young emerging growth companies.
Dixon currently serves on the Board of Directors of DIRECTV (DTV), where he also serves on the Compensation and Nominating/Corporate Governance Committees. He is also the Board Chairman of Network Equipment Technologies (NWK) and the past Board Chairman of Force10 Networks, which was recently acquired by Dell. He also serves on the boards of numerous private DCM companies.
Dixon has led DCM’s investments in About.com (Acquired by The New York Times Co.), Adkeeper, @Motion (Acquired by Openwave), CENX, Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR), Coradiant (Acquired by BMC), Force10 Networks (Acquired by Dell), Foundry Networks (Nasdaq: FDRY), Internap (Nasdaq: INAP), Ipivot (Acquired by Intel), Neutral Tandem (Nasdaq: TNDM) and Roamware, among others.
In the mid-1980’s, Dixon co-founded the venture capital industry’s first fund focused exclusively on telecommunications opportunities. Those funds launched such noteworthy companies as Alantec, Bridge Communication, Centillion Networks, Network Equipment Technologies, Optilink, Picturetel, Polycom and UUNet.
Earlier, Dixon was the founder and CEO of an internationally recognized strategic consulting firm focused on telecommunications and computer networking. From 1972 to 1980, Dixon also served as a faculty member of the IBM Systems Research Institute in New York City. He authored the seminal text Data Communications published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1978. It was adopted as a course text by more than 60 colleges and universities worldwide.
Dixon has traveled extensively to six continents to serve on advisory boards and give highly sought after lectures and conference presentations. Through their family foundation, he and his wife Carol give generously to numerous educational and philanthropic organizations, including the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (where he has served as Chair of the museum’s dual governing boards), San Francisco Symphony, Kansas State University, the University of Michigan, the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, and the University of San Francisco where he has served as the Investment Committee Chair. He has served as a trustee or board member for each of these organizations. He also serves on the Executive Committee and Advisory Board for the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), is a member of the Board of Overseers at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and also is a San Francisco City Commissioner.
Dixon received his B.S.E.E. degree (cum laude) from Kansas State University as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, where he was a National Science Foundation scholar.
Alan is managing partner at Greenstein, Rogoff, Olsen & Co., LLP, (GROCO) and is a respected leader in his field. He is also the radio show host to American Dreams. Alan’s CPA firm resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and serves some of the most influential Venture Capitalist in the world. GROCO’s affluent CPA core competency is advising High Net Worth individual clients in tax and financial strategies. Alan is a current member of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (S.I.E.P.R.) SIEPR’s goal is to improve long-term economic policy. Alan has more than 25 years of experience in public accounting and develops innovative financial strategies for business enterprises. Alan also serves on President Kim Clark’s BYU-Idaho Advancement council. (President Clark lead the Harvard Business School programs for 30 years prior to joining BYU-idaho. As a specialist in income tax, Alan frequently lectures and writes articles about tax issues for professional organizations and community groups. He also teaches accounting as a member of the adjunct faculty at Ohlone College.