But for McCourtney, 61, sticking with gravely ill portfolio companies is simply part of the Venrock ethos.
Another 65% of returns are what Venrock considers to be mediocre--triple the original investment.
Venrock is poaching Kocher from McKinsey, where he led the McKinsey Center for Health Reform.
Update: This was a huge coup for Venrock, the only institutional investor on the deal.
Its investors include Kleiner Perkins, Caufield Byers, Venrock, Oracle Investment Management and Deerfield Capital.
How spectacularly Venrock fares once the dot.com craze cools remains to be seen.
Other investors include Venrock, NEA, and Dale Prouty, a software expert with NASA in his background.
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That's heady stuff for Venrock investors, including Rockefeller heirs and the endowments of Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford.
"Investors often have the herd mentality so funding will be affected, " notes Venrock Managing General Partner Bryan Roberts.
Venrock never sells stock in an initial offering, instead passing on the holdings to limited partners a year or so afterward.
Today, though, Venrock racks up startlingly high gains in an unimaginably compressed time frame--by acting entirely out of character.
Also in at the start was Venrock Capital partner Bryan Roberts, who introduced the two entrepreneurs and is board chairman.
The remainder of its funding came mainly from venture-capital firms such as Sevin Rosen Funds, Venrock and Oak Investment Partners.
"That was the difference between survival and bankruptcy" for AOL, says David Siminoff, an early investor and now a partner at Venrock.
But Venrock's recent roaring success has strained the firm in some ways.
Venrock is also kicking itself for rejecting CNet and Avid Technologies.
Underscoring the fast times, Venrock just lost one of its three Silicon Valley partners, Terence Garnett, who landed the firm's Neoforma and Niku investments.
His hire also follows recent news that Venrock poached Marissa Campise from Greycroft Partners to join its New York office as a vice president.
Venture capital firm Venrock is bringing on a new partner as it intensifies its pursuit of startups at the intersection of healthcare and technology.
Three general partners also represented Institutional Venture Partners and Venrock, one of the few firms to enjoy representation from both their IT and life sciences teams.
Matthew Nordan at the venture capital firm Venrock recently posted a good analysis of the reasons why many investors said goodbye to green tech investing and the impact of their shifted views.
By Brian Ascher, a partner at Venrock.
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Genband, which is based in Frisco, Texas, scored high marks due partly to its large fundraising haul from a mix of top venture capital, private equity and corporate investors, including One Equity Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Intel Capital, Oak Investment Partners, Siemens Venture Capital and Venrock.
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