Brandeis Magazine

Nearly a decade before COVID-19, angel investor Dan Scheinman ’84, P’17, made a bet that would help people stay connected during the lockdown: He wrote Zoom founder Eric Yuan the first check his startup ever received — before hearing a formal pitch.

The rest is history. Zoom, now a publicly traded company valued at around $25 billion, brought millions together during the pandemic and changed the way we work.

Earlier in his career, Scheinman, a politics major at Brandeis who earned a JD at Duke University in 1987, had spent nearly two decades as a corporate executive and legal counsel at Cisco Systems, where he spearheaded more than 40 acquisitions.

He left the networking giant in 2011 after it restructured and eliminated the group he led. He knew he still wanted to build things, but he was ready to do it differently. Working as a venture capitalist, “I could back the people and the ideas I believed in,” he says, “even if everyone else thought they were crazy or boring.”

The same year Scheinman left Cisco, he met Yuan.

Scheinman, who continues to play an active role in Zoom’s governance, has developed a distinctive investment strategy he describes as “contrarian.” The approach favors seasoned founders over wet-behind-the-ears first-timers, disruptive technologies that fundamentally reshape industries, and “unloved” markets dismissed as saturated or boring.

An early backer of Arista Networks, he watched that networking startup grow into a $170 billion company simply by building a better product.

“The [venture capital] process involves pairing great founders with capital to create iconic companies,” Scheinman explains.

All told, the early-stage companies he’s seeded — including Zoom, Arista and the cybersecurity firm SentinelOne — have collectively created more than $200 billion in market value. He generally stays engaged as a hands-on board member to help the companies scale.

In addition to quantitative evaluation skills, Scheinman says, successful startup investors need to have high emotional intelligence.

That’s why, in a 2019 post on X (then known as Twitter), he reminded fellow venture capitalists that empathy matters: “Being an angel investor has lots of highs and lows. The reality is whatever I go through is 1/100th of what founders do. I can go home and sleep and never have to worry about payroll, recruiting or culture. Being a founder is by far the harder journey. Never forget.”

What was your idea of perfect happiness when you were at Brandeis?

I loved being in the classroom. The Brandeis idea of putting brilliant professors in front of small groups of smart, ambitious students always struck me as the right idea.

Who was your favorite Brandeis professor?

I have two: politics professor Steve Burg and historian Alice Kelikian. Both were brilliant teachers. Both cared deeply about their students.

Where did you usually spend Saturday night?

Nerd alert! When I was not grinding (which was needed), I really liked hanging out in Cambridge and in Boston.

What three words of advice would you give to current Brandeis students?

Take intellectual risks. And if I can sneak in a second one: Embrace computer science.

If you could go back to college, what would you do differently?

I would push myself to take more classes I was curious about. I also wish I had been less GPA-focused.

If you could be any other Brandeisian, who would it be?

Brandeis founder and first president Abram Sachar, H’68. I really like learning from people who build things.

What is the most important value you learned at Brandeis?

I learned so many lessons: Ask questions. Be intellectually ambitious. Be scrappy. There are a lot of smart people in the world — learn from them. Pre-GPS, do not ever trust Bostonians with directions. If you are going to drink, stick to beer.

What was the most important shortcut you learned in college?

Getting your foot in the door is key to getting the rest of you through that door. Brandeis taught me how to get a foot in the door by asking good questions and listening to the answers.

Which talent did Brandeis help you develop most?

I came to Brandeis from a California public high school that was good but not particularly ambition-friendly. Brandeis helped me develop my work ethic and ambition.

What do you wish you had studied harder?

A language. Today in Silicon Valley, I’m in a lot of rooms in which I’m the only monolingual person. Everyone has to speak in English because of my gap.

Which deadly sin is your middle name?

Gluttony.

Whom would you like to sing a duet with?

Liam Gallagher, of Oasis.

What would your friends say is your greatest strength?

My rakish good looks.

What would your friends say is your greatest weakness?

My lack of self-awareness.

What is your blind spot?

People who are good talkers.

What book do you read again and again?

I’m not a re-reader, but two good books I recently finished are the novel “Perspective(s),” by Laurent Binet, and the memoir “The Lost Café Schindler,” by Meriel Schindler.

What movie changed your life?

“Broadcast News.”

Which possession do you most like to look at?

My World Series rings, from being part of the San Francisco Giants ownership group.

Which bad break was your biggest blessing?

Failing at my law firm job.

If you could climb into a time machine, whom would you like to hang out with?

Winston Churchill.

On your deathbed, what will you be most grateful for?

A wonderful family.