The entrepreneur's VC firm was involved in backing some of the most famous technology firms of the age.

Don Valentine, who founded the renowned Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital, has died at the age of 87 at his home in California.

The VC entrepreneur’s firm is responsible for minting a large number of high net worth individuals and his business model has been copied and studied around the world. 

Valentine worked in California’s Silicon Valley for almost four decades. His business has backed big-hitters in the tech space such as Oracle, Cisco, Microchip Technology, Linear Technology, and Network Appliance. One of his funds invested in Atari, the pioneering videogame company started by Nolan Bushnell, and in Apple Computer, a company started by a onetime Atari employee, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who later went on to build Apple. Valentine served on the boards of Atari and Apple.

Valentine graduated from Fordham University before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for Fairchild Semiconductor, one of the earliest technology start-ups that ultimately spun off computing giants Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, and National Semiconductor. 

In a tribute to Valentine, Sequoia Capital wrote: "In his later years Don was a ready source of advice for those who stopped by his office and, unlike most former leaders, resisted the temptation to criticize decisions which he considered misguided or to meddle in the business. Ever curious, he relished spending time with young people brimming with ideas about the future. His family and friends and those who spent decades working with him harbor a trove of affectionate memories of the quirks and habits of a man who favored green ink, never drank coffee, listened carefully, understood the virtues of silence, built the foundation on which so many have the good fortune to stand, and insisted that the ultimate test for every startup was a thoughtful answer to his perpetual question about its quest, `Who cares?'".