Benchmark (venture capital firm)

American venture capital firm

Benchmark

Company type| Private
Industry| Venture capital
Founded| 1995; 30 years ago (1995)
Founder| Bob Kagle
Bruce Dunlevie
Andy Rachleff
Kevin Harvey
Val Vaden
Headquarters| 140 New Montgomery
San Francisco, California, United States

Key people

| Peter Fenton, General Partner
Eric Vishria, General Partner
Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner
Victor Lazarte, General Partner
Sarah Tavel, Venture Partner
Website| www.benchmark.com

Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle,[1] Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff,[2] Kevin Harvey,[3] and Val Vaden.[4] The firm is known for its equal partnership structure[5] and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the first institutional round of funding while taking a board seat with each company it invests in.[2]

## Founding, partner structure

[edit]

Benchmark was founded in 1995[5] by five partners: Bob Kagle,[1] Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff,[2] Kevin Harvey,[3] and Val Vaden.[4] The firm is noted for creating the first equal ownership and compensation structure for its partners,[6] where there are no "junior partners" or "senior partners," and there are also no CEO-like position held,[7] differing from other VC firms which are named for their founders and are structured hierarchically.[8] The firm has stated the reason for maintaining this approach is to "force discipline and accountability to focus on what matters" for its founders and limited partners,[2] as their profits are driven by investment performance as opposed to management fees.[5] The collective decision-making structure also means that Benchmark shares responsibility for the performance of the companies the firm invests in, not just the single partner who joins the company's board of directors.[2][5]

Prior partners with the firm include Bill Gurley (who stepped back from his position after serving with the firm for twenty-one years),[9] Mitch Lasky, and Matt Cohler (who each stepped back from their roles as partners after each spending more than a decade with the firm).[10]

### Investments

[edit]

The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company.[11] In 2011, it invested $12 million for an 11% stake in Uber, worth $7 billion in 2019 and $9.4 billion in 2023.[12]

Benchmark’s first eight funds, raised and invested between 1995 and 2019, returned more than seven and a half times the money invested, net of fees and carry.[5]

The firm has made exits from several companies,[13] including Amplitude,[14] Asana,[15] Confluent,[16] eBay,[11] Elastic,[17] New Relic,[18][19] Nextdoor,[20][21] Red Hat,[22] Snap,[23][24][25] Stitch Fix,[26][27] and Uber.[28][29]

List of investments  Business | Source

|

1-800-Flowers | [citation needed]
Airtable | [30]
AOL | [citation needed]
Art.com/Allposters.com | [citation needed]
Benchling | [31]
CTERA Networks | [citation needed]
Cerebras Systems | [32]
Chainalysis | [33]
Cockroach Labs | [34]
CouchSurfing | [35]
Demandforce | [citation needed]
Digits | [36]
Discord | [37]
Duo Security | [38]
Domo, Inc. | [39][40]
Docker | [41]
Dropbox | [42]
EBags.com | [citation needed]
Friendster | [citation needed]
HackerOne | [43]
Instagram | [44][45]
JAMDAT | [citation needed]
Juniper Networks | [citation needed]
Marin Software | [46]
Metacafe | [citation needed]
Minted | [citation needed]
Modern Treasury | [47]
MySQL | [citation needed]
OpenTable | [citation needed]
Optimizely | [48]
Palm, Inc. | [citation needed]
ResearchGate | [49]
Seeking Alpha | [citation needed]
ServiceSource | [citation needed]
Sketch | [50]
Solv | [51]
Twitter | [52]
Tellme Networks | [53]
Vessel | [54]
WeWork | [55][56][57][58]
Xapo | [59]
Yelp, Inc. | [60]
Zendesk | [61]
Zillow | [62]
Zipcar | [63]
Zuora | [64][65]

## In popular culture

[edit]

Benchmark Capital was featured in the Apple TV+ original TV series WeCrashed starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway. In the show, Anthony Edwards portrays Benchmark co-founder Bruce Dunlevie, who became WeWork's first major investor on the 1st of April in 2012 when Benchmark led WeWork's $17 million Series-A seed funding.[66]

Benchmark was also featured in the Showtime original Super Pumped starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In the series, Kyle Chandler plays former Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley, portraying his involvement in leading Ubers' $11 million round of fundraising in February 2011.[67]

## See also

[edit]

