We sit down with all five current Benchmark GPs for one of their legendary weekly dinners, during which we ask all of the unresolved burning questions from Part 1. How do THEY think about Benchmark v3? What are their day-to-day emotions trying to keep the equal partnership “bending toward greatness? Why is there no growth fund? What does it take to become the next Benchmark GP? Why is there a secret Principal program? We cover all these and much, much more. We also recorded the whole thing on video — which we highly recommend watching even if you normally only listen to the audio feed! Links:Please take our 2022 Acquired Survey if you have a minute. It'd mean the world to us!Dad hats are live in the Acquired Merch Store! Sponsors:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnMore Acquired!:Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.
Full Episode
I've spent a lot of time in Europe and the dinners are about three hours, maybe three and a half hours long. That's an acquired episode. Yeah. And that's the whole point is that social connection is not something that's transaction. It's fluid. It's fun. It's playful. And so the idea is people are coming out beaming, smiling after a dinner.
As opposed to this sort of rigid structure of a typical dinner with an agenda. There is no agenda.
I don't have an agenda today. The agenda is to come together.
Who got the truth? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? Who got the truth now? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? Sit me down. Say it straight. Another story on the way.
Welcome to Season 11, Episode 5 of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert, and I'm the co-founder and managing director of Seattle-based Pioneer Square Labs and our venture fund, PSL Ventures.
And I'm David Rosenthal, and I'm an angel investor based in San Francisco, where we were for this very episode.
Indeed, and we are your hosts. Last episode, we told the four-hour story of Benchmark, the legendary venture capital firm that stayed small while all their competitors ballooned in size.
At the end of the episode, we mentioned that their partner meeting had this dinner at the end of it, where the five equal partners of Benchmark sit down for an open-ended discussion, sometimes with a special guest.
Well, we were talking with the Benchmark Partners about that last episode, and they invited us to be their guest for one of these dinners, and for the first time ever, record it, even on video. So we are so pumped to share this with all of you. We got to ask them about a lot of the open questions we had. Indeed, indeed.
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