Dr. Rajeev Motwani

Rajeev was a computer scientist based in Stanford University.  He was a mentor to Larry and Sergy who are the co-founders of Google. Rajeev gave the pair the challenge –the internet is not very searchable —  find a better way to search the internet — and from this Google was born.

In addition, Rajeev helped start, and was on the technical advisory board of, a number of other startups.

When I worked for Rajeev at Dot Edu Ventures, which he co-founded http://www.doteduventures.com, he was also an advisor to the DBAB venture capital fund at the time. This was in the 2000-2002 period. DBAB was also doing a lot of early stage deals as were we.

Here is a recent article about the passing of Rajeev:  http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/ron-conway-tribute-to-rajeev-motwani/19089951

There was a good interview of Rajeev by SILICON INDIA a few years ago…I’m searching for the link now and will post it when I find it.

The Dot Edu Ventures website is down — it claims too much bandwidth is being used basically. Probably a lot of people hitting the site now learning more about the fund and Rajeev. However, here is the firm overview for you:

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Transforming Good Technologies into Successful Businesses Dot Edu Ventures is formed around a unique, multi-university network of computer science and engineering faculty at top US universities. The firm provides seed funding along with strong technical and strategic support for early stage technology businesses. A large percentage of Dot Edu portfolio companies have been founded by graduate student and faculty entrepreneurs, and built in conjunction with leading venture firms in the Bay Area.

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