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Transitioning To a Mobile Centric World 17 Jul 2013 | 10:10 am
“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” — Freewill, Rush If you happen to be a sports fan (I am), one of the coolest features to emerge in our lifetime is the ability to program ...
Grubhub and Seamless: Effecting The Elusive Private-Private Merger 20 May 2013 | 06:39 pm
Today, Seamless and Grubhub announced the signing of a definitive agreement to merge two of the nation’s premier services for ordering takeout online. As Benchmark is a large institutional investor in...
A Rake Too Far: Optimal Platform Pricing Strategy 18 Apr 2013 | 11:11 am
In a casino, the term “rake” refers to the commission that the house earns for operating a poker game. With each hand, a small percentage of the pot is scraped off by the dealer, which in essence beco...
Favorite Longreads of 2012 27 Dec 2012 | 06:08 am
Over the past several years, I have become a huge fan of Mark Armstrong’s web service, Longreads. For those of you that don’t know, Longreads is a Twitter handle (@longreads), and a web service (www.l...
All Markets Are Not Created Equal: 10 Factors To Consider When Evaluating Digital Marketplaces 13 Nov 2012 | 05:54 pm
Since Benchmark’s investment in Ebay 15 years ago, we have been fascinated by online marketplaces. Entrepreneurs accurately recognize that the connective tissue of the Internet provides an opportunity...
Our Most Recent Marketplace Investment, DogVacay from Los Angeles 13 Nov 2012 | 05:54 pm
Earlier today, DogVacay, an exciting new startup in Los Angeles, announced that Benchmark Capital has led its most recent round of financing. DogVacay is an online marketplace that links dog owners wi...
The Dangerous Seduction of the Lifetime Value (LTV) Formula 4 Sep 2012 | 08:13 pm
Many consumer Internet business executives are loyalists of the Lifetime Value model, often referred to as the LTV model or formula. Lifetime value is the net present value of the profit stream of a c...
Social-Mobile-LOCAL: “Local” Will Be The Biggest of the Three 26 Jun 2012 | 02:04 pm
“Well I was born in a small town And I live in a small town Prob’ly die in a small town Oh, those small – communities” — Small Town, John Mellencamp While “Social-Mobile-Local” is certainly an overuse...
Intuit to Acquire Demandforce for $424MM 28 Apr 2012 | 01:15 am
This morning, Intuit announced its agreement to acquire one of Benchmark’s portfolio companies, Demandforce, for $424mm. As with Instagram, Benchmark Capital is the largest institutional investor in D...
My Life With Bing 20 Apr 2012 | 06:50 am
For the past two months, I changed the default search engine on my browser (ironically Chrome) from Google to Bing. I have used Bing almost exclusively for this period, and have two quick conclusions....
