Divya Raghavan

@gimletlabs @MenloVentures @EclipseVentures @TriatomicCap Congrats, Zain and team. Look forward to being part of this!

We're thrilled to announce Gimlet Labs' Series A funding, led by @MenloVentures, and joined by @EclipseVentures, Factory, Prosperity7, and @TriatomicCap. Read more here: gimletlabs.ai/blog/announcin…

@jaltma Congratulations on the move!

I’m really excited to share that I’m joining Benchmark. The past two years as a full time investor have been the most rewarding of my career. I really love venture capital, which is not something I ever imagined I’d say when I was kid, but here we are. I love new ideas and being part of a team with a mission. I love getting to be there for people who are struggling towards goals they really care about. I love learning from people who are better CEOs than I ever was. I love the texture of the work, the competition, and the way the job lets you invest in relationships. I love it so much that I’ve even turned into a little venture nerd with a podcast who goes around harassing great investors and founders, trying to learn as much as I can as fast as possible. I’ve certainly learned what I care most about, and what kind of investor I want to be. What I’ve realized is that I love investing at the Series A, when there’s enough going on that an investor can be useful but not so much that you can’t have an impact. I think there are many amazing ways to practice venture, it’s just the way that most speaks to me. And as I came to realize that, I started to think about how to best set myself up to do that craft as well as possible. It became clear to me there is nowhere better for this than Benchmark; the way they’re structured, their principles, their overall approach to investing, and their track record all create an environment that I believe will let me do my best work as an investor and help founders the most I possibly can. As I’ve gotten to know the team at Benchmark I’ve come to admire so much about each of them. Peter is truly playing his own game. A lot of what he says sounds like poetry at first, but as the ideas roll around in your head for a while you realize how much depth they have. I first heard about Eric many years ago from my friend Saji at Benchling while I was building Lattice, who described him as the most amazing board member and attributed him with a lot of the company’s success. That’s the kind of partner I want to be one day. Chetan is brilliant and truly thinks for himself; I’ve realized over time what a courageous guy he is. And then there’s my friend Ev, whose skills complement mine and who I just love to be around. I can’t wait to have him as a partner in crime. When given the chance to work with this group I just knew I had to go. One of my motivating north stars with Alt Capital was to build a firm and be a partner that I most would have wanted as an entrepreneur. Although I haven’t gotten everywhere I want to be yet, I’m proud of the work so far. And now I’m excited to build on that work at Benchmark, where I hope to increase my rate of learning and get armed with the power of a partnership so I can help founders reach their dreams even more. Thank you to the companies who’ve let me invest with them at Alt Cap. I’m keeping all my board seats and supporting everyone just the same as before. Thank you to the LPs who’ve backed me as well. I am so excited about the portfolio we have and am grateful I can stick with all those companies. And finally thank you to my teammates, Bala, Vivek, and Nate. Bala took a bet on me and started investing with me before it was remotely obvious, and we’ve been able to grow so much figuring it out together as investors. I credit Nate with helping Alt start feeling like a firm. He joined us from First Round over a year ago and made everything run smoothly. And while Vivek joined just a little while ago, even in the short time we’ve worked together he’s had a meaningful impact on how we think and invest. They’re all joining Benchmark with me. So pumped for this chapter.

At #RSAC2023 this week! Hit me up if you are there

Open invitation to apply for the @costanoavc Access Fellowship. We love introducing new people to venture capital. It's advanced the careers of all our fellows & introduced us to some amazing people. costanoa.vc/open-invitatio…

@pitdesi Web Whatsapp them to your partner and write "ignore.for my future reference"

how do you send images or links to yourself? from computer to phone and v-v. I have an empty whatsapp group and use that to send notes and images to myself. Works fine but wondering if there is a better way.

Some reflections on the past few years in startups & venture capital. And what the road ahead may feel like. bothsidesofthetable.com/praying-to-the…

@AllRaise Burn the ship! (aka never look back)

Founders: If you wrote a book about your journey, what would the title be? 📚

I deeply value the role of journalism and the press in modern society. @Rachel_R_Romer makes a fair point about fair treatment by the media.

@saranormous @w_conviction Congratulations Sarah!

Some personal news: We raised $100M for @w_conviction, an new early-stage venture capital firm purpose-built for Software 3.0 sarahguo.com/blog/conviction

What is it with conference ticket prices? Why have in person conference tickets gotten so expensive post pandemic???

How #startups can build a product-led growth company & what can you learn from leading #PLG companies? Dive into 8 practical tips and case studies 👇👇 buff.ly/3S6pXg3 (words by @div263) #playbooks

@gsands Or you are more than welcome to babysit ours!

This is boring. Let’s have children - again.

Thanks for this excellent write-up @TaliaGold. We at @ngpcapital follow a similar approach. This is also a great tool to track company performance post-investment!

@nbt 4/5 ✅

Almost every VC’s background: -Parents who are immigrants and/or entrepreneurial -Attended Ivy/Stanford/MIT -Worked in big tech/finance/startup -Got to know founders and future founders along the way, helped/angel invested in them -Accidentally fell into the VC industry

@barrald Opensource at the application layer is probably not a good idea. The more you let customizations, the more painful the upgrade process. IMO opensource is best suited for infra and middleware

Are there good examples of successful open-source products at the *application layer*?

"More fiction has been written in Excel than in Word" - borrowing from @Ilsoe

@saranormous @GreylockVC Excited for whats in store! And congrats!

1/ After almost a decade of incubating and investing in startups at @GreylockVC, I have decided to start something new! 🌱

Going to be in Boston the week of May 23rd. Who are awesome folks in the enterprise infrastructure space that I should meet? DMs open!

@saranormous Thanks for sharing this story. Growing up in an entrepreneurial household myself, this really struck a chord.

1/ A quick personal story for this macro. A formative experience for me as a kid was the dot-com crash. My parents *both* still worked for then-unstoppable behemoth Bell Labs (Lucent).

I can't agree more. Spot on in terms of the market perception of the three cloud players.