David Turner Morgenthaler (August 5, 1919 – June 17, 2016) was an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur best known for founding a leading investment firm and for his role in reshaping public policy that affected the venture capital industry. Over a career spanning several decades he combined company building with active advocacy for a regulatory environment more favourable to risk capital and innovation.

Early in his business life Morgenthaler established the firm that would bear his name, Morgenthaler Ventures, which became associated with financing technology and growth-oriented enterprises. His firm provided startup and expansion capital at a time when institutional sources of equity for young companies were limited, helping to define practices for venture investing and fund management that later became widely adopted.

Policy work and industry influence

Morgenthaler is widely credited with helping to secure two pivotal changes affecting investment in young companies. In the late 1970s he advocated for a significant reduction in the top U.S. capital gains tax rate, a move that encouraged more investment in higher-risk opportunities. He also played an important part in the effort to amend pension regulations under ERISA so that corporate and public pension funds could allocate a portion of their assets to venture capital vehicles. These changes broadened the sources of long-term capital available to startups and growth companies.

Beyond those legislative issues, Morgenthaler was active in industry organizations and in mentoring younger investors and entrepreneurs. Colleagues and successors credit him with helping to professionalize venture capital as an asset class and with fostering networks that connected inventors, managers and institutional investors. For readers seeking a fuller biographical account, see a concise external biography here.

Although his name is most closely associated with investing and policy, Morgenthaler's influence is also felt in the many firms and founders who benefited from early-stage capital and from the expanded pool of institutional investors that followed the changes he supported. He was born in Chester, South Carolina (Chester) and died in Cleveland, Ohio in 2016 at the age of 96.

  • Founding role: Established a long-running venture firm that helped finance technology and growth companies.
  • Policy impact: Instrumental in changes to capital gains taxation and ERISA rules that increased available venture capital.
  • Industry development: Advocated for professional standards and wider institutional participation in venture investing.
  • Legacy: Remembered for blending investment practice with public advocacy to expand entrepreneurship funding.

The combination of private investment activity and public-policy engagement made David Morgenthaler a notable figure in the history of American venture capital. His career illustrates how changes in law and finance can widen the pathways through which new companies secure the capital needed to develop ideas into businesses.