Bill Gurley

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Bill Gurley
Investing, general partner at Benchmark

John William Gurley (born May 10, 1966) is an American businessman. He is a general partner at

San Francisco, California. He is listed consistently on the Forbes Midas List[1][2] and is considered one of the top dealmakers in the American technology industry.[3][4]

Education and early career

John William Gurley was born in

University of Texas McCombs School of Business in 1993.[6]

Prior to his investment career, Gurley was a design engineer at Compaq Computer, where he worked on products such as the 486/50 and Compaq's first multi-processor server. Before Compaq, he worked in the technical marketing group of AMD's embedded processor division.[7]

Gurley was a partner at

Amazon.com IPO.[9]

Benchmark

At Benchmark, Gurley has led investments in and holds board seats on Brighter,

LiveOps, Nextdoor, OpenTable, Sailthru,[13] Scale Computing, Stitch Fix,[14] Vessel,[15] and Zillow.[16]

Other investments of his have included: Avamar Technologies (acquired by

Vudu (acquired by Walmart).[7]

2008 recession

With the economic collapse in the fall of 2008, Gurley garnered attention[17] when he sent a letter[18] to his portfolio companies, advising CEOs to exercise caution in spending but to look for and take advantage of opportunities[19] that become available during harsh economic times. In a 2015 interview Gurley said of private tech investing, "It’s my belief that Silicon Valley and the venture-backed businesses have moved into a world that is both speculative and unsustainable."[20] Gurley’s warnings, and posts on his personal blog,[21] Above the Crowd, on venture capital spending, have been widely discussed in the industry.[22][23] He also advises family offices to be careful before investing in unicorn companies.[24]

In March 2016, Gurley was named VC of the Year at TechCrunch’s annual Crunchies awards.[25]

Uber

Gurley left Uber's board of directors in June 2017. The announcement was released one day after the company announced the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick following months of controversy over Uber's corporate culture.[26][27][28] An advisor for Uber during allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment, Gurley was reportedly instrumental in the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick.

Gurley reportedly had a close relationship with CEO Travis Kalanick. He was Uber’s most engaged board member and the closest thing Mr. Kalanick had to a consigliere.[29] Gurley shared his support for Kalanick on Twitter, stating "There will be many pages in the history books devoted to @travisk - very few entrepreneurs have had such a lasting impact on the world."[30]

In April 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported that Gurley would be stepping back from Benchmark as he was not investing in a new fund that his venture capital firm was raising.[31][32]

In popular culture

A fictionalised version of Gurley portrayed by actor Kyle Chandler appeared in the Showtime drama series Super Pumped.[33]

Personal life

Gurley is known for his above-average height; he is 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m).[34] The title of his blog, Above the Crowd, and the book eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists that profiles the Benchmark team, both reference his height; the subtitle of eBoys is “The true story of the six tall men who backed eBay, Webvan, and other billion-dollar start-ups."[35]

Gurley is married with three children and currently lives in Austin, Texas.[36]

References

  1. ^ "Forbes List Directory". Forbes. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  2. ^ "Bill Gurley". Forbes. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  3. ^ "When Money Looks Easy, It Brings Out The Worst Entrepreneur". www.magzter.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  4. ISSN 0099-9660
    . Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  5. ^ a b "#3 Bill Gurley". Forbes. 2016. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  6. ^ "John William Gurley CFA: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  7. ^ a b Benchmark Capital: Silicon Valley Team: General Partners: Bill Gurley Archived June 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Jeffrey Pfeffer, The Human Equation. (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998) p.82.
  9. ^ Byran Eisenberg, Call to Action: Simple Formulas to Improve Online Results. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2006) p. 27.
  10. ^ Rao, Leena (November 13, 2012). "The Airbnb For Pets, DogVacay, Raises $6M From Benchmark". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  11. ^ "Benchmark Makes 'Contrarian' Bet on Small Grocery Startup in Age of Amazon". Bloomberg.com. May 15, 2018. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  12. ^ Gage, Deborah (May 28, 2014). "HackerOne Emerges With $9 Million to Root Out Software Bugs". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  13. ^ Nisen, Max (February 11, 2013). "Sailthru Raises $19 Million For Using Big Data Respectfully". Business Insider. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
  14. ^ Taylor, Colleen (October 17, 2013). "Stitch Fix, The Online Personal Shopping Startup, Sews Up $12 Million Series B Led By Benchmark". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  15. ^ Kafka, Peter (June 24, 2014). "Jason Kilar's New Startup Has a Name, and a Whole Lot of Money". Re/Code. Re/Code. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  16. ^ "Bill Gurley reunites with Zillow's Spencer Rascoff to talk 'insane curiosity' and finding good leaders". GeekWire. July 2, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  17. ^ How To Survive Great Depression 2.0 Without Firing Everyone article by Henry Blodget on Business Insider October 17, 2008, accessed March 16, 2015
  18. ^ How Tech Start-ups Plan on Getting By
  19. ^ Benchmark Capital Advises Startups To Conserve Capital, Look For Opportunities
  20. ^ Bill Gurley Sees Silicon Valley on a Dangerous Path Wall Street Journal. October 28, 2015
  21. ^ markmilian, Mark Milian. "VC Bill Gurley Tells Startups to Beware of 'Dirty' Fundraising Terms". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  22. ^ "Silicon Valley investor: Unicorn startups are like career college students". Fortune. October 20, 2015. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  23. ^ Isaac, Mike. "Silicon Valley Investor Warns of Bubble at SXSW". Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  24. ^ Talati, Sonia (May 3, 2016). "Unicorns Out to Gore Family Offices". Barron's.
  25. ^ Lardinois, Frederic; Kumparak, Greg. "And The Winners Of The 9th Annual Crunchies Are…". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  26. ^ "Bill Gurley to leave Uber's board of directors – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  27. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  28. ^ "Kalanick Critic to Step Down From Uber Board of Directors". Bloomberg.com. June 21, 2017. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  29. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  30. ^ "Bill Gurley on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  31. ISSN 0099-9660
    . Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  32. ^ "Bill Gurley is stepping away from an active role at Benchmark, 21 years after joining the firm". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  33. ^ Kiefer, Halle (May 27, 2021). "Kyle Chandler to Take You for a Ride in Showtime's Super Pumped". Vulture. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  34. ^ "When $8 billion is yours to lose: How Uber's top investor suffered through the wildest tech drama of the year". CNBC. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
  35. ^ Amazon.com: eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work: Randall E. Stross: Books
  36. ^ Mathews, Jessica (May 16, 2023). "From his new home in Austin, legendary VC Bill Gurley opens up about why he stepped back from Benchmark and his next act". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved November 13, 2019.

Further reading

  • Randall E. Stross, eBoys : The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work. (New York: Ballantine Books, 2000).
    ISBN 0-345-42889-7
    .

External links
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