Benchmark Part I

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Venturecapital, Ma, Investing, Acquisitions, Startups, Vc, Investment, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2022

⏱️ 223 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Benchmark Capital. We tell the tale of the legendary equal partnership that accomplished something no other venture firm can claim: twice it has produced the highest returning fund of its cycle, each time with a 100% different GP lineup. If ever there were a playbook for successful generational transfer of a generational-defining venture firm, this is it. We spend 3.5+ hours digging into how the dotcom “eBay eBoys” transformed into the rockstar Fab Four of the Uber, Instagram and Snap mobile gold rush (spoiler: not by a straight line!), and what the future holds for Benchmark’s next GP generation. If you’re a student of the venture game from any angle — founder, GP, LP, etc — this is a story you need to tune in for!

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‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, let's try and do it as one and we're gonna hustle.
0:03.4	Okay, let's try and do it as just one but I don't think we should hustle because especially those
0:08.4	early days that's what people don't know. All right, no trade-offs.
0:12.1	And we'll let the chips fall where they do.
0:16.0	So very anti-benchmark approach we're taking in this episode, trade-off nothing, go full depth
0:21.1	into Gen 1 and Gen 2, fine. Yeah. All right, we'll see on this guest.
0:29.2	Who got the truth?
0:31.9	Is it you, is it you, is it you? Who got the truth now?
0:37.0	Is it you, is it you, is it you? Sit me down, say it straight.
0:41.7	Another story on the way. Who got the truth?
0:45.8	Welcome to season 11 episode four of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the
0:51.4	stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert and I am the co-founder and managing director
0:56.1	of Seattle based Pioneer Square Labs and our venture fund PSL Ventures.
1:00.4	And I'm David Rosenthal and I am an angel investor based in San Francisco.
1:05.9	And we are your hosts. The hardest thing to do in venture capital is create those massive
1:11.9	outsize returns that only come from investing in one of the five or so truly important companies
1:18.5	each decade. Then once you've done that, the next hardest thing is to keep doing it with an
1:25.1	entirely different generation of partners. Today, we are going to talk about a firm who built one
1:31.1	of the top franchises in venture capital, benchmark, that has incredibly managed to do both.
1:37.7	Our Sequoia and Andreessen episode were about the empires that those firms chose to build.
1:43.6	And this episode is about the empire they chose not to. Or maybe. Well, there was a
1:49.8	flirtation with an empire in there as we'll get into. There was benchmark famously believes
	...

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