The Economic Times

In 1999, Ron Conway backed Google before its IPO. 5 years later, the search giant went public at a $23 billion valuation

Ron Conway heard about Google when it was still a Stanford project. The idea interested him, but getting close to the founders took months. Larry Page and Sergey Brin then gave him another hurdle: bring Sequoia to the table. Conway did. His story also explains why he studies founders closely, looking beyond an early product for focus, leadership and persistence.