* List of venture capital firms

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Aragon, Lawrence (July 6, 2020). "Where are they now: Bob Kagle". Venture Capital Journal.
2. ^ a b c d e Konrad, Alex (June 28, 2024). "Benchmark Is Raising A New $425 Million Fund For The AI Startup Era". Forbes.
3. ^ a b McCoy, Elin (March 20, 2015). "Venture capitalist bottles California pinots that rival Burgundy". Bloomberg.
4. ^ a b Meikle, Brad (December 1, 2003). "Vector Capital Goes On WIthout Co-founder". Buyouts Insider.
5. ^ a b c d e Griffith, Erin (December 13, 2024). "What Is Venture Capital Now Anyway?". The New York Times.
6. ^ Stross, Randall (December 29, 2009). eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work. Ballantine Books (May 29, 2001). p. 89\. ISBN 978-0-345-42889-9.
7. ^ Konrad, Alex (March 25, 2015). "The Benchmark Way: Five Partners Who Make Other VC Firms Look Outgunned And Overstaffed". Forbes.
8. ^ Hempel, Jessi (February 11, 2013). "Bill Gurley: The sage of Silicon Valley". Fortune.
9. ^ Chernova, Yuliya; Winkler, Rolfe (April 22, 2020). "Venture Capitalist Bill Gurley Isn't Joining Benchmark's Next Fund". Wall Street Journal.
10. ^ Primack, Dan (October 1, 2018). "Benchmark raising ninth fund, Cohler and Lasky step back". Axios.
11. ^ a b "Loans to EBay Provide a Big Payoff for Venture-Capital Firm". The Washington Post. April 9, 1999.
12. ^ Muoio, Danielle. "The early Uber investor suing Travis Kalanick turned its $12 million investment into $7 billion stake". Business Insider. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
13. ^ Marshall, Matt (January 14, 2011). "Benchmark raises $425M fund — but top firm loses partner who made it famous". Venture Beat.
14. ^ Ha, Anthony (August 10, 2017). "Amplitude raises another $30M for its product-focused analytics tools". TechCrunch.
15. ^ Khan, Shariq; Sen, Anirban (August 24, 2020). "Peter Thiel-backed workplace app Asana files for direct listing on NYSE". Reuters.
16. ^ Lawler, Ryan (November 6, 2014). "Benchmark Backs Real-Time Data Processing Startup Confluent". TechCrunch.
17. ^ Rao, Leena (November 9, 2012). "Big Data Search And Analytics Startup Elasticsearch Raises $10M From Benchmark". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
18. ^ Cromwell, Schuberth (December 15, 2014). "Big winners on New Relic, Hortonworks IPOs are mostly Benchmark, Peter Fenton". American City Business Journals.
19. ^ Rao, Leena (November 16, 2011). "Cloud App Management Platform New Relic Raises $15M From DAG, Benchmark". TechCrunch.
20. ^ Chapman, Lizette (March 4, 2015). "Valued at $1.1 Billion, Nextdoor's Pivot Appears to Be Paying Off". The Wall Street Journal.
21. ^ Isaac, Mike (July 24, 2012). "Nextdoor Raises $18.6M From Benchmark, Greylock in First Major Funding Round".
22. ^ Shankland, Stephen (August 25, 1999). "Benchmark Capital invests in more open-source projects". CNET.
23. ^ Wortham, Jenna (February 8, 2013). "A Growing App Lets You See It, Then You Don't". The New York Times.
24. ^ Primack, Dan (June 26, 2013). "Snapchat's liquidity trap – The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blogTerm Sheet". Fortune.
25. ^ Winkler, Rolfe (February 3, 2017). "Snap IPO Will Mint Fortunes for Founders, Two Big Investors". The Wall Street Journal.
26. ^ Gannes, Liz (June 9, 2014). "Happy Stitch Fix Investors Pump Another Round Into Personal Shopping Startup". Re/code.
27. ^ Kucera, Danielle (October 17, 2013). "Stitch Fix Nabs $12 Million From Benchmark to Customize Commerce". Bloomberg.
28. ^ Helft, Miguel (June 6, 2014). "These are the venture firms celebrating Uber's massive $18B valuation". Fortune.
29. ^ Arrington, Michael (February 14, 2011). "Huge Vote Of Confidence: Uber Raises $11 Million From Benchmark Capital". TechCrunch.
30. ^ "Peter Fenton - Forbes Profile".
31. ^ "Eric Vishria - Forbes Profile".
32. ^ "Company".
33. ^ "Bitcoin Tracker Chainalysis Raises $16 Million, Plans to Track 10 More Cryptocurrencies". Fortune. April 5, 2018.
34. ^ Novet, Jordan (June 4, 2015). "Peter Fenton's latest investment is a database startup called Cockroach". VentureBeat.
35. ^ "CouchSurfing Raises $7.6 Million in Series A From Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network to Expand Services and Fuel Growth in Cultural Exchange Network" (Press release). PR Newswire. August 25, 2011.
