When Keith Rabois introduced he was leaving Founders Fund to return to Khosla Ventures in January, it got here as a shock to many within the enterprise capital ecosystem — and never simply because Rabois is an enormous identify within the trade.
It was stunning as a result of not like in lots of different fields, enterprise capitalists don’t historically transfer round very a lot — particularly people who attain the companion or common companion stage as Rabois had.
VC funds have 10-year life cycles and companions have good motive to remain that course. In some situations, they could be a “key man” on a agency’s fund, which means that in the event that they depart, the fund’s LPs have the proper to tug their capital out in the event that they select. Many companions and GPs even have a few of their very own cash invested of their corporations’ funds, which provides them additional motive to stay round.
So, whereas big-name investor strikes in enterprise capital aren’t frequent, they appear to have turn out to be so in current months. To date this yr, there have been notable situations of buyers returning to outdated corporations, putting out on their very own or taking a pause from investing fully.
Simply at the moment, Vic Singh, one of many co-founders of Eniac Ventures, introduced he was stepping down from the agency he helped launch in 2009 to launch his personal.
Singh joins a rising checklist of VCs who’ve left corporations just lately.
April
- On April 30, Ethan Kurzweil introduced he was leaving his function as companion at Bessemer Enterprise Companions after 16 years. Kurzweil will likely be launching an early-stage-focused funding agency, in line with reporting from Axios. Kurzweil will launch the agency with Kristina Shen, who left Andreessen Horowitz after 4 years on March 29, and Mark Goldberg, who left Index Ventures after eight years final fall.
- On April 1, Christina Farr introduced that she’d be leaving OMERS Ventures, the place she has served as a principal investor and the lead of the agency’s well being tech apply since December 2020. Farr introduced on X that she’d be engaged on her well being tech e-newsletter, writing a e-book centered on the facility storytelling can have on companies, and consulting well being tech founders.
March
- After six years as a companion at Accel, Ethan Choi introduced that he’d be leaving the agency to go to Khosla Ventures in March. Choi will likely be centered on growth-stage investing at his new agency and has backed such firms as Klaviyo, Pismo and 1Password.
- Whereas most of the current VC strikes have been by of us trying to begin one thing new, or tackle a special alternative, not all of them have been. On March 13, Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital introduced that it fired companions Jay Zaveri and Ravi Tanuku. Bloomberg reported that this was resulting from a matter involving elevating cash for AI startup Groq.
- Rabois was not the one particular person trying to boomerang again to an outdated hang-out on this current rise of investor reshuffling. On March 5, Miles Grimshaw introduced that he’d be returning to Thrive Capital as a common companion after serving the identical place at Benchmark Capital for 3 years. Grimshaw initially began at Thrive Capital in 2013 and has backed such firms as Airtable, Lattice, and Monzo, amongst others.
- Whereas transitioning from operator to VC is a standard profession development within the startup ecosystem, it isn’t for everyone. On March 4, Sam Blond introduced he had come to that conclusion and could be leaving Founders Fund, the place he had been a companion for about 18 months. Blond stated he would return to working and has held roles at firms comparable to Brex, Zenefits and EchoSign.
January
- After 12 years at Andreessen Horowitz, Connie Chan introduced she was leaving the agency on January 23. Chan had served as one of many agency’s common companions the final 5 years and has backed firms comparable to Cider, KoBold and Whatnot.
