Bill Gurley | |
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 Gurley in 2013 | |
| Born | John William Gurley May 10, 1966 (1966-05-10) (age 59) Dickinson, Texas, U.S. |
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| Known for | Investing, general partner atBenchmark |
John William Gurley (born May 10, 1966) is an Americanventure capitalist. He is a general partner atBenchmark, aSilicon Valley venture capital firm inSan Francisco, California.
John William Gurley was born inDickinson, Texas, outside ofHouston, on May 10, 1966. Gurley graduated from theUniversity of Florida in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree.[1] While at theUniversity of Florida, he was a member of the men’s basketball team.[1] Gurley received hisMasters of Business Administration degree from theUniversity of TexasMcCombs School of Business in 1993.[2]
Prior to his investment career, Gurley was a design engineer atCompaq Computer, where he worked on products such as the 486/50 and Compaq's first multi-processor server. Before Compaq, he worked in the technical marketing group ofAMD's embedded processor division.[3]
Gurley was a partner atHummer Winblad Venture Partners. He spent four years on Wall Street as a research analyst, including three years atCS First Boston. AuthorJeffrey Pfeffer called him “one of Wall Street’s premier technology analysts."[4] He covered companies includingDell, Compaq andMicrosoft and was the lead analyst on theAmazon.com IPO.[5]
At Benchmark, Gurley has led investments in and holds (or held) board seats on Brighter,DogVacay,[6] Good Eggs,[7]GrubHub,HackerOne,[8]Linden Lab,LiveOps,Nextdoor,OpenTable, Sailthru,[9] Scale Computing,[10]Stitch Fix,[11] Vessel,[12] andZillow.[13]
Other investments of his have included: Avamar Technologies (acquired byEMC Corporation),Business.com (acquired byR.H. Donnelley),Clicker.com (acquired byCBS Interactive), Demandforce (acquired byIntuit), Employease (acquired byADP, Inc.),JAMDAT Mobile (acquired byElectronic Arts), Nordstrom.com (acquired byNordstrom),Shopping.com (acquired byeBay), The Knot,Uber, andVudu (acquired byWalmart).[3] He is listed consistently on theForbes Midas List.[14]
With the economic collapse in the fall of 2008, Gurley garnered attention[15] when he sent a letter[16] to his portfolio companies, advising CEOs to exercise caution in spending but to look for and take advantage of opportunities[17] that become available during harsh economic times. In a 2015 interview Gurley said of private tech investing, "It’s my belief that Silicon Valley and the venture-backed businesses have moved into a world that is both speculative and unsustainable."[18] Gurley’s warnings, and posts on his personal blog,[19] Above the Crowd, on venture capital spending, have been widely discussed in the industry.[20][21]
In March 2016, Gurley was named VC of the Year atTechCrunch’s annual Crunchies awards.[22]
Gurley has been a proponent of direct listings, an alternative to a traditionalinitial public offering as a method for going public.[23] He argues that the costs of going public in the U.S. with a traditional IPO are too high, especially for venture capital-backed tech companies.[24] The problem, in his view, is that investment banks on average set an offer price that is lower than what investors are willing to pay, resulting in the company needing to sell more shares to raise a given amount of cash. This additional share issuance dilutes the value of the shares held by the pre-issue shareholders, including company founders and employees. With a direct listing, a company issues a prospectus and the stock starts trading at a price that is determined by supply and demand.
Gurley left Uber's board of directors in June 2017. The announcement was released one day after the company announced the resignation of CEO Travis Kalanick following months of controversy overUber's corporate culture.[25][26]
Gurley reportedly initially had a close relationship with CEOTravis Kalanick. He was Uber’s most engaged board member and the closest thing Mr. Kalanick had to aconsigliere.[27] Eventually, however, as described in Chapter 28 of Mike Isaac's bookSuper Pumped, Gurley soured on Kalanick.[28] Gurley shared his support for Kalanick on Twitter, stating "There will be many pages in the history books devoted to @travisk - very few entrepreneurs have had such a lasting impact on the world."[29]
In April 2020,The Wall Street Journal reported that Gurley would be stepping back from Benchmark as he was not investing in a new fund that his venture capital firm was raising.[30][31]
A fictionalized version of Gurley portrayed by actorKyle Chandler appeared in theShowtime drama seriesSuper Pumped.[32]
Gurley is known for his above-average height; he is 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m).[33] The title of his blog,Above the Crowd, and the bookeBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists that profiles the Benchmark team, both reference his height; the subtitle ofeBoys is “The true story of the six tall men who backedeBay,Webvan, and other billion-dollar start-ups."[34]
Gurley is married with three children and currently lives inAustin, Texas.[35][36]
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