Venture Capital

Why Facebook Clearly Belongs in the 10X Revenue Club

Posted on February 1, 2012. Filed under: Facebook, Internet, IPO, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech | Tags: , |

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 [...]

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You Don’t Have to Tweet to Twitter

Posted on November 15, 2011. Filed under: advertising, Facebook, Internet, IPO, social networking, Twitter, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , |

Frequent comparisons to Facebook leave many confused about the true value of Twitter. [Follow Me on Twitter] “In a brand new direction A change of perception On a brand new trajection” – UB40 [Disclosure: Benchmark Capital is a major investor in Twitter, and my partner Peter Fenton sits on the Twitter BOD.] Twitter is having a remarkable year. Active [...]

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All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club

Posted on May 24, 2011. Filed under: casual games, Internet, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech |

[Follow Me on Twitter] “ Don’t you know that you are a shooting star, And all the world will love you just as long, As long as you are.”  – Paul Rodgers, Shooting Star With the IPO market now blown wide-open, and the media completely infatuated with frothy trades in the bubbly late stage private market, [...]

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Silicon Valley’s IPO Anxiety

Posted on November 15, 2010. Filed under: Internet, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , |

[Follow Me on Twitter] “Living in the limelight The universal dream For those who wish to seem. Those who wish to be Must put aside the alienation, Get on with the fascination…” — Limelight from Moving Pictures, Rush If you could travel back in time to the early 1990’s and ask Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurs [...]

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Android or iPhone? Wrong Question

Posted on January 5, 2010. Filed under: iphone, Mobile, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , , |

[Follow Me on Twitter] In a recent New York Times article, Kathryn Huberty, a Morgan Stanley analyst was quoted suggesting that Apple’s iPhone is the key catalyst for an important new technology trend. “Applications make the smartphone trend a revolutionary trend – one we haven’t seen in consumer technology for many years.” This argument rings [...]

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Google Redefines Disruption: The “Less Than Free” Business Model

Posted on October 29, 2009. Filed under: Internet, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , , , , , |

[Follow Me on Twitter] I like to think of myself as an aficionado of business disruption. After all, as a venture capitalist it is imperative to understand ways in which a smaller private company can gain the upper hand on a large incumbent. One of the most successful ways to do this is to change [...]

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What Is Really Happening to the Venture Capital Industry?

Posted on August 24, 2009. Filed under: Internet, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , , |

[Follow Me on Twitter] Many are speculating that the year two thousand and nine represents a fundamental turning point for the venture capital industry. Some are arguing that the industry is in dire straits after years of poor performance. Others have argued that the math simply does not work for the industry’s current size. Another theory suggests that permanent challenges with the IPO [...]

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Bill Gurley on the “Free” Business Model

Posted on July 15, 2009. Filed under: advertising, Internet, online video, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, video, Web/Tech | Tags: |

I have been intrigued by the back and forth between Chris Anderson, Malcolm Gladwell, and Mark Cuban on the topic of “Free” as a strategy and business model. For those that haven’t read the articles and posts, I highly reccomend them all. Here they are in a list: 1) Back in February of 2008, Chris [...]

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Bill Gurley’s Online Video Market Snapshot

Posted on May 10, 2009. Filed under: Internet, online video, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, video | Tags: , , , , |

I recently spoke at AlwaysOn’s OnHollywood conference on the subject of today’s extremely dynamic online/Internet video world. Things are moving so amazingly fast that its extremely hard to predict specific outcomes. That said, I believe there are a number of critical issues to understand as we watch this market unfold over the next  few years.  [...]

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Note To Timothy Geithner: Do Startups & Venture Capitalists Really Need More Regulation?

Posted on March 26, 2009. Filed under: Internet, Regulation, Uncategorized, Venture Capital | Tags: , , , , |

Mr. Geithner: In the late 1990′s, in response to the obvious financial shenanigans of large companies like Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom, Washington handed us the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  I have no idea how effective Sarbanes has been at reducing fraud (it obviously did not prevent our current economic malaise), but I do know one thing.  Sarbox created [...]

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    …focusing on the evolution and economics of high technology business and strategy. By day, I am a venture capitalist at Benchmark Capital.

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