Uncategorized
Intuit to Acquire Demandforce for $424MM
This morning, Intuit announced its agreement to acquire one of Benchmark’s portfolio companies, Demandforce, for $424mm. As with Instagram, Benchmark Capital is the largest institutional investor in Demandforce. Unlike Instagram, which is a consumer application and is extremely well known, Demandforce focuses on local professional businesses and has chosen to keep an intentionally low profile [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 13 so far )My Life With Bing
For the past two months, I changed the default search engine on my browser (ironically Chrome) from Google to Bing. I have used Bing almost exclusively for this period, and have two quick conclusions. 1) With regards to core search, the Bing results were perfectly fine. I never struggled to find anything. I never forced [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 10 so far )Why Dropbox Is A Major Disruption
Back in October, Techcrunch announced that Dropbox had raised $250mm at a seemingly absurd valuation. Many firms, including my firm Benchmark Capital, participated. When this happened, many people asked us why this was a special company that would cause us to break our standard investment paradigm. They didn’t quite understand why this was a company that deserved [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 143 so far )Why Facebook Clearly Belongs in the 10X Revenue Club
Attached are my thoughts on the Facebook S-1 along with some quick stabs at valuation. Brief disclosure, Benchmark Capital has a minority position in Facebook as a result of the acquisition of FriendFeed, a company that was incubated in our offices. I thought it would be useful to look at Facebook using the scorecard from our [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 55 so far )Thinking About Diets and Other Complex Matters
[Follow Me on Twitter] Each January, being the season of New Year’s resolutions, it is common to find people you know discussing the pros and cons of various dietary pursuits. Individuals across the globe are eager to turn over a new leaf, get on a new bandwagon, make a new start. Yet, even with a strong will, its not at all obvious what the [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 35 so far )Steve’s Jobs Remarkable Value Creation
In addition to inspiring others and building breakthrough new products, he also lit up the biggest scoreboard in business…the company’s market capitalization…(courtesy of Forbes):
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Understanding Why Netflix Changed Pricing
Many journalists have offered their opinion on Netflix’s recent changes, its stock price decline, and their even more recent branding changes (Qwikster). Yet in each article, it appears as if the journalist all agree that the price move (creating separate prices for streaming and DVDs) was a bad strategic move. As an example, Techcrunch notes: “Raising prices for those of [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 146 so far )On IPOs: If You Are Going To File, Make Sure You Price
As you likely know, I am a big believer that the IPO can play a key role in the development of a company’s life. Moreover, I have argued that many in our ecosystem have an unhealthy anxiety regarding the dangers and consequences of being public. Lastly, I have argued that the IPO window is wide [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 9 so far )« Previous Entries
