The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 78 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 3 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Benchmark offered $6.7 million for eBay at a $20 million valuation
“They give Pierre and Jeff a term sheet to invest 6.7 million dollars total in the company in a series A financing at a twenty million dollar pre-money Evaluation.”
Founders need board members who possess psychological safety at their venture firm
“Really what you want is a board member who feels psychological safety in their partnership to do the things that they think are right without conflicting incentives. It is crazy how rare that is for someone to actually have that psychological safety.”
Equal VC partnerships fail unless every partner delivers equal value and output
“The only way this works is if everyone truly brings the same amount of value to the partnership. Because otherwise, over time, you will have a situation where even if you're equal economically, you become unequal in everybody realizing, hey, that person's not …”
Benchmark's 2011 fund reached a 25x gross return before fees
“According to a 2018 Wall Street Journal article, they reported that before fees, the 20 11 fund was sitting on a 25 X on that five hundred and fifty million.”
Benchmark Capital is not a thesis-driven venture capital firm
“The first thing that I just want to say after doing the research is they are just not a thesis driven firm. Period.”
Small equal partnerships spend 90% of their time on investing
“You get to spend all your time on the field when you're a small equal partnership. Yes. You're not spending your time managing the firm, or worrying about managing the firm, or worrying about where your career is going, or worrying about this, that, or the oth…”
Benchmark led Uber's Series A at a $60 million post-money valuation
“20 11. A ten million dollar Series A at a, 10 or 11, at a sixty million dollar post money valuation.”
Benchmark allocated portions of fund carried interest to their executive assistants
“They gave pieces of carry to their assistants.”
Benchmark lacked an eBay-sized investment win until backing Bill Gurley's Uber
“Benchmark did not have an eBay-sized win until Bill's big marketplace.”
Benchmark returned Fund VI entirely from Facebook's acquisition of Instagram
“I mean, they returned the fund on the investment, but, like, with the sale to Facebook.”
Benchmark realized $1 billion selling half its Snap stake in 2018
“You got February, 2018, Benchmark sold almost half of its stake in Snap and realized a billion dollars in gains somewhere.”
Early-stage VC board meetings avoid pitch dynamics when firms lack growth funds
“Where this shows up for a founder is, how nice is it to have your board member be someone that you're not pitching? Board meetings aren't pitches because they are not your next round of capital.”
Benchmark's $6.7 million eBay investment reached over $4 billion after IPO lockup
“By the time the lockup expires the next spring in 1989, that stake is worth over four billion dollars on an eighty-five million dollar fund.”
Bill Gurley is not a general partner in Benchmark's next fund
“Bill Gurley is not a general partner in the Next Benchmark Fund, and the majority of the current partners joined in the last five years.”
Benchmark hosts annual dinners with Jeff Bezos and founders they missed backing
“On Monday nights after the partner meeting, they do these dinners. They invite somebody, you know, Bezos comes every year. Like, this is crazy. Public company CEOs. Yeah. So Michael Lewis, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, part of that I'm sure is just fun…”
Benchmark's first fund delivered a 92x return on invested capital
“Certainly nobody would think that this current fund that they are investing out of and this current basket of companies, inclusive of the ones they would do over the next 12 months, would be a 92 X in just a few years.”
Fenton: Benchmark partners book most of their own meetings
“We book most of our own meetings. Like I, you know, we do this to ourselves because we're not below anything or above anything.”
Vishria: Former Benchmark partners are officially just LPs in current funds
“The official relationship is they're LPs. Like, that's the official relationship. Like, they're LPs with us like other LPs.”
Benchmark gave copies of 'Built to Last' to prospective Fund I LPs
“They actually hand a copy of the book to every LP as they're pitching them going around for fund one, which is really funny because a, I think they did believe in the values espoused there in, but it's also brilliant marketing.”
Benchmark partners average one board seat yearly for 15% to 20% ownership
“On average, each partner takes one board seat per year, and when they take a board seat, they invest at the Series A and they own 15, 20 plus percent.”
Peter Fenton rapidly backed Twitter, Docker, and New Relic at Benchmark
“In short order, Peter goes on to do Twitter, Docker, Zora, Hortonworks, New Relic, Elastic.”
Eric Vishria led Confluent's Series A at a $24 million valuation
“His first deal was Confluent. Series A. Seven million at a 24 post. The company's trading at a 7.6 billion dollar market cap today.”
All five Benchmark Fund I partners made identical profit on eBay
“David Byrne made as much money on eBay as Bob Cagle made on eBay, as Bruce Dunleavy, as Kevin Harvey, as, you know, Andy Ratcliffe made on eBay. They all made the same.”
Sarah Tavel led Chainalysis's Series A round during a crypto winter
“The very first investment that she made after she moved over from Greylock and joined Benchmark was Chainalysis, which does not fit any of those categories and was a very, very non-consensus deal to do in the middle of ICO crypto winter in 2017, early 20 18. S…”
Benchmark and Sequoia split Webvan's $7 million round with $3.5 million each
“So it's a seven million dollar round. Benchmark splits the deal with Mike Moritz at Sequoia. Sequoia does three and a half million. Benchmark does three and a half million. Moritz and Byrne join the board.”
Benchmark originally branded as a seed and startup firm, not Series A
“Which is really interesting because Benchmark mostly markets themselves at this point as a Series A firm. That is not how they marketed themselves then. They said, we do seed and startup investments. Seed being pre-business plan and startup being post-business…”
Benchmark cannot test junior partners before granting equal GP economics
“You can't bring them in as a junior partner and see what happens and be like, oh, you know, you'll get a sliver of economics in this fund. We'll see if the partnership gels, you know, we'll see if you perform here, you know, and then no, you can't do that. You…”
Post-eBay, Benchmark expanded overseas and raised a $1 billion fund
“They tried everything. They threw the kitchen sink at corporate partnerships. They expanded to multiple continents at the same time. They were like, oh, bigger fund, let's raise a billion dollar fund. And they tried it all.”
Benchmark made a late-stage growth investment in Dropbox in 2011
“In 20 11, at the beginning of the Fab Four era, they did a Late stage growth investment in Dropbox in their four billion dollar round.”
Peter Fenton is Benchmark's only remaining active 'Fab Four' GP
“2018, they do fun nine. Matt and Mitch step back at that point. Bill sticks around for one more fun cycle. And then of course, you know, probably everybody knows at this point, certainly if you're still listening at this point, Bill has stepped back now at thi…”