McCombs Alumni Network News

Arnon Dinur, MBA ’99, spoke to McCombs about his post graduate experiences and how he manages to stay connected to McCombs from his home in Israel. He is a partner at Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm that specializes in early-stage investments and is a member of the planning committee for the upcoming MBA Class of ’99 10-year reunion, Oct. 9-11 in Austin.

What made you choose McCombs for your MBA education?

The combination of affordable cost, the school’s high-tech orientation and the city life style.

How do you manage to stay involved in the McCombs network from Israel?
 
It’s not very easy, although in today’s world, with RSS, web and e-mail, things are much easier.

You’re flying in from Israel to attend the 10-year reunion. What about the reunion motivates you to make such a long trip?
 
I kept in touch with a lot of people along the years, but still, seeing everyone again as a group, drinking the same beers together, seeing how everyone has changed, learning what they are up to and getting their perspective on what I do seems like a great experience and part of the reason I came to McCombs to begin with.

Has your career played out the way you expected when you were in school?

Not at all. Actually, over the last 10 years I learned that in such a volatile world the words “planning” and “career” simply don’t live together well.

Without any planning, I founded a start up while at school and raised money for that start up through one of the classes at school. Who could have planned that?!

As a result I found myself in the startup world, ending up as a venture capitalist, a word I barely knew when I came to Austin. In between I spent seven years at a publicly traded company (msystems) that was sold to another publicly traded company (SanDisk).

What bits of business wisdom do you try to abide by in your career?

I remember that the people I work with are fun to be with, and that even if we fail (and we all fail every once in a while…) it would be worth the ride. Always try to keep a healthy work-life balance; take it all easy and with humor, and remember there are much more important things in life than work and business. Keep things simple, and constantly deal with the important things and not the noise.

For more information on the MBA Class of 1999 reunion, visit http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/alumni/mma/reunion/.