Benchmark (venture capital firm)

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]

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 Sarah Tavel, General Partner Victor Lazarte, General Partner
Website	www.benchmark.com

Founding, partner structure

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

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

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[66]

See also

• List of venture capital firms