
(Gurley excluded himself from Benchmark’s tenth fund in 2020 though he still serves as a partner of previous funds, attends Benchmark meetings, and holds 10 board seats) Gurley rarely gives interviews these days, but he sat with me for over an hour and opened up about both leaving San Francisco a year and a half ago and stepping back at Benchmark, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms, where he spent more than two decades backing the likes of Uber, Grubhub, Zillow, Stitch Fix, Vudu, and a host of other companies. I literally did not want to be a part of that narrative, because it wasn't the reason why,” Gurley told me as we met for coffee, sitting across from one another in a red booth next to a picture on the wall with the words “we are all bums on strike.” Others were, and I didn't want to get caught up in that. I wasn't making a huge California-Texas thing. “My wife and I have been talking about this for 25 years. And his move back to Texas, where he and his wife are originally from, has largely gone unnoticed until I heard his name thrown around a couple times last week during a trip to Austin and some journalistic sleuthing revealed he had purchased a place.


More from Fortune: 5 side hustles where you may earn over $20,000 per year-all while working from home Looking to make extra cash? This CD has a 5.15% APY right now Buying a house? Here's how much to save This is how much money you need to earn annually to comfortably buy a $600,000 homeīut ever since Gurley and his wife, Amy, quietly sold their home in San Francisco and moved into a skyscraper in downtown Austin, Tex., he’s enjoyed more anonymity than usual.
Benchmark vc series#
And for those well-versed in tech, Gurley is one of the most famous venture capitalists of the last decade-even becoming a main character in the 2022 Showtime television series on Uber, Super Pumped, which highlighted Gurley’s role as one of the first investors to back Travis Kalanick, then later a key player in pushing him out of the company. When Bill Gurley enters a room, people notice.
