Gurley traces Silicon Valley's criticism of IPO unfairness through eBay, Hambrick and Quist, and Google's Dutch auction.
“Pierro Midiard had at eBay calling it undemocratic. You know, Hambrick and Quist, Bill Hambrick, twenty years ago called the IPO an insider's game.”
Gurley notes the two best VCs at the time, Doerr and Moritz, invested in Google when he passed.
“I'd like to highlight, and I always do, the two best venture capitalists in the world at the time, John Doerr and Mike Maritz, kinda locked hands and said yes.”
Gurley argues Google's cage-match ad model generates far higher revenue than transactional models could achieve.
“Their business model is to throw their customers in a cage match and let them compete with one other to the death.”
Gurley argues Google lacks the internal culture to partner in win-win ways due to their cage-match business model.
“In addition to everything I brought up, because their core business model is to throw their customers in a cage match, they don't they don't have the culture internally to partner in a friendly win win way.”
Gurley argues transaction models produce 10x less revenue per visit than ad models due to CAC-to-LTV dynamics.
“You're not going to get to the same revenue per visit with a transaction model that you do with the ad model, because you already mentioned CAC TV.”
Gurley says Google and Apple present completely one-sided partnership terms that would be unacceptable with other parties.
“And you're presented with a set of terms that you would never consider with any other party out there. It's a completely one-sided deal.”
Gurley explains Google's revenue per visit will fall with completed transactions because advertisers pay less for white-label rails.
“Because someone is spending marketing dollars to take that customer to their website and run the transaction with the hopes that they'll come directly back to that website.”
Gurley explains missing Google despite negative signs including Yahoo's collapse and Larry and Sergey both wanting to be CEO.
“These were other search companies, right, at the time. Right. Larry and Sergey both wanted to be CEO and they were PhD students at Stanford.”
Gurley says his biggest career mistake was not pursuing Google when Larry and Sergei presented at 25 employees.
“The there's a there's a notion in venture capital about asymmetric risks. So if you if you you know, the biggest mistake of my career is I had Larry and Sergei present to the partnership when there were 25 employees at Google and we failed to chase the deal.”
Gurley says missing Google at 25 employees was his biggest career mistake, not failed investments.
“I had Larry and Sergei present to the partnership when there were 25 employees at Google and we failed to chase the deal.”
Gurley brought Larry and Sergey to Benchmark at 25 employees but the firm failed to invest in Google.
“I had the, both the fortune and now the, the kind of weight of having brought Larry and Sergey in to present to our partnership when they were 25 employees.”
Gurley clarifies Google presented to Benchmark at 25 employees shortly after he joined the firm.
“I had Larry and Sergei present to the Benchmark partnership shortly after I joined Benchmark with the company had 25 employees, Google.”
“They had 25 employees at the time, to tell you how early it was. And they presented and we failed to chase that.”
Gurley says he brought Larry and Sergei to his partnership but failed to chase the Google investment.
“I met Larry and Sergei, was very early in my career, I brought them into the partnership and they presented and we failed to lay chase.”
“Well, biggest mistake I made in my career is when I was three years into the venture capital business, I met Larry and Sergey at their office with 25 employees.”
Gurley reveals he met Larry and Sergey when Google had 25 employees but Benchmark failed to invest.
“I met Larry and Sergey at their office with 25 employees. They pitched Benchmark, and we failed to invest”
“I disagree, I don't think this has to be "game-over" for Google. I do think they have only one play left now - to pull from their own Android/Kubernetes playbook and fully embrace open-models. It's the obvious move in this situation. Details here: https://t.co/P8rbKhIjzH https://t.co/6qqof6Auhs”
“I disagree, I don't think this has to be "game-over" for Google. I do think they have only one play left now - to pull from their own Android/Kubernetes playbook and fully embrace open-models. It's the obvious move in this situation. Details here: https://t.co/P8rbKhIjzH https://t.co/6qqof6Auhs”