Benchmark Capital

Gambling Man

by Lionel Barber  · 3 Oct 2024  · 424pp  · 123,730 words

afterwards, OneWeb went into bankruptcy. SoftBank also walked away from a previously agreed $3bn deal to buy shares from WeWork investors, including Adam Neumann and Benchmark Capital. Late on Sunday night, New York time, as the final wording of Elliott’s statement of support was being drafted, SoftBank’s share price started

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–7 Al-Bassam, Nizar, 259–60, 262, 263–4, 269 Bear Stearns, 193–4 Beijing, 142–3, 175–6, 226, 324 Bell Laboratories, 74, 75 Benchmark Capital (VC company), 283, 301 Berkeley, University of California, 27, 36–9, 40–43, 55–6, 101, 102 Berkshire Hathaway, 273–4, 296–7 Bezos, Jeff

eBoys

by Randall E. Stross  · 30 Oct 2008  · 381pp  · 112,674 words

would be that it was a good little business, with the emphasis on little. The venture capital firm that in the end backed eBay was Benchmark Capital, itself a start-up, then only two years old. When Benchmark invested $6.7 million in eBay in 1997, the auction company’s valuation was

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right in front of my eyes—and my tape recorder; I must confess I was as surprised as anyone. A year before eBay knocked on Benchmark Capital’s door, I had knocked there, interested in writing a book about a corner of the financial world whose inner workings remained shrouded, even to

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extended period while retaining unencumbered editorial control; I also wanted to work with the youngest renegades I could find, and those happened to be at Benchmark Capital. It took me a year of entreaties before I was able to gain entry. Ultimately, our agreement was sealed with a handshake—no written NDA

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Park—Bruce Dunlevie, Bob Kagle, and Andy Rachleff—decided to step free of their old firms, and with software entrepreneur Kevin Harvey they set up Benchmark Capital. In the spring of 1997 Bruce Dunlevie, whom Dave Beirne had come to know in the course of search assignments, dropped by the Ramsey Beirne

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far ahead of most. He was one of fifteen hundred entrepreneurs who would pop a plan—or in his case, not pop a plan—into Benchmark Capital’s in box in 1997. Only nine would be funded that year. In a way, venture capitalists and book publishers are similar, in that their

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we want to invest in companies who are doing beer and cigarettes?” Dunlevie maintained a deadpan expression. “You mean, compared to gambling?” Kagle asked, laughing. Benchmark Capital’s very first investment in 1995 was as a co-investor, with Kleiner Perkins, in Silicon Gaming, a manufacturer of electronic slot machines. “Cover all

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the meeting proceeded, it became clear that what had drawn many to this meeting, which was closed to the public, was the opportunity to boast. Benchmark Capital’s “fundamentally better architecture”—equal partnership, equal decision-making power, equal compensation—was a heretical arrangement, judging by the testimony of panelists. Pat Cloherty, of

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up 65 percent, nearly 17 million shares changed hands. The demand was coming from institutional investors, what Bob Kagle referred to as “huge institutional appetite.” Benchmark Capital owned just a hair larger than one fifth of eBay after the IPO. Seventy percent of those shares would be distributed to its limited partners

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the San Jose Mercury News, wrote, “Even in the athletic world of Sand Hill Road, where venture capitalists like to boast about hitting home runs, Benchmark Capital’s investment in eBay Inc. is a ball that has left the ballpark and is still bouncing down the street.” The run also had been

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founding, had a different perspective from the others. At one point in the summer of 1999 the partners were contemplating an initial public offering for Benchmark Capital itself. One argument in favor was offered by Bob Kagle, who thought going public would be “more built-to-last.” Kevin Harvey agreed with him

The Power of Passive Investing: More Wealth With Less Work

by Richard A. Ferri  · 4 Nov 2010  · 345pp  · 87,745 words

mentality Buy side of business Canadian mutual funds Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) Capital gains distributions Capital Ideas (Bernstein) Capital Ideas Evolving (Bernstein) Capitalization weighted benchmarks Capitalization weighted index Capital markets line (CML) CAPM. See Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) Carhart, Mark Cash/cash equivalents Cash flow analysis Category styles Certificate in

