Bill Gurley

Infobox person
name = Bill Gurley


birth_date = May 10, 1966
birth_place = Dickinson, Texas
nationality = American
field = Finance
work_institutions =
alma_mater = University of Florida
University of Texas
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for =
spouse =
prizes =

Bill Gurley is a general partner at Benchmark Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California. His current investments include: Avvo, Glassdoor, LiveOps, Move Networks, Nanosolar, OpenTable, Red 5 Studios, Second Life [ [http://kara.allthingsd.com/2007/1207/venture-summit-has-the-internet-jumped-the-shark Venture Summit: Has the Internet Jumped the Shark? | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD ] ] , Tropos Networks, Vudu, Inc. and Zillow.com [ [http://www.benchmarkcapital.com/sv/general_partners/gurley.shtml Benchmark Capital: Silicon Valley Team: General Partners: Bill Gurley ] ] . His previous investments include: Avamar Technologies (acquired by EMC Corporation), Business.com (acquired by R.H. Donnelley), Crossgain (acquired by BEA Systems), Employease (acquired by Automatic Data Processing), JAMDAT Mobile (IPO: JMDT; acquired by Electronic Arts), Nordstrom.com (acquired by Nordstrom), Shopping.com (IPO: SHOP, acquired by eBay), and The Knot (IPO: KNOT) [http://www.benchmark.com/sv/general_partners/gurley.shtml Benchmark Capital: Silicon Valley Team: General Partners: Bill Gurley ] ] . Gurley was an early investor in green technology with a 2002 Series A investment in Nanosolar [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E7D91138F93AA25755C0A9659C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22amy+cortese%22+nanosolar&st=nyt TECHNOLOGY; $6.5 Million Being Invested In a Venture On Solar Cells - New York Times ] ] . He is listed consistently on the Forbes Midas List [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/99/biz_08midas_The-Midas-List_Comp_Name.html The Midas List - Forbes.com ] ] and is considered one of “technology’s top dealmakers [ [http://www.forbes.com/technology/forbes/2007/0212/049.html Technology's Top Dealmakers - Forbes.com ] ] .”

Before joining Benchmark, Gurley was a partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. He had also spent four years on Wall Street as a research analyst, including 3 years at CS First Boston. He was considered “one of Wall Street’s premier technology analysts [Jeffrey Pfeffer, "The Human Equation". (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998) p.82.] .” He covered companies including Dell, Compaq and Microsoft and was the lead analyst on the Amazon.com IPO [Byran Eisenberg, "Call to Action: Simple Formulas to Improve Online Results". (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2006) p. 27.] .

Prior to his investment career, Gurley was a design engineer at Compaq 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 of Advanced Micro Devices' embedded processor division. With both a financial/business and engineering background he “has a way of sizing things up that makes him both intriguing and highly quotable [ [http://thebrowser.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2006/12/13/bill-gurley-on-flush-vcs-weve-seen-how-this-movie-ends/ Bill Gurley on flush VCs: "We’ve seen how this movie ends." - The Browser: Analyzing the tech biz ] ] ."

Gurley is known for his above average height; he is 6’9” [http://www.businessweek.com/1997/34/b354154.htm 08/25/97 BILL GURLEY-Venture Capitalist, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners ] ] . The title of the newsletter he once authored, “Above the Crowd [ [http://www.abovethecrowd.com/ abovethecrowd.com ] ] ," and the book eBoys that profiles the Benchmark team, both reference his height. The subtitle of eBoys is “The true story of the six tall men who backed eBay, Webvan, and other billion-dollar start-ups [ [http://www.amazon.com/eBoys-Inside-Account-Venture-Capitalists/dp/0345428897/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213058844&sr=8-2 Amazon.com: eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work: Randall E. Stross: Books ] ] ."

Gurley was born in Dickinson, Texas, outside of Houston, on May 10, 1966. Gurley received his MBA from the University of Texas in 1993 and his Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida in 1989, where he was a member of the men’s basketball team. He is married with three children and lives in the Bay Area.

Reference

External links

Bill Gurley and Matt Cohler interview on TechCrunch [http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/19/the-matt-cohler-exit-interview/]

Bill Gurley on CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=515515588September 14, 2007 with Bill Griffeth.

Randall E. Stross, "eBoys : The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work". (New York: Ballantine Books, 2000). ISBN 0-345-42889-7.