"When life is done, you want to feel that you made a difference; that the world is a little better because you were here.” – why earning millions as venture capi-talist is not enough in life and how our current systems can be used in a smart way to do good.

Chris Eyre, Managing Director, Legacy Venture, Palo Alto, California, USA

Imagine that you are one of the early successful venture capitalists in Silicon Valley earning millions of dollars. Imagine that you are right in the middle of the boom in your industry promising millions more. Imagine that you deal with the best of the best in the business. And now imagine that you quit……..
Well, sometimes there are just more important things in life.
Sitting in one of the many meetings listening to another smart entrepreneur explaining how he will create the next multi-billion dollar business, Chris Eyre recognized that he had missed another basketball game of his son, that his career made his life very one-sided, and that he really missed a lot of things that were important to him. Even though his professional colleagues could not understand, Chris decided to leave Merrill Pickard Anderson & Eyre just as the internet boom was taking off. He decided instead to focus on his family, his church, private philanthropy, hitting tennis balls and pursuing other passions which had been neglected. Very satisfied with the decision for a season, Chris began wondering if he could make a greater impact for good by leveraging the skills and contacts honed in his venture capital career. A most creative ex-partner, Jim Anderson, had just formed a unique organization, “Legacy Venture”. Legacy provides philanthropic investors access to the best venture capital firms, with the understanding that they will direct all distributions to charitable organizations.

Here Chris could combine his professional talents with his passion for making a difference in the world. He now uses the current investment and tax system in a very smart way to amplify the size and effectiveness of philanthropy. Although seemingly busier than ever, he still manages to find time for his family and other passions. The family has now grown from five children to include four spouses and ten grandchildren! Sacrosanct is the time they spend together including annual family reunions at resorts where the key rule is: “We must have a lodge large enough to allow the entire family to sleep under one roof and wake up to one big breakfast cooked by Grandpa!”

Enjoy Chris’s selected thoughts and statements from our discussion below. You may be able to read more about his work and passions in our book “MyImpact”.

Chris Eyre’s selected quotations:
"Sitting in another fancy boardroom, listening to another pitch for another electronic gismo, I realized that I haven't been to my son's basketball games for months. That was the final straw in making the decision to leave. I stopped missing his games! I started coaching his games!"

“When I finally made the decision to leave it felt great. I must admit, though, that at that time I was concerned what my partners and other people thought. And they thought I was crazy.”

"For a few years, I relished in having time to do what I had always wanted to do: I had time for the kids, for church service, for working with youth, for sports and volunteer work. I was reasonably satisfied; however, I felt that I wasn't leveraging my skills. That’s when I became aware of Jim’s idea for Legacy. It was brilliant, but still early in development, and I could help build and mold the concept, increasing its impact over time. I have a great friend and partner in the business, Russ Hall. We are convinced we have the best jobs on this planet."

"At Legacy Venture the financial mission is to place money of our philanthropic investors with the best venture firms in the country. The investors have become a fascinating, unique community sharing causes, philanthropic best prac-tices, and encouraging each other to become better, more effective, more impactful givers."

"Our investors are pretty much the “who's who” of successful business people in Silicon Valley - the Cisco, Yahoo, Google and eBay guys. They are very passionate people. It is a great honor to work with and for them. They wish to be much more than check-book philanthropists. They become highly engaged in the projects supported, bringing their talents and skills as well as their dollars to help non-profits scale and become more effective. It is wonderful to see that passion in their eyes.”

"I love the quote by Albert Schweitzer: “I do not know what your destiny will be, but the one thing I know: The only ones among you who will really be happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” I see that every day!”

“I also have the rare privilege of working with the most incredible non-profit leaders. They are the true entre-preneurs of our world – social entrepreneurs using their passion and faith to make the world a better place. When I can connect them with generous, talented philanthropists, the combination has such incredible power for good.”

“There are similarities and differences between my previous VC work and my work today; the profit-oriented entre-preneurs often have stronger management talents, more resources and have the advantage of easier to measure goals. But the best social entrepreneurs make up for what they lack with passion, faith, and nothing can stop me attitude. When Legacy can help introduce greater re-sources and some of the missing management skills, the combination is unbeatable. I’m frequently reminded in my work of the wonderful statement by Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.””

