From Investor to Entrepreneur: The Birth of Benchmark Capital

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Exploring Andy's journey from investor to entrepreneur, this chapter delves into the founding of Benchmark Capital with a group of co-founders. It discusses the motivation behind creating Benchmark, the unity among the partners in building the best firm in the industry, and the importance of venture capital for ambitious ventures. Additionally, it highlights the dynamics between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, emphasizing the critical concept of product-market fit in technology startups.

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2021. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant.

Andy is Wealthfront's co-founder and CEO. He serves as chairman of the UPenn endowment investment committee and teaches technology entrepreneurship at Stanford GSB. Previously, Andy co-founded and was general partner of Benchmark Capital.

Top 3 Value Bombs

1. Not every business is meant to be mission-driven. If you build a commodity product, it’s hard to be mission-driven. You have to have an element of changing the world to be mission-driven.

2. You don’t find the idea. They find you from your authenticity to the opportunity because you will recognize that inflection point well before someone else might.

3. Don’t focus on the percentage of times that you’re right. Focus on the magnitude of when you are.

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