Joe Montana

Joe Montana, whose full name is Joseph Clifford Montana, was born on June 11, 1956, in New Eagle, Pennsylvania, United States.⁠[1][2]

Montana attended the University of Notre Dame. In the 1979 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers selected him in the third round, 82nd overall.⁠[1][2]

Montana led the 49ers to victories in Super Bowls XVI, XIX, XXIII and XXIV (played in 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990), and was named Super Bowl MVP in XVI, XIX and XXIV.⁠[2][1]

In 1986 he returned to play 55 days after back surgery, after doctors had suggested he not play again.⁠[3]

In Super Bowl XXIII in Miami, Montana led a 92-yard game-winning drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass to John Taylor with 34 seconds left. Recalling the drive, he said, “I had to call everything about eight times and it took everything I had.”⁠[3][2]

Montana was named league MVP in 1989 and 1990, seasons in which the 49ers went 14–2 in the regular season; his 1989 passer rating of 112.4 was then an NFL record. In Super Bowl XXIV he completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and five touchdowns, then a Super Bowl record.⁠[3]

In the NFC Championship Game of the 1990 season, Montana was knocked out in the fourth quarter with a concussion, a bruised sternum and a broken finger, and the 49ers lost 15–13 to the New York GiantsNew York GiantsThe New York Giants are an NFL professional American football team founded in 1925 and competing in the NFC East. They have won eight league championships, including four Super Bowls, and have a long association with the Mara and Tisch families. The Giants share MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with the New York Jets. John Harbaugh became head coach in 2026.Open the full entry. An elbow injury then kept him out for 31 consecutive games until he came off the bench in the final game of the 1992 season and led the 49ers to a 24–6 win over the Detroit LionsDetroit LionsThe Detroit Lions are an NFL professional American football team whose predecessor, the Portsmouth Spartans, joined the league in 1930. The franchise moved to Detroit and adopted its current name in 1934. NFL champions in 1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957, the Lions now play at Ford Field in downtown Detroit, Michigan.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

In 1993 the 49ers gave the starting quarterback job to Steve Young, and Montana signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, reaching 3,000 career completions that year. He retired after the 1994 season.⁠[3]

Over his career Montana completed 3,409 of 5,391 passes (63.2 percent) for 40,551 yards, with 273 touchdown passes, 139 interceptions, a passer rating of 92.3 and 20 rushing touchdowns.⁠[2]

Montana co-founded HRJ Capital in 1998 and was a partner there until 2004; by 2004, the Liquid 2 Ventures team page states, the firm managed more than $900 million across venture funds, buyouts, hedge funds and real estate. In 2005 he co-founded Modern Bank and served on its board until 2010.⁠[4][5]

He then began angel investing under SV AngelSV AngelSV Angel is a San Francisco venture capital firm cofounded in 2009 by angel investor Ron Conway and former Google executive David Lee. It typically writes small follow-on checks in seed rounds and has invested in companies such as Airbnb, Pinterest, and Dropbox; in 2018 it said it would no longer raise new funds from outside investors, and from 2022 it set up growth funds.Open the full entry founder Ron Conway, backing companies including Pinterest, Dropbox, Weave, CoreOS, ShipBob, OpenListings (later acquired by Opendoor), Caliva and House Spirits.⁠[4][5]

Montana was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility as a member of the Class of 2000. He was selected to eight Pro Bowls and three first-team All-Pro teams, and is one of the 10 quarterbacks on the NFL 100 All-Time Team.⁠[3][2]

In 2015 Montana co-founded Liquid 2 Ventures, an early-stage venture firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area that focuses on seed-stage technology startups, with Michael Ma and Mike Miller; he serves as founding and managing partner and leads the core team. Ma co-founded TalkBin, part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2011 batch, and Miller co-founded Cloudant, which was acquired by IBMIBMIBM (International Business Machines Corporation) is an American information technology company, renamed in 1924 from the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R).Open the full entry.⁠[5][4]

Nate Montana joined Liquid 2 as an associate in 2016, was promoted to principal in 2017 and became a general partner in 2021.⁠[5]

On February 5, 2016, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry published the podcast episode “a16z Podcast: Football Meets Venture Capital,” in which Montana spoke with a16z general partner Jeff Jordan and co-founder Ben HorowitzBen HorowitzBen Horowitz is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and business author who co-founded Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with Marc Andreessen in 2009. He previously led Loudcloud’s transition into Opsware and its 2007 sale to Hewlett-Packard. His writing and investing address startup management, organizational culture and the relationship between technology and cultural industries.Open the full entry. The episode was produced as Super Bowl 50 came to Silicon Valley, when a16z hosted 30 professional football players to discuss how pro sports intersect with venture capital.⁠[6]

The three discussed their approaches to tech investing and the startup ecosystem, how they manage risk, and whether athletes and other high-profile people can and should invest in startups; the episode page names losing as the hardest thing for NFL legends and VCs alike. The episode was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019, under the title “a16z Podcast | Hall of Fame Football Meets Venture Capital.”⁠[6][7]

In October 2021 Montana discussed Liquid 2’s investment in the event-planning startup Joy in an interview with Fortune. He met Joy co-founder and CEO Vishal Joshi through Y Combinator, and Liquid 2 invested in Joy’s seed round when the platform had hosted only a few hundred weddings. “The problem was personal to them, and they were leaving leadership roles at Microsoft and Adobe to solve it,” he said.⁠[8]

Liquid 2 Ventures Fund III, L.P. closed in December 2021 at $80 million, above its $75 million target, and was announced on February 23, 2022. The press release states that the firm’s 2016-vintage Fund I and 2018-vintage Fund II had each returned more than 3x and together included 25 companies valued at over $1 billion.⁠[5]

Liquid 2 Ventures: Official website: https://www.liquid2.vc/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

X: Public account: https://x.com/JoeMontana (opens in a new window).⁠[4]