Just ask Alan Austin, who found himself sitting beside Silver Lake Partners founder Glenn Hutchins on a New YorktoSan Francisco flight last fall. “We talked about what I did and about the position they were trying to add,” recalls Austin, 54. The job sounded remarkably similar to Austin’s -- he was then general partner and chief operating officer of Palo Alto, Californiabased Accel Partners, which, like many Silicon Valley venture capital firms, was significantly slowing its investment pace. Thus began a six-month courtship by Hutchins and another Silver Lake partner, David Roux. “I said no, but they kept after it,” says Austin, who had spent three years at Accel after 13 years with Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Last month he moved over to Silver Lake. Accel makes relatively small early-stage investments; Silver Lake does fewer but bigger deals, such as its $200 million March investment in contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics. Such complex transactions take Austin back to his days as a securities lawyer. “These types of deals are very interesting, and I’ll have a lot of fun,” he says. He’ll also save precious time. The drive from Austin’s home in Atherton to Silver Lake’s offices on Menlo Park’s Sand Hill Road takes only five minutes; Accel was 15 minutes away. The commute, Austin says, has gone “from good to great.”
