Sandy Miller sat down in a panel during Casual Connect USA 2014 to talk about investing. “One thing that really interests me is productivity,” he said. “Small teams being highly productive.”
Sandy Miller is a general partner at Institutional Venture Partners, a company he joined in 2006. He focuses on later-stage venture and growth equity investments in technology, internet, and digital media companies. He has more than thirty-five years of experience in venture capital and technology investment banking.
A History Of Success
His most successful investments to date have been social gaming companies Supercell, ngmoco and Zynga, where Institutional Venture Partners was an early investor.
In February 2013, Miller co-led the $130 million round for Supercell. In October 2013, Softbank and GungHo, both Japanese firms, partnered to purchase 51 percent of all outstanding equity in Supercell at $3 billion valuation.
In December 2009, Miller led the $25 million round for ngmoco, a leading publisher of social games for the iPhone, founded by experienced former Electronic Arts executives led by Neil Young. ngmoco was acquired by the Japanese social and mobile gaming publisher, DeNA, for $400 million in October 2010. DeNA’s purpose was to strengthen its international presence and extend its capabilities on smartphone platforms.
At Zynga, Miller co-led the $29 million Series B in July 2008 and was active through its IPO in 2011.
He has also led investments in AddThis, Carbonite (IPO 2011), Care.com (IPO 2014), Constant Contact, Data Domain (which was acquired by EMC Corp. for 2.4 billion in 2009), Datalogix, Fleetmatics (IPO 2009), LiveOps, OnDeck, One Kings Lane, Prosper, and Vonage (IPO 2006).
Previously, he opened and ran tech banking in San Francisco for DLJ and Merrill Lynch, ran tech banking at Montgomery Securities and was a co-founder of Thomas Weisel Partners. As an investment banker and venture capitalist, he has handled more than 100 IPOs.
In his time away from his work, he has used his expertise in support of more than twenty-five public, private and philanthropic organizations. Currently, he serves as a board member of the Cantor Art Center at the Stanford University Art Museum and at the Art Museum of the University of Virginia, where he previously served as a college trustee. He has also been a trustee and board member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Stanford Law School, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the American Conservatory Theater and Grace Episcopal Cathedral.
Miller was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the top 100 venture capitalists in the world; he is one of only nine venture capitalists who have included on all of the Forbes Midas lists since 2007. He is now looking for the next great gaming company to invest in.
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