![]() ![]() It’s less about precisely replicating your greatest hits as an investor – although that sometimes happens – and more about spotting patterns and similarities. This is where VCs back startups based on a particular technology, niche sector, business model, or type of entrepreneur (or combination of these) that has proven successful in the past. One of the talking points to emerge from the event was the pervasive and often malign influence of ‘pattern recognition’ on venture investing. We recently introduced the first 59 companies from the Techstars Advancing Cities Fund to over 100 VCs and angels at our joint investor summit with J.P. Bruce Dunlevie, General Partner at Benchmark. “In evaluating companies, the successful VC will often see something that reminds them of patterns they’ve seen before.” "We rode the e-commerce wave well, and we're proud of our record." Spurlock puts an optimistic and increasingly popular spin on the economic downtown, saying, "A return to normal business is good.By Kimberly Smith, Chief Capital Formation Officer at Techstars "I don't put much stock in the criticism," says Steve Spurlock, a Benchmark partner. The firm's fourth fund, which closed in 1999, tops $1 billion, and five Benchmark partners-Bruce Dunlevie, Andrew Rachleff, Robert Kagle, Kevin Harvey and Bill Gurley-are on the Forbes Midas List. Other good news: Benchmark opened new overseas offices in London and Israel. , as well as eBay, are still looking good. , a maker of handheld personal devices, e-commerce software developer Though individual investors who bought shares of these companies are hurting, Benchmark may not be. " may be 100% wealthy or they may be 100% lucky," says Jesse Reyes, vice president of Venture Economics, a Newark, N.J.-based VC research firm. Said this month it may have misstated its financial results and put two executives on leave. ![]() , now trading at $5.38, down from a high of $16.50. Other Benchmark companies include, which is down 50% to $5.88 Shares are down 96% from a year ago, and Webvan shares are down 98%. NorthPoint Communications,, and Xantel are defunct, while the much-anticipated A look at Benchmark-funded companies backs up some of these attacks. It's a big change from the glory days just last year, when Benchmark was a media darling and the subject of a flattering book, Eboys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work, by San Jose State University ProfessorĬritics say the firm broke the number one rule of VC investing by backing appealing entrepreneurs rather than winning business models and valuing gut instinct over solid research. Other than that, the firm's eight California partners are staying quiet. The fund is heavily invested in Internet retailers like MVP.com, which last month sold its assets to .īenchmark denies that its third fund is flailing, saying the rumors are without merit. Rumors circulated this year that the firm's $175 million third fund doesn't expect high returns. Now that the Internet stock boom is a bust, some add, Benchmark's future looks less rosy. Critics and industry watchers speculate that Benchmark's amazing track record was just a lucky streak that coincided with the dot-com boom. The drop in Internet stocks has decimated several of Benchmark's favored companies, including ailing Internet retailersĪnd the defunct. ![]() The past two years, however, have been less successful for the Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm. Returns from the firm's $85 million first fund in 1995 brought investors $7.8 billion, making Benchmark a legend. Had a meteoric rise, thanks to a $5 million investment in 1997 in little-known Internet auction house One of the most exalted venture capital firms in Silicon Valley has fallen back to earth. ![]()
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