Benchmark Capital

Benchmark Capital

Infobox_Company
company_name = Benchmark Capital
company_
company_type = Limited liability company
foundation = 1995
key_people =
location =
industry = Venture Capital
products = Investments
assets =
homepage = [http://www.benchmark.com/ www.benchmark.com]
num_employees =

Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups. Benchmark made its mark as the sole early investor in 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 [ [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB72271728B4A26&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM eBay's IPO Return Is Just Peanuts To Some] ] . Other high profile investments yielding big returns for the firm include Ariba, Juniper Networks, and Red Hat. Such investments helped establish Benchmark as a top-tier Silicon Valley venture capital firm, despite its relatively young age.

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.

Investments

Benchmark has invested in more than 150 startups since its inception in 1995, including Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, Second Life, Tellme Networks, Yelp, Inc., 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. [ [http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9907679-16.html Open-source venture investing hits an all-time high | The Open Road - The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay - CNET News.com ] ] Other notable investments include AOL, 1-800-Flowers, eBags,Friendster, JAMDAT, MetaCafe, Palm Computing, Seeking Alpha, and Zipcar. [ [http://www.benchmark.com/portfolio/worldwide.shtml "Benchmark Worldwide Portfolio"] ]

Recent Exits:

New Investments:

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 [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/99/biz_08midas_John-William-Gurley_NUR6.html Forbes Midas List: #93 John William Gurley] ,]
*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) [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/99/biz_08midas_Kevin-R-Harvey_4PPY.html Forbes Midas List: #86 Kevin R. Harvey ] ]
*Bob Kagle-- investments include eBay (EBAY), mint.com, prosper.com, Gaia Online, Jamba Juice, and Zipcar [ [http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCAN2744438320080327 EBay's early backer to leave board of directors | Technology | Reuters ] ]
*Peter Fenton -- investments include: FriendFeed, EngineYard, New Relic, Pentaho, Polyvore, Coremetrics, XenSource, SpringSource, Yelp, Inc., Zuora, and Zimbra [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/99/biz_08midas_Peter-Fenton_ZR0N.html Forbes Midas List: #62 Peter Fenton ] ]
*Alex Balkanski -- investments include: Infinera (INFN), Entrisphere (sold to Ericsson), Ambarella, and Mu Security [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/99/biz_08midas_Alexandre-Balkanski_7HJR.html Forbes Midas List: #35 Alexandre Balkanski ] ]
*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
*Matt Cohler -- former vice president of product management at Facebook and former vice president & general manager at LinkedIn; joined Benchmark in Fall, 2008. [ [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/06/senior-executiv.html Senior Executive Matt Cohler Leaves Facebook ] ]

Partners
*David Beirne
*Andy Rachleff

Venture Partner
*Rich Barton

Benchmark Israel Partners
*Michael Eisenberg -- investments include: Conduit, Clarizen, Digital Fuel, Finjan, Funtactix, G.ho.st, Gigya, Gurunet (Amex GRU), Picturevison (acquired: EK), Seeking Alpha, Shopping.com (Nasdaq: EBAY), Tradeum (acquired: VERT), Tunewiki, Xacct (acquired: DOX), and Zlango.
*Arad Naveh -- investments include: Broadlight, Compass-EOS, Finjan Software, Metacafe, Mirage, Oplus Technologies (acquired by Intel), OpTun (acquired by NeoPhotonics), Panaya, RaySat, Resolute Networks, Sentrigo, Skybox Security, Vollee, Wilocity, and Xeround.
*Elie Wurtman -- investments include: Double Fusion (Former Chairman of the Board), FilesX, Game Array, Gizmoz, GreenRoad Technologies, Funtactix, and Power Challenge.

EIRs [ [http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9873064-7.html Benchmark adds open-source savvy Entrepreneurs in Residence] ] [ [http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/benchmark-capital-adds-four-technology-executives,281218.shtml Benchmark Capital Adds Four Technology Executives] ]
*Rob Bearden [ [http://venturebeat.com/2008/03/25/benchmark-entrepreneur-talks-making-money-from-open-source/ Benchmark entrepreneur talks making money from open source » VentureBeat ] ]
*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" [ [http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/25/friendfeed-raises-5-million-now-open-to-everyone/ FriendFeed Raises $5 Million, Now Open to Everyone ] ]

Publications

External links

* [http://www.benchmark.com/ Benchmark Capital]
* [http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=515515588 Backing Tech Winners]
* [http://iinnovate.blogspot.com/2006/07/andy-rachleff-co-founder-of-benchmark.html Andy Rachleff podcast interview on iinnovate]
* [http://www.abovethecrowd.com/ Bill Gurley's Above the Crowd Newsletter / Blog]

References


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