The NewSchools Venture Fund is a non-profit organization with a mission to "transform public education through powerful ideas and passionate entrepreneurs", support education entrepreneurs who are working to better serve disadvantaged children, and provide "thought leadership" to help bring about "broad systematic change" in public education. The NewSchools Venture Fund recently hit a milestone: It has raised $100 million, helped along by a big gift last summer that propelled it to the top of the heap among the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's education grantees. This article presents the brief history and the people behind the success of the NewSchools Venture Fund.