The Ledger
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Top VCs on a Cap Table Primarily Serve as Hiring Signals
“So, to start, I will say that I think it is very true that one of the most important things that great investors do for you is Is that they make other people want to join your company. And so for better or for worse, if you have miles from thrive or say benchm…”
Vishria: Benchmark always takes a board seat in its investments
“We take the board seat, we aim and aspire to be the entrepreneur's first call. That's a standard we hold ourselves to.”
An infrastructure revolution will power the next wave of consumer platforms
“These things are very cyclical, and again, this is overly simplistic, but I think we're in the midst of a infrastructure revolution. Maybe it's around ML, maybe it's around cloud, maybe it's some combination of these things that are coming together, and there …”
Vishria: Benchmark relies on a partner advocacy and voting system for investments
“Our investment process is one of advocacy of voting. So basically, there is an advocate. So one of the five of us falls in love with something, is probably the best way to describe it gets really excited about the entrepreneur and the opportunity All five of u…”
Volpi: Benchmark proves VC success doesn't require heavy firm services
“I do think that firms like Andreessen and Kleiner and Greylock have done a phenomenal job building services organizations. And there is no question that there is value in doing that. And then there are other firms like say benchmark who have done a terrific jo…”
Benchmark: Snapchat was 12 people in a dining room at Series A
“When we invested in the Series A, the company was essentially a dozen people camping out in the dining room of Evan's dad's house in Los Angeles.”
Fenton: Startup CEOs should replace PowerPoint with prose pre-reads for board meetings
“So a huge part of what I've done is encourage all my CEOs to move to a pre-read that's written in prose format, not PowerPoint.”
Fenton: Socratic questioning by board members is more effective than being didactic
“Onto a pretty steep learning curve, and I've ultimately concluded the Socratic method is far more effective than being didactic, so meaning Socratic of the form where you're inquisitive, asking questions, but really in your mind synthesizing, what are the two …”
Fifth Wall will not compete with Benchmark, Sequoia, or Lightspeed
“And we're not going to compete, obviously, with Benchmark and Sequoia and Lightspeed.”
Kimball: Benchmark operates with equal partner ownership and no support staff
“There's no more opposite approach in the industry than the one that Benchmark takes, for example. And this is a very small VC fund, you know, not necessarily in dollars, although it's not, it's by far not the largest. But, you know, it's a small number of part…”
Belsky: Venture capital is fundamentally a business of exceptions
“Venture capital and investing in general is a business of exceptions, and whenever you talk to any seasoned investor about some of their greatest hits, you know, they'll tell you that the Team didn't look right, or the market seemed too small, or, you know, th…”
Belsky: I cannot see myself being a traditional VC long-term
“Also realized pretty quickly that I could not see myself being a traditional VC for the next 10 to 15 years.”
Top-tier Series A firms like Sequoia and Benchmark won't change models
“I think if you are a traditional series A and beyond VC, you're probably going to do okay if you're really value-add to the Sequoias and the benchmarks of the world. I don't really see them changing their model much at all, because it works really well.”
Morton: Lyst would not exist without my Benchmark VC experience
“It was an incredibly valuable two years, which, you know, if we, if I hadn't done that, I don't think List would exist today.”
Kaden: Union Square Ventures and Benchmark prove small fund sizes work best
“I think one of the things I admire about Union Square and Benchmark is they've kept the fund sizes small and focused and we are big proponents of small fund sizes and focus at Maveron too, so I look to them for a lot of guidance.”
Soltero: Hyperic bootstrapped two years before Accel/Benchmark funding and $420M exit
“We ended up bootstrapping Hyperic actually for two years before we raised money ultimately from Excel and Benchmark who were great investors. And helped us take this thing to you know, ultimately a four hundred and twenty million dollar acquisition by VMware, …”
Moffat: VC firms must commit to a distinct organizational model
“And I think all three of those models are valid. And I think every VC has to look at those and work out what makes sense for them, but they do need to make a clear decision on what their approach is going to be.”
Randle: Each Benchmark GP holds a 25% equal stake in the firm
“Like each of us is 25% of benchmark, and we work really well together, and we're a super tight-knit team, but each of us has our own styles.”
Everett Randle joins Benchmark as GP from Founders Fund
“Topic number one, Everett Randall joins Benchmark. Benchmark don't add partners very often. It's a big news announcement that he's joining. Joins Benchmark as their latest GP. He was with Kleiner and he was with Founders Fund before.”
