“He would have done anything for me,” Emily smiled, glowing, “and he still does.”
“Frankly, I got her on the rebound, after my best friend dumped her,” Isaac laughed, teasing her. “I never would have stood a chance, except that she needed a shoulder to cry on, and I have a very comfortable shoulder!”
Shortly after college, they were married. In 25 years of marriage, they have raised two children and live very comfortably in San Francisco, where Isaac (still obsessed with high tech) can be seen getting around town on a well-worn Segway, while using his Blackberry, and constantly talking on his cell (over his Bluetooth headset). Despite their affluence, and estimated net worth of over $50 million, the Leibowitz family tends to buy domestic cars. Mostly Chrysler mini-vans which can accommodate Isaac’s Segway. Neither are fans of conspicuous consumption, preferring to purchase travel experiences and useful technology tools, over jewelry or collectible artwork. Both espouse more liberal social and political beliefs, and tend towards activism rather than passive complaint.

“Our best friends in college are still our best friends,” Isaac states gratefully, “We’re very lucky to still have them in our lives.” Gratefulness and togetherness is a recurring theme in the Leibowitz family, with family and friends often working closely with them in overseeing their companies.

The Leibowitz clan takes time out for frequent world travel with family & close friends, recently taking a tour through Israel and the Middle East with about a dozen family members and close friends. Both raised in struggling middle-class Los Angeles families, neither experienced much travel growing up. Today, Isaac and Emily criss-cross the country and the globe, working together in their venture capital firm, which holds equity shares in a dozen cutting-edge technology companies. In their late 40’s, they’ve amassed enough money to retire (several times over), but both still enjoy the challenge and fast pace of high tech business.

Isaac, who was always a forward thinker, had the foresight and good fortune to choose a career in the right industry at the right time. Computer software in the 80’s was a field that was about to explode and change the world.
Isaac played no small part in the personal computer revolution. His company wrote a bit of software code that allows computers to communicate with each other. It’s a piece of software code, buried deep within the operating systems of most corporate computers, that Leibowitz receives a small royalty for each time the software is sold. “The royalty is just a just a handful of change, but put together few hundred thousand of those,” Isaac joked, “And you’re talking about some real money.”

These royalties, and the sale of a technology company, were the beginnings of the Leibowitz family wealth, and also the strategy they have employed, again and again, to continue to build their fortune. It’s the “build it once…sell it many times” approach that draws them to engage in serial entrepreneurship with high-risk, bleeding-edge technology firms, that reflect that model.

Both intend to continue working, but have dialed back their schedules recently to care for ailing parents. Their children, both in their early twenties, are also on their minds. So far, neither has chosen to follow their parents into the family business. “They really haven’t found their paths in life yet,” Emily shares, “We’re helping them to experience as much as they can of the world, so they can make good choices.”

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