Tony Tether

CEO, The Sequoia Group

Tony Tether

CEO, The Sequoia Group

Dr. Anthony J. Tether, also known as Tony, Ph.D., is the Chief Executive Officer at The Sequoia Group (TSG). He served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of The Sequoia Group from 1996 to 2001, which he founded in 1996. In 2009, Dr. Tether re-formed The Sequoia Group (TSG). Dr. Tether has been Senior Strategic Advisor at Zero Gravity Solutions, Inc. since November 2013. He is a Member of Advisory Board at NextWave Venture Partners, LLC. From 1994 to 1996, he served as the Chief Executive Officer at Dynamics Technology Inc. From 1992 to 1994, Dr. Tether served as a Vice President of Science Applications International Corporation’s (SAIC) Advanced Technology Sector and then a Vice President and General Manager for Range Systems at SAIC. Prior to this, he served for six years as a Vice President for Technology and Advanced Development at Ford Aerospace Corp. Dr. Tether held positions in the Department of Defense, serving as a Director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Strategic Technology Office from 1982 to 1986 and 2001 to 2009. Dr. Tether was responsible for management of the Agency’s projects for high-payoff, innovative research and development. He was a Director of National Intelligence in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1978 to 1982. He served as an Executive Vice President of Systems Control Inc. from 1969 to 1978, where Dr. Tether applied estimation and control theory to military and commercial problems with particular concentration on development and specification of algorithms to perform real-time resource allocation and control. He serves as the Chairman of Board of Advisors at Kinsey Technical Services Inc. He has been an Outside Director of North American Board at Adacel Technologies Limited since April 19, 2011. He serves as Member of Advisory Board of DB Climate Change Advisors and Irvine Sensors Corp. Dr. Tether serves as a Member of Advisory Board at SYNEXXUS Inc., Scientific Systems Company, Inc. and Crocus Technology SA. He serves as a Member of Advisory Board at IDSS Holdings, Inc. He has been a Director of Sigma Space Corporation since November 2010. Dr. Tether has been a Director of Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation since July 2009 and Qteros, Inc. since May 2009. He serves as a Director of MaxID Corp. He served as a Director at Tessera Technologies Inc. from August 10, 2011 to June 7, 2013. Dr. Tether served as the Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency from June 18, 2001 to 2009. He is a Director of Tessera MEMS Technologies, Inc. Dr. Tether served as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Intermolecular, Inc. He served as a Member of Technical Advisory Board at ISC8 Inc. He has served on Army, Navy and Defense Science Boards and on the Office of National Drug Control Policy Research and Development Committee. Dr. Tether is a Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In 1986, Director Central Intelligence Bill Casey and the Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger honored him with the National Intelligence Medal and the Department of Defense Civilian Meritorious Service Medal respectively. In 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates honored him with the Department of Defense Outstanding Public Service Medal and in 1986 he was honored with both the National Intelligence Medal and the Department of Defense Civilian Meritorious Service Medal. Dr. Tether is listed in several Who’s Who publications. He is a distinguished fellow with the Council on Competitiveness in Washington D.C. He received an M.S. in 1965 and a Ph.D. in 1969 in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964.

Consideration

With 2021 well underway and with public markets still strong, we think it is an important time to highlight some of the key private market, venture investment themes that iSelect fund has identified for the year. We believe technologies transforming the Agriculture, Food and Wellness markets will flourish, with a focus on four areas: technologies that enable better food choices to drive better health outcomes, technologies that drive better, more profitable farm operations, technologies that drive the Consumerization of Healthcare, and biome-based treatment technologies. At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We offer qualified investors access to emerging growth companies through our national venture capital strategy. Our unique structure allows our investors to continue to invest in these companies as they develop.

Timing

Why is now the right time for venture? The answer is that now is not explicitly the right time. Venture is something we need in our economy at all times. Now is not better than any other particular time. The question is, why ever stop? When we look at the challenges we’re facing in food and healthcare the reality is there is someone, somewhere who has an insight about how to build a product that will solve those problems. And if they put the right resources to it, they will succeed. As long as we need new technology to make life better or make our lives more enjoyable, we need venture capital to help fuel those entrepreneurs.

What is iSelect as a product?

iSelect is a very unique product, but when you break it into its parts it’s fairly easy to understand. On the front end we’re a traditional venture capital fund. We have a diligence process. We have an investment process. We have categories of industries where we have focus and real expertise, and we invest in companies in those areas that meet requirements for the fund. On the back end we’re unique in that we don’t raise a large amount of capital at one time and deploy it over the life of our fund. Each deal that we bring onto the fund, our investors have to prove and determine to invest in that deal. We have to constantly prove our diligence standards. It’s accessible, transparent and easy for investors to come in and see our comprehensive process.

What is the ideal iSelect company?

We are looking for founders that are passionate and we want the problem they’re trying to solve to be big, real, and painful. We want the solution to be revolutionary and we want our capital to be able to help them solve that problem. We want to know that they have customers involved and that the solution they’ve come up with actually meets those customers’ and market needs. And we want the team to be capital efficient with the money they’re spending.

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

We’re looking for a company that has an opportunity to have a 10x return to our investment or greater in a period of three to seven years. What excites us at iSelect are companies that are solving big problems. We want companies that are going to be the Monsantos of the future. Not just in the size and the scope, but the impact they have on people’s lives. We want to create positive impacts on people’s lives, so we invest in areas like agricultural production and areas like producing healthy foods for our kids. They are problems that impact real people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s what we’re trying to do at iSelect. We’re trying to solve the big problems out there. Find ways to bring capital to the entrepreneurs who are the real heroes out there getting up every morning, beating away at these things that are problems that you and me and everyone else faces in their everyday lives.

What is iSelect?

iSelect is a venture capital firm. What that means is we look at hundreds and hundreds of different companies and we apply tough diligence standards to each of them, looking at whether the team has a good plan for growing the business, whether the team is qualified and credible, and more. We do that to resolve the few who provide the best opportunities for investors. And then iSelect takes that smaller set of investments and goes to investors who are interested in venture capital and provides a way for them to invest in these companies, either individually or all at once. We co-invest alongside other venture capitalists. We source transactions through to an exit where the company would become public or get bought. And we manage that whole investment process on behalf of our investors.