Title
Martin, Eff oral history
Catalog Number
102781040
Type
Moving image
Description
Eff Martin is a retired Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and a pioneering investment banker in the high-tech sector. In this oral history, he describes growing up in Oklahoma City, OK and attending Rice University, where he studied mechanical engineering. After graduating from Stanford Graduate School of Business, he worked at the investment banking firm Dean Witter for 10 years. Martin recounts accepting an offer to head up Goldman Sachs’ Silicon Valley branch in 1983. There, he helped found the firm’s High Technology business, focusing on young computer and disk drive startups rather than established giants. Though Martin’s group faced competition for IPOs from Morgan Stanley, they scored a major victory in 1986 by taking Microsoft public. Martin’s team worked with many other prominent Silicon Valley companies, including Juniper Networks and Sun Microsystems. During a difficult time for Apple, Martin helped the company secure enough operating cash to stay afloat through a well-timed convertible debenture. In addition to these successes, Martin describes deals he passed on or lost to other firms. His efforts to maintain good relationships with companies in the wake of rejection or failure often opened the door to future business deals with them. Several years after retiring from Goldman Sachs, Martin co-founded Anthos Capital, a venture capital firm. To close, Martin emphasizes that despite his career success, there is more to life than making money and winning at business.
Date
2019-01-28
Participants
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Hancock, Marguerite Gong, Interviewer
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Martin, Eff, Interviewee
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Publisher
Computer History Museum
Place of Publication
Mountain View, CA
Duration
02:19:31
Format
MOV
Category
Oral history
Collection Title
CHM Oral History Collection
Credit
Computer History Museum
