Bill Gurley and Benchmark
General partner at Benchmark and an early investor and board member at Uber.
Bill Gurley writes about market size and marketplaces on his blog, Above the Crowd. His ideas run through the toolbox: don't size a new product by the old market it replaces, and care more about liquidity quality in one market than about how broad you are. Benchmark's co-founder Andy Rachleff gave his name to Rachleff's law.
Read Bill Gurley directlyIdeas
- Why VCs need huge outcomes, and what it means for your pitch
Venture returns come from a handful of companies, so investors look for ones that can be among them. Andy Rachleff's numbers, and what they mean for you.
- Rachleff's law: why market beats team and product
Rachleff's law of startup success, as Marc Andreessen wrote it down: the number one company killer is lack of market. What it means for your deck.
- Non-consensus and right: why the best startups look wrong at first
Andy Rachleff on why outstanding returns need ideas that are right and non-consensus, and Howard Marks on why they feel lonely at first.
- Traction quality: why depth in one market beats breadth
Bill Gurley's liquidity quality: why passionate, frequent use in one small market beats expanding to ten cities, and how to show it in your deck.
Guides built on their advice
- How to show market size in your pitch deck
What the market slide must prove, why TAM, SAM and SOM say little on their own, and Gurley on not capping your market at today's size.
Best resources
- How to miss by a mile · Bill Gurley
Why today's market is the wrong ceiling for a new product.
- Bill Gurley on liquidity quality · Bill Gurley (Invest Like the Best, 2019)
Why depth in one market beats breadth.
- Above the Crowd · Bill Gurley
His blog on markets and marketplaces.
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