The Matt Cohler Exit Interview

BG: That is correct.

MA: What are some of your investments that have done well.

BG: Currently, I would say probably JamDat and Shopping.com which, both of which went public and sold. Those are some of the more recent ones. I am currently involved with OpenTable, SecondLife, NanoSolar? so a lot of companies that are doing pretty well.

MA: So I was just looking at some of the investments you guys have done, I mean you guys are clearly and top tier venture fund, but I mean its eBay, Juniper Networks, Redhat, MinusQL, OpenTable, Second Life, TellMe, Yelp, Zillo, and FriendFeed, just some of the highlights, some of the companies I would have covered, so clearly some great startups, but I noticed that Facebook isn't on here, and I am wondering, is there some kind of deal with Matt where he had to give you some of his Facebook stock?

BG: No, we didn't get any Facebook stock. Benchmark is a venture firm that has a rather unique structure that we talk about from time to time, it's an equal partnership structure, so there's not a lot of people in this office. Most importantly we don't have what you would call a farm system for bringing talent on, so a lot of the other firms hire a lot of young people out of MBA programs, they develop them, they let them ride shot gun as they go to board meetings; they have a way to promote people

MA: But they don't make a lot of money, they don't get a lot of carry necessarily.

BG: Exactly. Here, for reasons that the founders felt would create a much better team working environment, we split the pie equally.

MA: So how big was the pie last year would you say?

BG: I am not going to answer that.

BG: But anyway, as a result we have to find an alternative way to create generational change and bring new partners on. You can't sit around with the same partners forever if you want a venture firm to be successful year in year out. Plus, we have a very strong philosophy that young people are going to have a big impact on the industry, and always will. When I came on board I was 32.

MA: Matt you are 31?

MC: Yes.