Benchmark

Wolf packs share kills equally regardless of who made the takedown. This venture capital firm structured itself the same way. When Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, and their co-founders launched Benchmark in 1995, they created something unprecedented: equal partnership where every partner receives identical economics—same management fees, same carry, no hierarchy. The biological logic is counterintuitive: equal sharing eliminates internal competition, redirecting all predatory energy toward the hunt itself.

The numbers prove the strategy. Benchmark's first eight funds returned 7.5x net of fees. The 1997 eBay investment—$6.7 million for 22.1% of the company—became the defining early-stage bet of the internet era. The 2011 Uber investment ($12 million for 11%) reached $7 billion in value. Snapchat, Twitter, Discord, Zillow, Zendesk—a concentrated portfolio of category-defining companies, not a spray of bets.

Benchmark explicitly rejects the scaling assumption that dominates modern VC. While competitors raise multi-billion dollar funds, Benchmark caps at roughly $425 million. They don't hire platform teams. They don't do growth rounds. Every partner takes board seats. This is apex predator strategy: fewer kills, larger prey, total commitment to each hunt. As Bill Gurley observed before stepping back in 2020 after 21 years: 'The abundance of capital is today's biggest challenge in VC.' More capital doesn't produce better returns—it dilutes focus.

The model has vulnerabilities that exposed themselves publicly. In 2017, Benchmark sued Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick to remove him from the board—unprecedented in Silicon Valley. Nanosolar's founder called them 'the backstabber of all founders.' The tension reveals a biological truth: wolf packs cooperate within the group but are apex predators to everything outside it. When founder and investor interests diverge, the predator emerges. Benchmark's WeWork investment succeeded financially (30-60x return on their $17 million Series A) despite the company's spectacular implosion, proving that VC returns and company outcomes aren't always aligned.

The equal partnership enables what no hierarchy can: clean generational transfer. Benchmark has twice produced the highest-returning fund of its cycle with completely different partner lineups. The pack renews itself while the strategy persists.