Vol 6 – Bill Gurley’s Running Down a Dream Speech for the MBA Class in the University of Texas

Benchmark capital has defined the standards for how a VC business is run. Across 22 years they have built a franchise which I believe would be hard to replicate, let alone beating their performance track record of their funds. The firm has been run by 3-4 partners at any point of time who run the end-to-end deal sourcing, working with the startup and the founders, being on the board and managing the exit. As they like to say, they are not investing in the start-up or the business but are investing in the vision of the founders.

Bill Gurley who has been a partner at Benchmark stepped down recently as a GP and has an enviable track record across 15 years of him being the GP at Benchmark.

In this speech to students of the MBA Class at Texas, Bill takes the audience through the memory lane of history breaking down the characteristics of a successful founder. At the core of success, is a deep insatiable curiosity of learning and building from first principles. Each of the founders that Bill references have common traits that Bill beautifully brings out – be it the most famous musician or the renowned chef who went on to found Shake Shacks.

Click the link to have a watch : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmYekD6-PZ8