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Pishevar: Benchmark ousting Travis Kalanick was one of worst VC decisions ever

Shervin Pishevar · Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jan 13, 2025 · at 54:39

Shervin Pishevar, early Uber investor, reflects on Benchmark Capital's decision to oust Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick in 2017.

0:00 / 0:07exact quote · 7.7s
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“I believe that it was, you know, one of the worst venture, ah, decisions ever.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Shervin Pishevar

Opinion
Pishevar: Bill Gurley was the wrong VC on Uber's board
“We had the wrong venture capitalists on the board. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it was Bill Gurley at Benchmark.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 0:17 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Contradicted
Pishevar: Bill Gurley hired PIs and met weekly to oust Travis Kalanick
“We found out in our investigation that he hired Some private investigators had weekly meetings about how do we get rid of Travis.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 0:24 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Contradicted
Pishevar: Benchmark Hired Private Investigators Against Naval Ravikant
“There's a history of VCs who have done this type of thing and in Benchmark's case, they did it against Naval. They hired private investigators and Naval Ravikant. He had a company called eGroups, and he got thrown out of it.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 57:39 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Pishevar names Benchmark as the most overhyped VC firm
“Benchmark.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 1:19:57 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Pishevar: Fusion GPS gave a fake police report to Fast Company
“We found out an investigation that two weeks after I won the case founding Partner of Fusion GPS was sitting at a cafe in DC with a reporter from Fast Company with a memory stick and a fake police report from London about me. And they gave it to the reporter.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 44:23 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Pishevar: Uber would be worth $1T if Travis Kalanick stayed
“I believe if Travis and Emil had stayed at Uber, Uber would be a trillion-dollar company by now.”
Shervin Pishevar Jan 13, 2025 ▶ 48:33 Shervin Pishevar: What Really Happened in the Firing of Travis Kalanick | E1245 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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