The billionaire strolled into the three-star restaurant on New York\u2019s Upper East Side wearing a wrinkled tan suit and loafers in desperate need of a shine. That was the first clue that Michael Moritz, 72, wasn\u2019t your typical Silicon Valley rich guy. It wouldn\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n
Of late, Moritz\u2014the former chairman of Sequoia Capital, who is worth an estimated $7.6 billion<\/a>\u2014has been using some of that wealth to help revive San Francisco, the city he calls home. Last month, he announced a competition<\/a> offering up to $50 million to as many as three organizations that have ideas to make the city better. But before we get to his noblesse oblige, an explanation of what came first\u2014well, besides the fact that, after ordering tea (for him) and cabernet (for me), we both recalled the time I interviewed him early in his venture capital career for a story about Steve Jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Moritz had also once been a journalist, a correspondent for Time magazine before joining the venture ranks in 1986, investing in companies such as Google, PayPal, and YouTube. You make bets like that, you get rich. And if you use some of that money on philanthropy and \u201cpromoting Britain\u2019s economic interests,\u201d you can get a knighthood<\/a>, which Moritz achieved in 2013.<\/p>\n