"When it comes to people I now work with, the “jerk ratio” today is so much more favorable than during my VC times."

"People are really looking for a way to begin tapping into something meaningful in their lives."

"You can do some good as a lone soldier, but it is much better to use leverage of others, harnessing their good-ness, their passion, and their talents.”

"Life is fairly short. It's terribly sad to watch old people still desperately trying to make more money."

"My satisfaction today comes from being able to interface with incredible people - both on the investor side and on the side of the organizations they support through us."

"It greatly matters what you will look back on when lying on your death bed. Can you imagine anyone saying, “Oh, if only I had spent more time in the office.'"

"I very much believe in the capitalist system; I still believe that it does more good than bad. Legacy uses the purest part of that system, entrepreneurs and venture capital, to do good."

"Before you do something truly meaningful, you first need to be fit yourself. My personal philosophy is: First make sure you are OK. Second priority should ALWAYS be your family. And irrespective of your religious beliefs, the third priority is your fellow men which I think is simply a broader definition of your family.”

"We need to do more to make people think about the world as a whole planet, a place were we are literally brothers and sisters. Those of us blessed enough to have more than we need, should recognize a stewardship, an absolute responsibility to use our resources to help and serve our broad family."

“I wish to be one small catalyst that encourages others to make the move to do something meaningful."

Some background on Chris Eyre:
Chris Eyre is Managing Director of Legacy Venture. He was a founding partner of Merrill Pickard Anderson & Eyre, the pioneering venture firm that evolved from Bank of America in the 70’s. He has served on the boards of numerous public and private companies and has been an eyewitness to the revolution in venture capital and entre-preneurship.
Chris did step back from originating venture investments for some time to spend more time as a father of a large family and engage in philanthropic and non-profit activities. He has worked extensively with youth in a teaching and counselling role. In his church, he served for five years as the lay minister of a congregation.
Legacy has allowed him to combine his business, volunteer, and philanthropic worlds into one. He is an inaugural member of the Philanthropic Workshop West (TPW), a fellow with the American Leadership Forum, a partner of SVP Bay Area, on the board of Benetech, and a member of several other orga-nizations dedicated to advancing the field of philanthropy. Chris holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Utah State University.

Some background on Legacy Venture:
Legacy Venture was conceived and founded by Jim Ander-son, a co-founder of two prominent venture firms, Merrill Pickard Anderson & Eyre (MPAE) and Foundation Capital. Russ Hall joined Jim at the end of 1999 to bring the Legacy dream to reality. They raised the first fund of $40 million comprised entirely of individual investors. Chris Eyre, a former partner with Jim at MPAE, joined in early 2001 to further expand Legacy’s vision.
Legacy’s innovative model is a philanthropic fund-of-funds. It invests in a select group of premier venture capital firms that, in turn, invest in promising early-stage companies. Highly sought after, these funds are accessible to only a small circle of investors. Legacy has attained access to these funds by virtue of its personal relationship with gene-ral partners, its philanthropic mission, and the contacts Legacy investors themselves bring to the organization. The diversified basket of several hundred exciting companies from the best venture firms offers Legacy investors a way to achieve superior returns at reduced risk. This asset class has played a prominent role in the strong returns and growth of large foundations and top university endowments.
As these venture-backed companies prosper and go public or are acquired, distributions flow back to foundation investors or to the non-profit organizations chosen by individual in-vestors. Assuming historical venture returns, taxable inves-tors may well see that the tax benefits of donating highly appreciated investments will exceed their original invest-ment.
Legacy Venture II, a $62 million fund, includes individuals, entrepreneurial foundations, and non-profits. Legacy Venture III with similar investor composition was raised at the end of 2004 and is capped at $110 million in size. Legacy IV is expected to be $200 million.

If you would like to engage with the work of Chris Eyre or get to know more about Legacy Venture please visit www.legacyventure.com, or, for more specific opportuni-ties, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.