Bill Gurley (born May 10, 1966) is General Partner at Benchmark, a Silicon Valley VC firm based in Menlo Park. As one of the top dealmakers in the technology industry, he is regularly featured on Forbes’ Midas List.
Bill Gurley Early Life
A suburb of Houston, John William Gurley entered the world on May 10, 1966, in Dickinson, Texas. In 1989, Gurley earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida. He participated in basketball for the Gators while he was a student at UF. In 1993, Gurley earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business.
Gurley worked as a design engineer at Compaq Computer on devices including the 486/50 and the company’s first multi-processor server before transitioning to the investment industry. Before joining Compaq, he was a member of the technical marketing team for the embedded processor division at Advanced Micro Devices.
Once upon a time, Gurley was a partner with Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. He also has four years of experience as a research analyst on Wall Street, three of which were with CS First Boston. “one of Wall Street’s best technology analysts” was how he was described to the press.” He was the primary analyst on the Amazon.com IPO and covered businesses like Dell, Compaq, and Microsoft.
Bill Gurley Benchmark
In addition to sitting on the boards of Benchmark companies like Nextdoor, OpenTable, Sailthru, Scale Computing, Stitch Fix, Vessel, and Zillow, Gurley has also led investments in companies like Brighter, DogVacay, Good Eggs, GrubHub, HackerOne, Linden Lab, LiveOps, and Zillow.
For example, he has put money into companies like Avamar Technologies (which was acquired by EMC Corporation), Business.com (which was acquired by R.H. Donnelley), Clicker.com (which was acquired by CBS Interactive), Demandforce (which was acquired by Intuit), Employees (which was acquired by Automatic Data Processing), JAMDAT Mobile (which was acquired by Electronic Arts), Nordstrom.com (which was acquired by Nordstrom), Shopping.com (which was acquired by eBay), The Kno (acquired by Walmart)
This past fall, I had the opportunity to give at presentation at @UTexasMcCombs on the topic of pursuing your “dream job.” Many years in the making, I hope it is helpful to those that are navigating their career journey. https://t.co/ePWC3BjUWA
— Bill Gurley (@bgurley) March 9, 2019
Uber
In June of 2017, Gurley resigned from the board of directors at Uber. The news came a day after the business announced the departure of CEO Travis Kalanick amid months of scrutiny of Uber’s work environment. Gurley, an Uber advisor, reportedly played a significant role in forcing CEO Travis Kalanick to resign after the company faced claims of misconduct and s*xual harassment.
As the story goes, Gurley and CEO Travis Kalanick was quite close. Mr. Kalanick’s closest approximation to a consigliere, and the most active board member, was this man. On Twitter, Gurley gushed over Kalanick, writing, “There will be many volumes in the history books devoted to @travisk – few entrepreneurs have had such a lasting impact on the globe.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in April 2020 that Gurley was leaving Benchmark because he was not contributing to a new fund being raised by the venture capital firm.
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Bill Gurley Personal Life
Gurley is at a towering 6 feet, 9 inches tall, giving him a noticeable physical advantage. eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists, which highlights the Benchmark team, is subtitled “The true story of the six tall men who funded eBay, Webvan, and other billion-dollar start-ups,” a reference to both his height and the name of his blog, Above the Crowd.”
Currently residing in Atherton, California, Gurley is a married father of three.
Best time in 15 years to start a company. Right now. https://t.co/Vh0WUD5JN6
— Bill Gurley (@bgurley) September 26, 2022
Why Does Venture Financier Bill Gurley Hate Modest Layoff Rounds?
Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, said he “hates” layoffs of less than ten employees in a podcast interview because the company “gets 100 percent of the pain and very little gain.”
For their audio series “The Quarterly Interview: Provocations to Ponder,” McKinsey & Company spoke with Gurley, a general partner at VC firm Benchmark, about the state of startups in the current environment. Companies including Grubhub, OpenTable, and Uber have received funding from Gurley.
Editor-in-chief of “McKinsey Quarterly” Rick Tetzeli spoke with Gurley for the episode. The episode begins with Tetzeli informing Gurley that the stock trading and investing app Robinhood was firing 23% of its staff.
Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist in the Valley, “Hates” Mini-Fires. “You Suffer Completely Without Reward.” Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, has been quoted as saying, “I despise” periodic layoffs. You go through it all with very little benefit.
Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, has expressed his “hatred” of periodic, minor layoffs. Saying, “You go through it all for very little reward,”
Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, recently did a podcast interview about the state of startups in the current economy. Gurley, in the interview, argued that firing fewer employees causes more distress for “very little gain.”
Bill Gurley, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, stated he “hates” minor layoffs of between 5 and 10% of the personnel because companies “get 100% of the agony and very little gain.”
On the McKinsey & Company podcast series “The Quarterly Interview: Provocations to Ponder,” a general partner at VC firm Benchmark Gurley discussed the state of startups in the current economic climate. Companies including Grubhub, OpenTable, and Uber have received funding from Gurley.
Editor-in-chief of “McKinsey Quarterly” Rick Tetzeli spoke with Gurley for the episode. The episode begins with Tetzeli informing Gurley that the stock trading and investing app Robinhood was firing 23% of its staff.
The 6-part video series will highlight the potential of the Indian SaaS industry in the coming decades and capture the vision of its leaders. In contrast to “had broadscale layoffs” in 2001 and 2009, which “happen so infrequently” now, according to Gurley. He compared Robinhood’s 23 percent decrease to a layoff size “that actually makes sense.”
Tetzeli informed Gurley that Robinhood had previously eliminated nine percent of its personnel prior to the 23% reduction. Gurley remarked in the podcast, “I despise the 5 to 10 percent layoffs.” “There is no discernible benefit to cutting costs. Still, you have to deal with the social consequences of having fired people.”
Gurley continued by saying that laying off “two or three” people is the inevitable result of decreasing even a modest percentage of the workforce.
Is Bill Gurley a Billionaire? How Does He Make Money?
Gurley has earned a stellar reputation as a venture capitalist, earning him a spot on Forbes’ annual “Midas List.” Bill Gurley has an $8 billion fortune in 2022. The 10th of May, 1966 saw the birth of John William Gurley in Dickinson, Texas.
The $11 million bet that Gurley, the longest-tenured partner at Benchmark, made on Uber in 2011 is still the company’s most famous investment. GrubHub, Zillow, Glassdoor, Sailthru, Vessel, DogVacay, and Brighter are just some of Gurley’s other investments that have been acquired.
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