Benchmark Capital

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Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups, including eBay. In 1997, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999 and resulted in one of Silicon Valley's best-performing investments ever[1].

Benchmark Capital is unusual in that its partners are compensated equally, rather than using the standard venture capital "star" model. The firm was made popular by their successes in venture capital as well as the book eBoys by Randall Stross.

Contents 1 Investments 2 Team 3 Additional Information 4 References

[edit] Investments

Benchmark has invested in more than 150 startups since its inception in 1995, including Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, Second Life, Tellme Networks, Yelp, and Zillow, as well as franchise companies like eBay, Juniper Networks, and Red Hat. The firm manages nearly $3 billion in committed capital and has been widely recognized for its commitment to open source[2]

Recent Exits:

• MySQL (acquired by Sun)
• Tellme Networks (acquired by Microsoft)
• Ingenio (acquired by AT&T)
• Zimbra (acquired by Yahoo!)
• Entrisphere (acquired by Ericcson)
• Good Technology (acquired by Motorola)
• Business.com (acquired by R.H. Donnelly)
• Vontu (acquired by Symantec)
• Infinera (INFN)

New Investments:

• Pentaho
• EngineYard
• SpringSource
• Zuora
• Metaweb
• Numobiq
• Vivox
• Move Networks
• ManiaTV
• Prosper.com
• FriendFeed
• Rebtel
• Coverity

[edit] Team

The firm is made up of the following members:

General Partners

• Bruce Dunlevie -- investments include: Accept.com (acquired by Amazon.com), Good Technology (acquired by Motorola), Handspring (acquired by Palm), and Pure Digital Technologies
• Bill Gurley -- investments include: Second Life, OpenTable, Vudu, Nanosolar, and Zillow [3],
• Kevin Harvey -- investments include: Tellme Networks (sold to Microsoft), Zimbra (sold to Yahoo!), Ingenio (sold to AT&T), MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion)[4]
• Bob Kagle-- investments include eBay (EBAY), mint.com, prosper.com, Gaia Online, Jamba Juice, and Zipcar[5]
• Peter Fenton -- investments include: FriendFeed, EngineYard, Pentaho, Polyvore, Coremetrics, XenSource, SpringSource, Yelp, Zuora, and Zimbra [6]
• Alex Balkanski -- investments include: Infinera (INFN), Entrisphere (sold to Ericsson), Ambarella, and Mu Security[7]
• Steve Spurlock -- operating partner who runs day-to-day operations and acts as counsel to the firm
• Mitch Lasky -- investments include: Numobiq, Vivox, and a new Ruby on Rails company -- Engine Yard

Partners

• David Beirne
• Andy Rachleff

Venture Partner

• Rich Barton

EIRs[8][9]

• Rob Bearden[10]
• Mike Cassidy
• Lewis Cirne
• Dave Finnigan
• Dave Goldberg
• Keith Krach
• Sarah Leary
• Nirav Tolia

Former EIRs Jim Norris and Bret Taylor left Benchmark to found and run FriendFeed[11]

[edit] Additional Information

Randall E. Stross (2001). eBoys : The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work. New York: Ballantine Books, 352. ISBN 0-345-42889-7. 

• Benchmark Capital
• Backing Tech Winners
• Andy Rachleff podcast interview on iinnovate
• Bill Gurley's Above the Crowd Newsletter / Blog

[edit] References

1. eBay's IPO Return Is Just Peanuts To Some
2. Open-Source Venture Investing Hits an All-Time High
3. Forbes Midas List -- John William Gurley
4. Forbes Midas List -- Kevin Harvey
5. eBay's Early Backer to Leave Board of Directors
6. Forbes Midas List -- Peter Fenton
7. Forbes Midas List -- Alexandre Balkanski
8. Benchmark Adds Open Source Savvy Entrepreneurs In Residence
9. Benchmark Capital Adds Four Technology Executives
10. Benchmark Entrepreneur Talks Making Money from Open Source
11. FriendFeed Raises $5 Million, Now Open To Everyone