Lazarte: Benchmark's current venture fund size is $600 million
“It's actually a six hundred million dollar fund.”
Hiremath: Mercor's board consists only of its co-founders and Benchmark
“It's, you know, Brendan, Suri, and I, and Benchmark on the board.”
Benchmark invested $10M in Uber at $50M valuation in 2011
“Benchmark invested in March, 2011 at a, I believe it was a fifty million dollar pre-money valuation. They put ten million in.”
Benchmark has met several AI medical scribe startups but passed on all
“I've met several of these companies over the years and we haven't invested in any.”
Vishria: Sponsoring partner at Benchmark decides whether to call deal votes
“We have a system where, like, we talk, and then, like, you can call, like, the sponsoring partner basically can call for a vote or not.”
Grimshaw: Benchmark invested in LangChain, Cerebras, and ex-PyTorch leads
“Obviously with investment in Langtrain and we have a few others at Benchmark Cerebrus, which is you know, an AI chip for training and inference. We backed a team that worked on and was the leads of PyTorch and has got a new company and some others.”
Jordan: Benchmark Originally Invested in eBay as a Collectibles Marketplace
“When Benchmark wrote the joint, Bob Cagle and Benchmark wrote the check, he was investing in a collectibles marketplace.”
Fenton: Benchmark backed New Relic when it was just founder Lou Cirne
“If you look at the Series A, there were four people. Now, of course, we committed to Lou, and it was just Lou.”
Fenton: Benchmark typically maintains board commitments for 12 years
“In the case of New Relic, I was on that board for 12 years. That's a pretty standard commitment for us.”
Benchmark's Bruce Dunleavy is the biggest gentleman in venture capital
“The guy is the biggest gentleman and mensch in this business by a long shot, and has unbelievable wisdom.”
Stitch Fix Reached Cash Flow Positivity in 3 Years on $42M Raised
“Prior to their IPO in 2017, Katrina raised just forty two million dollars in venture funding, from some of the very best in venture, including Bill Gurley at Benchmark and Steve Anderson at Baseline, and in just six years, Katrina took the company from foundin…”
Katrina Lake: Bill Gurley Foresaw Stitch Fix's Future Years in Advance
“Bill's been an incredible, incredible board member. I mean, he's added so much value to our board. There's so many instances where I look back and I'm like, Bill saw the future, you know, years before I saw it.”
Liu: Peter Fenton excels by combining systems thinking with human empathy
“Yeah, what makes Peter special as a investor, and more importantly, as a thought partner to, I think, the CEOs, the portfolio companies that he gets involved with as a helpful partner, is he's basically, on one hand, very much a systems thinker, right? There a…”
Vrionis: Unusual Ventures models its fund strategy and structure after Benchmark
“We model ourselves very much after Benchmark, partly through Andy's influence.”
Puttagunta: Peter Fenton conducts pre-board calls with startup executives
“He spends an incredible amount of time ahead of every board meeting, diving deep into the materials, having the conversations with founders and executives about questions that arise. In his mind, as he's reviewing the materials, he comes in with this mode of l…”
Altman: Benchmark executes the small partnership venture model effectively
“Like, I think it's easy to have three or four really great partners that Work together in one organization, and you see some firms that make the small partnership model work really well, like Benchmark, for example.”
Rachleff: Benchmark's Bruce Dunleavy is radically more capable as a business person
“He has unbelievable judgment and is the best influencer I've ever met, and people just adore Bruce, and I try to learn from him as best as I can. He's two years older than I am, but he's radically more capable than I am as a business person, and I have benefit…”
Digits Raised Over $32M From Benchmark, GV, and Angel Founders
“To date, Wayne and Jeff have raised over thirty-two million dollars for Digits, from some of the best in the business, including Peter Fenton at Benchmark, and Jess Verrilli at GV, and then also the most incredible base of angels, with the founders from Box, G…”
Matt Mochary's coaching client list includes partners at Benchmark, Sequoia, and Kleiner
“On the VC side, Matt has worked with the likes of Peter Fenton at Benchmark, Several Sequoia partners, Hemond at GC, and Mamoon at Kleiner, to name a few. As for founders, Matt's worked with the founders of Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Reddit, Flexport, and many mor…”