C. Richard Crumrich, an early Silicon Valley investor and co-founded investor New Enterprise Associates, to help fuel the booming high-tech industry, passed away on Saturday at his San Francisco home. Ta. He was 89 years old.
His death was announced by the New Enterprise Associates.
With a career spanning over 50 years, Kramlich (pronounced Cram-Lick) was one of the earliest supporters of Apple computers. Software company Silicon Graphics and Macromedia. Also, computer networking companies Juniper Network and 3Com were founders invented Ethernet.
He co-founded his own company, New Enterprise Associates or NEA, building from the first $16 million fund in the 1970s to a fund that currently oversees nearly $26 billion in investments.
But he stood out among the sea of Silicon Valley swashbuckling investors for his bounty and kindness, said Scott Sandel, NEA's chief investment officer and executive chairman. “He believed that venture business was a HR business and acted accordingly,” he said.
Charles Richard Crumrich was born on April 27, 1935 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His father, Irvin Krumrich, was the grocery store that started a chain of 25 grocery stores that Kroger bought in 1955. His mother, Dorothy (Earl) Kramrich, was an aviation engineer who later oversaw the household.
When he was 13, Dick followed in the footsteps of his father's entrepreneurs and started his own “Little Light Valve Company,” he said in a 2015 interview with the Computer History Museum. “My dad encouraged me to do that if I spent my money, so I bought half the light bulbs of the train from Sylvania Corporation,” he sold again from his bedroom.
He added: “I'm from three generations of entrepreneurs. Once you get it with DNA, everything else is boring.”
He attended Northwestern University and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Russian History in 1957, serving at the Air Force's Strategic Aviation Command. After earning his master's degree from Harvard Business School, he went to work at Kroger and learned the investment ropes while working for a company in Boston.
In 1969, he was Arthur Rock & Co. I won the much-needed job. It was one of the first investment companies to place a risky bet on an unproven technology startup. He said in a 2015 interview he beat Locke in a 2015 interview, sending him a handwritten letter expressing his desire to find “a big life out there.”
In 1977 he started Nare with two investors he met in Boston, Chuck Newhall and Frank Bonsal. It took me over a year to persuade others to support the new fund, and during that time, Krumrich met a pair of entrepreneurs named Steve (Jobs and Wozniak).
Their company, Apple Computer, wasn't as good as the other two personal computer companies on the market, Kramlich said in 2015. However, their design and the sparks of the entrepreneurs were impressive. “They had pizzazz,” he said, “the other two were more engineering-oriented.”
He felt he had been forced to invest and spent his own money to do so. The payoff took place three years later in 1980 when Apple was released. That investment allowed Kramrich to purchase the 1927 Tudor House in San Francisco's Presidio Heights area. He created a bronze apple as a front yard doorknob, reminding him of a squeal. (Last year he listed the house for $19.5 million for sale.)
Soon he met Pamela Kay Palmer through a mutual friend. They got married in 1981.
Venture Capital Investing is designed to absorb many losses in pursuit of a single home run contract, leaving behind a cemetery of startups that failed along the way. But Krumrich was known for sticking to investments that others struggled with after they abandoned them.
“He once said, 'I'll never die,'” Sandel said.
In the early 1980s, Forethought, the startup behind PowerPoint software, was about to run out of money, and NEA partners refused to ponies more pony. So Clamrich convinces his wife that he should pause work at the home they had built in Stinson Beach and use cash instead to keep the company alive. Gamble was rewarded: In 1987, Microsoft bought Forethought for $14 million, and PowerPoint became one of the most famous software programs in the world.
Financial Engines, a NEA-backed investment advisor startup, took 18 years to go public and “goes through five different business models,” said Jeff Maggioncalda, the company's CEO. Nea added that he has been patiently holding the stock all the way through.
Thanks to that patience, and thanks to Mr. Crumrich's kindness, the CEO he fired or threatened never stopped him from wanting to work with him.
“People don't quit their relationship with Dick in anger,” said Jame Schlark, founder of computer software and hardware company Silicon Graphics. “He's a fundamentally good guy.”
In 2002, Kramlich told Maggioncalda that if things don't change, they'll be pushed out by the end of the year. However, Kramlich's streaming affected trust rather than fear, Maggioncalda recalls. The company recovered, and Maggion Carda led it through its first public offer in 2010.
After Kramlich retired from NEA in 2012, he continued to pursue his passion for art collection. He and Kramrich were one of the first private collectors to focus on new media as they emerged as artforms in the late 1980s, and were extensively emphasizing audio and computer art, video, film and photography slides. I've accumulated a collection. The video and installation collection has grown to over 300. Very large, three-level houses were built and displayed in Napa Valley.
In addition to Crumrich, he is survived by two children, Christina and Richard Crumrich. stepdaughter, Mary Donna Meredith; and six grandchildren. His son, Peter, passed away in 2024. Mr. Crumrich married Deborah (Derbrow) Crumrich, who divorced in 1966, and Lynn (Shamburger) Crumrich, who died in 1981.
After resigning, Kramlich continued to mentor founders and investors. He also started a new company, Green Bay Ventures, along with liquefied natural gas entrepreneur Anthony Schiller. The company's investments include Databricks, an AI data company. Dropbox is a file storage company. Xiaomi from Consumer Electronics Company.
In a statement, Schiller said he had worked together for 12 years, and he learned a lot from Krumrich.
“There's a lot of obvious recognition about Dick's legendary career,” he said. “But he was as extraordinary as a person. He taught me about dreaming of great loyalty, pride and integrity.”