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, Allan Russell 1000 large cap index Russell 2000 index S&P. See Standard & Poor’s (S&P) S&P 1500 index S&P 500: as benchmark capitalization weighted index funds and S&P 500 index fund S&P MidCap 400 index S&P Persistence Score Card “S&P Persistence Scorecard, The” Sales

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future

by Sebastian Mallaby  · 1 Feb 2022  · 935pp  · 197,338 words

entire rest of the fund,” the venture capitalist Peter Thiel has written.[20] “Venture capital is not even a home-run business,” Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital once remarked. “It’s a grand-slam business.”[21] What this means is that venture capitalists need to be ambitious. The celebrated hedge-fund stock

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his Plaxo lawyer to help incorporate Facebook. He found an operations manager for the company. He managed relations with investors. Google wanted to buy shares. Benchmark Capital came calling. By September 2004, Zuckerberg was referring to Parker as Facebook’s president, and Parker was steering Zuckerberg away from conventional venture capitalists. He

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with lies and false allegations.” Mike Isaac, “Uber Investor Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud,” New York Times, August 10, 2017. BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 79 Benchmark Capital Partners VII, L.P., v. Travis Kalanick and Uber Technologies, Inc. (2017), online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/BenchmarkUberComplaint08102017.PDF. BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 80

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, Arnold, 22–23, 33, 35, 417n Beckman Instruments, 22–24, 41 Beijing Hyatt, 241 Beirne, David, 167, 168, 169, 171 Bell Labs, 20, 38, 129 Benchmark Capital, 8, 161–72, 265 Ariba, 170 China business, 239 coaching and advising role of, 210 eBay, 164–70, 350, 439n, 440n Facebook, 198 founding of

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, 12, 211, 298, 307, 385, 452n TX-0 (computer), 19, 28 Tyson, Mike, 347 U Uber, 349–71 Andreessen Horowitz’s investment, 353–55, 378 Benchmark Capital’s investment, 172, 349–56, 358–71, 372, 380, 440n, 458n, 459n blitzscaling, 357–59, 362, 364, 385, 387 in China, 362–63, 364 Didi

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, 112, 118 West, Donda, 235 West, Kanye, 235 WestBridge Capital, 321 Western Association of Venture Capitalists, 27, 51, 419n WeWork, 342–49, 371–73, 457n Benchmark Capital’s investment, 172, 342–49, 353, 371–72, 457n governance and corruption issues, 343, 344–45, 359 IPO process, 372–73 JPMorgan Chase’s investment

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him variously to a reckless poker player and to North Korea’s dictator. Pierre Omidyar (left) turned eBay into a hit with the help of Benchmark Capital. The venture team persuaded Meg Whitman (right) to quit a safe corporate job and make the leap to run an obscure startup. Derided by some

Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers and Acquisitions

by Joshua Rosenbaum, Joshua Pearl and Joseph R. Perella  · 18 May 2009  · 444pp  · 86,565 words

David Mayhew, Deutsche Bank Coley McMenamin, Banc of America Securities Joseph Meisner, UBS Investment Bank Steve Momper, University of Virginia, Darden Business Publishing Kirk Murphy, Benchmark Capital Joshua Neren Paul Pai, Deutsche Bank James Paris Dan Park, Deutsche Bank Gregory Pryor, White & Case LLP David Ross, Deutsche Bank Ashish Rughwani, Dominus Capital

Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment

by David F. Swensen  · 8 Aug 2005  · 490pp  · 117,629 words

company’s founder decided to seek outside assistance. Two years after the humble beginnings of the company now named eBay, Omidyar invited venture capital provider Benchmark Capital to make an investment and join the board. The recently formed Silicon Valley venture firm made a $6.7 million investment in Omidyar’s eBay

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per share, the company’s market value totaled in excess of $21 billion. Looking to lock in a portion of the firm’s extraordinary gains, Benchmark Capital distributed a portion of its position to the firm’s limited partners. With Benchmark’s $6.7 million investment worth $6.7 billion, the investment

