Exclusive: Uber shareholder group wants Benchmark off board
A group of Uber investors has asked that venture capital firm Benchmark step down from the company's board of directors, Axios has learned. It also wants Benchmark to divest enough shares so as to no longer have board appointment rights, claiming to have enough investor interest to handle more than a $6 billion sale. The move comes one day after Benchmark sued former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick for fraud, in an attempt to have him removed from the board. Benchmark has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Why it matters: It was shocking enough for a major venture capital firm to sue the CEO of a highly-valuable portfolio company. For other VC firms to then make this sort of counter-move against a peer is similarly unprecedented. It's a brave new world in Silicon Valley.
[ Axios ]
RELATED : Benchmark Capital Shocked, Shocked To Discover Kalanick’s Flaws
Benchmark's Uber Suit Signals End of Era for Imperious Founders
Uber’s board says it is ‘disappointed’ by the Benchmark lawsuit against Travis Kalanick
Uber’s board — facing a deep and divisive legal war between the car-hailing company’s biggest investor, Benchmark Capital, and its co-founder and ousted CEO Travis Kalanick — said in a statement that it was “disappointed” in the lawsuit Benchmark filed Friday. The board’s statement, emailed to Uber staff on Friday, effectively declined to endorse Benchmark’s explosive lawsuit and
sidesteps the merits of the case altogether. The statement, signed by all board members who are not Kalanick and Benchmark’s Matt Cohler, said the board “has urged both parties to resolve the matter cooperatively and quickly.
Stanford's Strebulaev Says Unicorns Are Overvalued
Ilya Strebulaev, a Stanford University professor, explains why he thinks tech unicorns are overvalued. He speaks with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Technology."
[ Bloomberg ]
I'm a woman in computer science. Let me ladysplain the Google memo to you
I’m a lecturer in computer science at Stanford. I’ve taught at least four different programming languages, including assembly. I’ve had a single-digit employee number in a startup. Yes, I’m a woman in tech. I have known, worked for, and taught countless men who could have written the now-infamous Google “manifesto” — or who are on some level persuaded by it. Given these facts, I’d like to treat it — and them — with some degree of charity and try to explain why it generated so much outrage. [ Vox ]
Some startup founders are ‘nervous’ about dealing with Benchmark after it sued Uber
Gabriel Puliatti is an up-and-coming company CEO who, at some point in his career, will need to raise money from investors. Don’t count on Benchmark Capital being one of them. After Benchmark filed an unprecedented lawsuit against Uber’s former CEO on Thursday, Puliatti now says there is “no way” that he will accept an investment from one of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious venture capital
firms. And he’s not alone. In the immediate aftermath of the suit, Benchmark is facing a sharp backlash from founders who are concerned that the firm is not as supportive of founders as all firms stylize themselves to be. [ Recode ]
LAUNCH Angel Summit: Esther Dyson on angel investing, jobs, health, AR, VR & self-driving cars
Filmed live on stage at the 2017 LAUNCH Angel Summit in Napa Valley, Jason interviews Esther Dyson, journalist and technology investor turned wellness enthusiast, who is on a mission to better health by rethinking and recreating the environment in which it can thrive. In this special episode of TWiST, Jason and Esther discuss the progression of angel investing over the years, the complexities around U.S. and Russia relations, predictions of AR, VR, & self-driving cars, real-world issues including diabetes and income volatility, and more.
Investor Spotlight: The rapid rise of Thoma Bravo
It’s possible that the two firms most responsible for the rise of the LBO in the 1980s were KKR and Golder Thoma. While KKR famously pioneered the hostile mega-buyout, assuming the role of barbarian at the gate, Golder Thoma developed a different tactic: the buy-and-build strategy, using one company as a platform for add-ons as a way to drive growth.
But nothing lasts forever, particularly in an industry driven by five-year horizons. Both famous firms were bound for equally famous divorces. In 1987, Jerome Kohlberg left KKR to form Kohlberg & Co. and return to his roots in the middle market. A little more than a decade later, Golder Thoma underwent a split of its own. The result was the formation of the firms today known as GTCR and Thoma Bravo, two shops that retain significant presences on the private equity scene. [ PitchBook ]
To Fit Into Silicon Valley, Wear These Wool Shoes
Silicon Valley goes through its own unique shoe crazes. There were Vibrams. There were Crocs. Now comes the Allbird, a knit wool loafer. In uncomfortable times, Silicon Valley has turned to a comfortable shoe. If there’s a venture capitalist nearby, there’s probably a pair of Allbirds, too. The Google co-founder Larry Page wears Allbirds, according to the shoemaker, as do the former Twitter chief Dick Costolo and the venture capitalists Ben Horowitz and Mary Meeker.
[ NY Times ]