Zoom to Salesforce: How Emergence Capital Picks Billion-Dollar Winners

Today Molly O’Shea speaks with Founding GP Gordon Ritter & new Partner Yaz El-Baba of $2.3B AUM VC fund Emergence Capital. We cover everything from the IPO window, Stargate, the macro environment, the state of AI, the app layer to infrastructure, preventing the AI plateau, to Emergence’s history & evolution.

Emergence Capital is a venture capital firm known for its specialization in early-stage investments in enterprise cloud software companies. The firm's focus is on businesses that leverage technology to improve workplace productivity, business outcomes, and the customer experience. Emergence is widely regarded as a pioneer in the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) space and has backed some of the most successful companies in the category, such as Salesforce, Veeva, Box, Yammer, Bill.com, Zoom, Blend, and Doximity.

Founded in 2003, Emergence Capital operates with a philosophy of fostering long-term partnerships with entrepreneurs and helping them build world-class companies.

Notable Investments:

Salesforce (CRM software giant)

Zoom (video conferencing leader)

Veeva Systems (cloud solutions for life sciences)

Box (cloud-based content management)

Emergence Capital is recognized for its deep commitment to its portfolio companies and its expertise in scaling enterprise-focused startups.

Stats:

$320B+ Market Cap of Portfolio (current and former)

$2.3B AUM

Six (VI) Funds

100+ Portfolio Companies

20 Exits and Private Valuations Greater than $500 Million

Molly on X: https://x.com/MollySOShea

Gorfon on X: https://x.com/gordonritter

Yaz on X: https://x.com/yazanelbaba

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - Welcome Yaz & Gordon!

1:20 - Current State of VC

6:45 - Emergence's IPOs, Salesforce, Zoom, Bill.com

10:00 - Veeva $37B story

18:10 - Stargate $500B Investment In AI

21:20 - ROI of AI

29:50 - Is SAAS Dead?!

32:30 - Together AI

38:40 - Which Founders Will Win Today?

41:00 - The AI Plateau

58:00 - How Marc Benioff Helped Start Emergence

1:03:10 - Navigating Changes In The Market

1:09:30 - Resolving Partner Tensions In A Fund

1:13:40 - Investment Announcement!

1:16:00 - 1 Deal That You Regret

1:17:50 - Yaz & Gordon's 2025 Outlooks

#podcast #investing #technology #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup #siliconvalley