All-White-Bro Venture Capital Firm Is Totally Diverse, With So Many Types Of White Dudes
After dealing with the rage-inducing faux-diversity of Ezra Klein's anti-gay gay dude hire, we should have known better to wander into another money for nothing area like the nonsenseville that is venture capital. Just like Klein, these guys have absurd amounts of money, which largely seems to go towards being massive tools. Today's exhibit: Benchmark.
What is Benchmark, you might ask? They're your run-of-the-mill all white guy venture capital firm that has had a lucky streak backing some heavy tech hitters. Good on them. But they want to be different, you guys! They want to be special little snowflakes.
Recently, I made my way down to the relatively new offices of Benchmark in the still-sketchy Tenderloin area of San Francisco for a visit with the foursome that now runs the famous venture firm. That would be Peter Fenton, Matt Cohler, Mitch Lasky and Bill Gurley, who feel a little like a band on a run.
Indeed so. With investments in such hits as Instagram, Uber, Snapchat, Twitter and New Relic, the group is trying to style itself as an artisanal VC rather than a corporate one.
No, really, they actually think that. It isn't just the reporter's framing of the company.
"[Fenton: ] Benchmark, I think, has a very explicit strategy, which we’ve been open about: Our belief that this is more of a guild than a corporation. So, we try to think of it as artisans practicing a craft."
They insist on earning only hand-crafted, certified organic hundred-dollar bills.
I have decided to combat my own personal white oppression by describing myself as artisanal white.