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reached an all-time high of more than $41 billion, representing more than a 2,000 multiple of the valuation assigned to the firm by Benchmark Capital’s original investment. Everyone made money. Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s founder, created wealth beyond imagination. Meg Whitman, along with the rest of eBay’s management

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: core non-core AT&T Ballmer, Steve Bank of America Bank of New York Barclays Global Investors Baskets of Listed Depositary Receipts (BLDRs) Baxter, Harold Benchmark Capital Berger Information Technology Fund Berkin, Andrew Bernstein Investment Research and Management Bid-ask spreads Black-Derman-Toy model Blodget, Henry Bloomberg ETFs and Bloomberg News

Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups

by Ali Tamaseb  · 14 Sep 2021  · 251pp  · 80,831 words

at Sequoia Capital looking into Latin American investment opportunities before venturing out to start Nubank, the Brazilian online bank unicorn, and Andy Rachleff co-founded Benchmark Capital before starting Wealthfront, a consumer financial advisory company. Abe Othman, head of data science at AngelList—a website enabling angel investors to invest in early

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. When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins. When a great team meets a great market, something special happens. —ANDY RACHLEFF, FOUNDER OF BENCHMARK CAPITAL AND WEALTHFRONT When Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam founded Coinbase in 2012, “cryptocurrency” had yet to enter the popular lexicon. Bitcoin, the first modern cryptocurrency

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bank to cover at least twelve months of operations, to consider how to get acquired.1 The same week, Bill Gurley, a general partner at Benchmark Capital, and Ron Conway, a prolific angel investor, sent comparable emails to their portfolio companies, advising them to cut costs and extend their runways by three

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,” Sequoia Capital, accessed July 28, 2020, www.sequoiacap.com/article/rip-good-times. 2. Michael Arrington, “Benchmark Capital Advises Startups to Conserve Capital, Look for Opportunities,” TechCrunch, October 9, 2008, https://techcrunch.com/2008/10/09/benchmark-capital-advises-startups-to-conserve-capital/. 3. Don Butler, “Pre-Money Valuation” (chart), Forbes, March 17, 2020

Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber

by Mike Isaac  · 2 Sep 2019  · 444pp  · 127,259 words

firm, Hummer Winblad, but he was soon headed to the big leagues. After just eighteen months, he was recruited by a top-tier firm called Benchmark Capital. The courtship between Gurley and the firm was long, but necessarily so. Benchmark operated as a small, tight-knit unit, with each partner involved in

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were tracking, something that Harvey wasn’t willing to do. “He thought I was kind of lazy ’cause I didn’t want to.” In 1999, Benchmark Capital had five venture partners. Gurley became the sixth. Each was exceptionally tall. They looked remarkably like the starting lineup of a college basketball team. Over

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-pulls-an-airbnb-taxi-business-could-finally-get-some-disruption/. Chapter 7: THE TALLEST MAN IN VENTURE CAPITAL 65 “It’s magic”: GigaOm, “Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital (full version),” YouTube video, 32:48, December 14, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBaYsK_62EY. 65 fund returned $250 million: John Markoff, “Internet

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: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work (Crown Publishers, 2000). 71 Gurley wrote: Bill Gurley, “Benchmark Capital: Open for Business,” Above the Crowd (blog), December 1, 2008, https://abovethecrowd.com/2008/12/01/benchmark-capital-open-for-business/. Chapter 8: PAS DE DEUX 72 Roughly one third: Artturi Tarjanne, “Why VC’s

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, “Uber Investor Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud,” New York Times, August 10, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/technology/travis-kalanick-uber-lawsuit-benchmark-capital.html. 315 “We do not feel it was either prudent”: Mike Isaac, “Kalanick Loyalists Move to Force Benchmark Off Uber’s Board,” New York Times

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, 207 Bar Crudo, 78 Barrett, David, 49 BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), 41 Bass, Robert, 277 the Battery, 4 BD, Akshay, 148 Beijing, China, 142 Benchmark Capital, 14, 40, 65, 70, 78–80, 282–86, 311–17, 320, 323, 324–26, 335 attempts to find Kalanick’s replacement and, 314–16 Grand

Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

by Dan Senor and Saul Singer  · 3 Nov 2009  · 285pp  · 81,743 words

like he had the moxie of even a typical PayPal junior engineer. But Thompson wasn’t going to say no to this meeting, not when Benchmark Capital had requested it. Benchmark had made a seed investment in eBay, back when it was being run out of the founders’ apartment as a quirky

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not interested in selling their company to PayPal. They just wanted Thompson’s blessing as they proceeded down a checklist of due diligence requirements for Benchmark Capital. Thompson went back to Meg: “We need to make a decision. They’re here.” She gave him the go-ahead: “Let’s buy it.” After

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, Shmuel (Mooly), vice president and general manager, Mobile Platforms Group, Intel; November 2008. Edry, Illy, founder and chief strategist, Poptok; May 2008. Eisenberg, Michael, partner, Benchmark Capital; May 2009. Elias, Asher, Tech Careers; March 2009. Epstein, Asher, director, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Maryland; May 2008. Erlich, Yigal, founder, chairman, and

Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley

by Emily Chang  · 6 Feb 2018  · 334pp  · 104,382 words

next fifteen years, to 6 percent in 2014. VCs have had little incentive to change. Two of the top firms in Silicon Valley, Sequoia and Benchmark Capital, made billions of dollars before hiring any women partners at all. Why mess with a good thing? In other words, while investors expect the start

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VCs” who made frequent trips to Las Vegas. In fact, the pair met in Vegas while Caldbeck was dancing with Teo’s executive assistant from Benchmark Capital, where Teo worked at the time. It was a match made in Sin City heaven. Someone close to the firm told me the partners had

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, “Uber Investor Sues Travis Kalanick for Fraud,” New York Times, Aug. 10, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/technology/travis-kalanick-uber-lawsuit-benchmark-capital.html. A Kalanick spokesperson: Ibid. sued Uber (while she was still employed): Heather Somerville, “Three Women Sue Uber in San Francisco Claiming Unequal Pay, Benefits

The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World

by Brad Stone  · 30 Jan 2017  · 373pp  · 112,822 words

Wild Ride: Inside Uber's Quest for World Domination

by Adam Lashinsky  · 31 Mar 2017  · 190pp  · 62,941 words

Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money

by Nathaniel Popper  · 18 May 2015  · 387pp  · 112,868 words

Startupland: How Three Guys Risked Everything to Turn an Idea Into a Global Business

by Mikkel Svane and Carlye Adler  · 13 Nov 2014  · 220pp

No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram

by Sarah Frier  · 13 Apr 2020  · 484pp  · 114,613 words

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

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Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime

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The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's Most Exclusive School for Startups

by Randall Stross  · 4 Sep 2013  · 332pp  · 97,325 words

Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

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Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power

by Steve Coll  · 30 Apr 2012  · 944pp  · 243,883 words

Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--And How to Make Them Work for You

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by Sarah Lacy  · 6 Jan 2011  · 269pp  · 77,876 words

The Facebook Effect

by David Kirkpatrick  · 19 Nov 2010  · 455pp  · 133,322 words

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This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race

by Nicole Perlroth  · 9 Feb 2021  · 651pp  · 186,130 words

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story

by Michael Lewis  · 29 Sep 1999  · 146pp  · 43,446 words

Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies

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by Rebecca Fannin  · 2 Sep 2019  · 269pp  · 70,543 words

The Infinite Machine: How an Army of Crypto-Hackers Is Building the Next Internet With Ethereum

by Camila Russo  · 13 Jul 2020  · 349pp  · 102,827 words

The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality

by Blake J. Harris  · 19 Feb 2019  · 561pp  · 163,916 words

The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation

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Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution

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The Middleman Economy: How Brokers, Agents, Dealers, and Everyday Matchmakers Create Value and Profit

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The Facebook era: tapping online social networks to build better products, reach new audiences, and sell more stuff

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What's Yours Is Mine: Against the Sharing Economy

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The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

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The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career

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Hatching Twitter

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Designing Search: UX Strategies for Ecommerce Success

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Mobile First

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