From starting up businesses in Silicon Valley, to taking pictures of motor sports, Jonathan Heiliger has accomplished more than most people who graduated high school only 12 years ago. However, Heiliger did not graduate from any typical high school, he graduated from Paly.
“Looking back, Paly was the stereotypical high school experience,” said Heiliger as he recalls the stress, cliques, sports, and more that came with his time at Paly.
Heiliger was born in Redwood City and moved to Palo Alto in third grade. He went to elementary school at Fairmeadow Elementary School and then graduated up to JLS Middle School. “I was assigned to go to Gunn, however, knowing the strength of the education system as well as the caliber of the students at Paly, I petitioned to change schools.” Heiliger was able to change and attended Paly for the next four years.
Heiliger fondly remembers Senior Frolics, when seniors “let loose and got away with craziness the administration wouldn’t otherwise appreciate.”
Heiliger felt greatly influenced by two teachers during his time at Paly. Ron Williamson, Paly’s theater teacher at the time, had a great impact on Heiliger’s life.
“[Williamson] provided opportunities to engage my mind beyond schoolwork, by running the “tech” or behind the scenes aspect of the programs,” said Heiliger.
Kathy Erzberger also made a significant impact on Heiliger. Erzberger was head of the science department and set up and internship program for AP Physics and AP Chemistry students at Paly.
“Besides getting off campus, we were exposed to science in a real world environment that you would never equal in a classroom,” said Heiliger.
Heiliger feels his internship at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) helped him significantly with his current profession.
“Working at SLAC exposed me to computers and technology at large; I worked for the networking group at Stanford, which led to the commercialization of the Internet,” said Heiliger.
Heiliger also feels his work done on Yearbook and Campanile helped with his hobby as a photographer for motorsports.com.
Today, Heiliger has been a part of setting up several successful technology companies. His job as a venture capitalist is to “help build the management team, develop early product specifications, etc.”
Heiliger has been a significant part of many new companies in Silicon Valley.
“I recently joined Bubble Motion, a voice SMS pioneer,” said Heiliger. The company relocated it’s headquarters from Singapore to Silicon Valley and I’m charged with building the engineering, service delivery, operations and marketing departments.”
Heiliger stresses to the current Paly students that they follow the subjects they want, rather than what their teacher expects.
“Find what you love doing?. I surprised myself when I realized I’d found something I loved to do and could make money doing it,” Said Heiliger. “You not only have to learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others, but also from your successes and the successes of others. Often it’s more difficult to understand why something worked, than why something failed.”