Buddy Arnheim

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. It was a fantastic place to grow up. The ravines around my home were ripe for exploration, and the waters and Coho salmon of Lake Michigan beckoned my dad and me almost weekly. My mom, a fabulous cook, molded the foodie in me. In fact, as a Northsider, folks wondered why I favored the White Sox over the Cubs. It was the food at old Comisky.

My junior high and high school years were spent swimming. I was a long distance swimmer and water polo player, and my most vivid memories are mostly oriented around double practices that began well before sunrise and ended well into the evening. My math and science courses were also very impacting, as was my then highschool sweetheart and current wife.

I spent my undergrad at The Wharton School, with a short six month stint my junior year in Firenze. Right after undergrad, I returned to Illinois and attended the University of Illinois. Don't let anyone tell you the Farm is not exciting. I loved being at UofI, and I still have the privilege of visitng each Spring when I teach my one week intensive course on entrepreneurship, one of the most popular courses on campus.

Upon graduation, I began my legal career began at Altheimer & Gray in Chicago. It was a classic big firm in a big city, and I soon realized I needed something more entrepreneurial. So, after one year working for massive traditional industry clients, my wife and I packed up my Dodge Raider and headed to the Bay Area. We planned to stay for two years.

Twenty-two years later, we are still giving the Bay Area a try. I work in both Palo Alto and SF for Perkins Coie LLP, and live in the Penninsula with my wife, three daughters, dog and chickens.

My career has been exhilerating. I've had the privlege of working with some of the brightest and most creative entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. It started with the move from mainframe to client server computing and multi-media, and then the Internet dominated the subject matter of our startup clients. Today, I continue to have the good fortune to work with fabulous entrepreneurs, and have done one or two successful entrepreneurial ventures "on the side." I have also been making seed investments over the past 15 years, and have plenty of learnings (both positive and negative) from that exercise.

I love meeting creative, energetic people. You can always learn more!