36. ^ Perez, Sarah (November 6, 2019). "Stealth fintech startup Digits raises $10.5 million Series A from Benchmark and others". TechCrunch.
37. ^ Takahashi, Dean (February 10, 2015). "Fates Forever mobile game maker Hammer & Chisel raises funding from Benchmark and Tencent". Venture Beat.
38. ^ Lawler, Ryan (September 22, 2014). "Two-Factor Authentication Startup Duo Security Raises $12 Million From Benchmark". TechCrunch.
39. ^ Konrad, Alex (April 8, 2015). "Domo Reveals Its Business Software, Raises $200 Million At $2 Billion Valuation". Forbes.
40. ^ Lacy, Sarah (July 13, 2011). "Series A Whopper: Benchmark Invests $33M in New BI Company Domo". TechCrunch.
41. ^ Alex, Williams (January 21, 2014). "Docker Raises $15M For Its Open-Source Platform That Helps Developers Build Apps In The Cloud". TechCrunch.
42. ^ Konrad, Alex. "The Benchmark Way: Five Partners Who Make Other VC Firms Look Outgunned And Overstaffed". Forbes.
43. ^ Gage, Deborah (May 28, 2014). "HackerOne Emerges With $9 Million to Root Out Software Bugs". The Wall Street Journal.
44. ^ Indvik, Lauren (February 2, 2011). "Instagram Raises $7 Million, Hits 1.75M Members". Mashable.
45. ^ Gannes, Liz. "Instagram Raises $7M Led by Benchmark". All Things Digital.
46. ^ "Benchmark leads series B for marin software". The New York Times. April 7, 2008.
47. ^ Roof, Katie (December 19, 2019). "Venture Firm Benchmark Invests in Payments Startup as Sector Heats Up". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
48. ^ Ha, Andrew (April 10, 2013). "Website Testing Service Optimizely Raises $28M Round Led By Benchmark, Plans Global Expansion". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
49. ^ "ResearchGate brings in strong funding round for 'scientific Facebook'". The Guardian. September 8, 2010.
50. ^ Loizos, Connie (March 13, 2019). "Sketch, maker of popular design tools, just landed $20 million in Series A funding from Benchmark in its first outside round". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on March 14, 2019.
51. ^ "This Startup Wants to Be the OpenTable for Urgent Care". Fortune. April 19, 2017.
52. ^ Chapman, Lizette (October 4, 2013). "Twitter Investor Benchmark Capital Gets Smaller Taste In Potbelly IPO". The Wall Street Journal.
53. ^ Festa, Paul (January 2, 2002). "Start-up Tellme grabs $47 million in financing". CNET.
54. ^ Kafka, Peter (June 24, 2014). "Jason Kilar's New Startup Has a Name, and a Whole Lot of Money". Recode.
55. ^ Winkler, Rolfe (September 24, 2019). "For WeWork Investor Benchmark, a Struggle to Balance Board Duties with Founder Support". The Wall Street Journal.
56. ^ "WeWork U-turn reignites SoftBank and Benchmark battle". Financial Times. April 14, 2020.
57. ^ Alex, Konrad. "Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork". Forbes.
58. ^ Kosoff, Maya (June 24, 2015). "WeWork, a startup that rents out office space to other startups, may soon be valued at $10 billion". Business Insider.
59. ^ Rusli, Evelyn (March 13, 2014). "Latest Bitcoin Craze? Actual Bank Vaults". The Wall Street Journal.
60. ^ Empson, Rip (June 10, 2012). "Twitter, Yelp Board Member Peter Fenton On How Enterprise Is Learning From The Consumer Web". TechCrunch.
61. ^ Connie, Loizos (July 7, 2015). "Benchmark's Newest Partner, Eric Vishria, On His First Year at the Powerhouse Firm". TechCrunch.
62. ^ Jackson, Eric. "Interview With Bill Gurley: The Guy Who Backed OpenTable, Yelp, GrubHub, Twitter, Zillow And Uber". Forbes.
63. ^ Chapman, Lizette (January 2, 2013). "For Venture Firms, Zipcar Purchase a Profitable but Disappointing Exit". The Wall Street Journal.
64. ^ Schonfeld, Erick (March 13, 2008). "Benchmark and Benioff Put $6.5 Million Into Zuora to Create a Salesforce for Online Billing". TechCrunch.
65. ^ Rao, Leena (November 15, 2011). "Benchmark, Marissa Mayer Put $5.5M In Stationery Design And Retail Site Minted". TechCrunch.
66. ^ Gomez, Dessi (March 18, 2022). "'WeCrashed' Cast and Character Guide: Who Plays Who in the WeWork Series? (Photos)". TheWrap. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
67. ^ Clarendon, Dan (February 26, 2022). "The Uber-Complex Battle Behind Showtime's 'Super Pumped'". TV Insider. Retrieved May 1, 2023.

## External links

[edit]

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