Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…Yes. Bob and future Benchmark aren't the only ones that come out of this, also August Capital also in 2480 Sand Hill Road. It's in one building. Man, it's so funny. Even in the '90s, we joke about the original Silicon Valley history that there were 10 people and everybody knew each other. This is all going down in one office building. Yeah. For how concentrated tech was, venture was much more concentrated. Before we actually get into the formation of Benchmark here, it is worth lingering on Dave, TVI, and the Microsoft investment for one more moment. When I was looking up what the terms of the deal were for the Microsoft investment, there were some interesting colors shared by Dave about his style of investing. You can see that the seeds of Benchmark really were present in TVI's demeanor toward what they believed about venture investing. Here's an excerpt from Dave Marquardt. "The venture business is an intensely personal relationship business, and it's not an industry that scales well." He says he would never consider adding a value-added service. "Companies should do that themselves. Bill Gates wouldn't let me bring in outside PR people and marketing talent. That's what founders do. My view is that the CEO ultimately is responsible and accountable for everything. They are the ones who make the decisions. The VCs are there to support and be steady." Oh, I love that. I love that you found that.…

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