Benchmark's new scale

This summer, Benchmark announced two billion dollars across two funds, marking only the second time in its thirty-one-year history that it has veered from raising a far smaller vehicle.

The partners stayed the same

Three of four Benchmark partners interviewed three years ago are no longer with the firm. At TechCrunch Disrupt this week, the venture firm's five current partners portrayed a close-knit team.

The pace stays slow

Benchmark invests at the pace it always has: just two or three new bets per year per partner. The world may be speeding up, but they are not putting the pedal to the metal.

No agenda on Mondays

Benchmark's five partners meet on Mondays with no agenda. They talk about companies they are meeting, what piqued their interest, and what they are seeing in board meetings.

Why Peter Fenton raised more

Benchmark held the core fund at five hundred million dollars for twenty years. Peter Fenton said inflation meant it had to grow to be consistent with the existing economy, which they had not done and…

The growth fund opportunity

Fenton said opportunities came to Benchmark that would have returned somewhere between ten and one thousand times, but they were constricted by their early-stage focus. The new growth fund expands their mandate.

How many bets in the growth fund

Fenton said he would love for Benchmark to have the agony and ecstasy of a concentrated portfolio.

Ev Randall joined late last year

Ev Randall, who joined Benchmark late last year, previously worked at Founders Fund, Bond, and Kleiner Perkins. He said small partnerships allow higher throughput and fidelity in conversations without Byzantine corporate structures.

Why Randall joined Benchmark

Randall said the current crop of general partners was obvious: everyone liked each other and got along, but it went deeper.

Jack Altman joined in February

Jack Altman joined Benchmark in February. A year earlier, he raised a second two hundred seventy-five million dollar fund for his own firm in one week and hosts a hugely popular podcast.

Why Altman left to join Benchmark

Altman said he heard from Benchmark that they want to be the first people founders call, they want to be concentrated, and they just care.

Cerebras was an unusual bet

Eric Vishria invested in Cerebras in spring of two thousand sixteen in the first round. Benchmark had not made a hardware investment in ten years. The founders seemed good and had a very simple thesis.

Fenton flipped on Cerebras

On the Sunday night before Cerebras pitched the partnership, Peter Fenton told Vishria it went against everything he had learned in venture. After the Monday pitch, he had flipped.

Cerebras founders were heretics

Fenton said Andrew and his co-founders are heretics. What they were saying was unorthodox. If it is consensus, why is there a startup, he asked.

“If it's consensus, why is there a startup?”

Cerebras IPO and stock moves

Cerebras priced at one hundred eighty-five dollars when it went public earlier this year, jumped to three hundred fifty dollars, and is back near one hundred eighty-five dollars.

Why AI companies need capital

Vishria said for this crop of AI companies, direct listings are unlikely because they need capital and they need a lot of capital. Cerebras raised six billion dollars. IPOs raise money, which matters.

Character AI bankruptcy and the info environment

Ev Randall said Character AI was the leftover corpse of a company whose founder and team were acquired into Google a year and a half ago and already sold for two point three billion dollars.

The AI ecosystem is healthy

Randall said Benchmark's companies see so much demand they cannot get enough compute to serve customers willing to pay at good gross margins. There is nothing inherently unhealthy about the AI ecosystem.

San Francisco remains the center

Historically, ninety percent-plus of Benchmark's capital returns have come from companies founded in San Francisco. The ecosystem effect when you have a successful company leads to great executives and ambitious people.

Founders are moving to San Francisco

Randall said he is trying to think of a non-San Francisco based company he has met with in the last eighteen months that was not actively saying they were spending time in San Francisco.