On Monday, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters released some surprising data. Despite few opportunities to exit from their investments, 57 venture firms managed to raise $12 billion in the first quarter — more money than VCs have raised since the second quarter of 2006. More, just seven firms counted for nearly two-thirds […]
Bill Gurley
Benchmark’s Newest Partner, Eric Vishria, On Year One at the Powerhouse Firm
In July of last year, Eric Vishria, a longtime Opsware executive who became co-founder and CEO of the social browsing startup Rockmelt, joined the Sand Hill Road firm Benchmark as its fifth general partner. It’s an enviable position, given the reputation of the 20-year-old firm, which has backed Uber, Snapchat, and the publicly traded companies […]
StrictlyVC: October 24, 2014
Good Friday morning, readers! We hope you’re in for a terrific weekend. Also, if you missed StrictlyVC yesterday (a few of you told us it landed in your spam boxes), you can check it out here. —– Top News in the A.M. Airbnb is discussing a new round that could total more than $50 million […]
Bill Gurley: Those Earlier Warnings are Making an Impact
Venture capitalist Bill Gurley appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” show earlier this week to clarify some of the comments he’d made in mid-September to the Wall Street Journal – comments that Gurley thinks were misconstrued in follow-on reports that confused risk with valuations. “I was talking about risk and I didn’t say a word about […]
Don’t Panic: On VCs and Bubble Trouble
Several of the country’s most prominent venture capitalists have sent the startup world into a hysteria in recent weeks. Bill Gurley of Benchmark kicked off the panic when in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he lamented that companies have taken their burn rates to levels not seen since 1999 and noted that “more […]
Venture Heavyweights Sit Back as Deal Sizes Soar
It’s been a banner week for a number of Internet companies. Last Wednesday, social network Pinterest acknowledged closing on a $225 million round that valued the company at $3.8 billion. Shortly thereafter, AllThingsD reported that Snapchat, the messaging app, is now weighing a $200 million investment round that would value the company at $3.5 billion. And just yesterday, NextDoor, […]