Greylock

We - Greylock - have a long history of partnering with founders starting at day one through IPO. We are excited to share new steps in that effort: 1/ Fund 17, our newest $1B early-stage fund focused on Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A founders in enterprise & consumer software - specifically AI-first companies across Cyber, Infra, SaaS, Consumer, Marketplaces & Commerce, and Fintech & Crypto. 2/ Edge, a bespoke program to help founders initiate new companies by harnessing the full potential of Greylock’s resources & expertise. Our team works directly with founders to brainstorm & iterate foundational decisions with fully flexible financing options. (visit greylock.com/edge for more info) We are privileged to be early partners to Airbnb, AppDynamics, LinkedIn, Meta, Palo Alto Networks, Okta, Workday and more recently, Abnormal Security, Cato Networks, Discord, Figma, Lyra Health and Rubrik. We can't wait to help the next gen of founders go from idea to iconic.

🚀 Do you want to be part of the next big thing? 🚀 The talent team at Greylock helps engineering, design, product management, operations, and go-to-market professionals join companies across our portfolio, with a strong emphasis on earlier stage companies, many of which are in stealth or not public yet. Our team prioritizes your motivations and doing the right thing to help people find the best next opportunity for their career. Even if you’re just thinking about whether to take on a new role or want to connect proactively, we’d love to chat. Join the Greylock talent network: https://bit.ly/4guzElh

🏆 Cato Networks has been named to the 2024 CRN Edge Computing 100 list. Cato was recognized in the Edge Hardware, Software and Services category for introducing Cato XDR/Cato EPP in January and Network Stories for Cato XDR in March. 🔗 Story: https://bit.ly/3CmHD42

"How much ARR do I need to raise a Series A?" This is a question we at Greylock get all the time. We talked about this at last week's TechCrunch Disrupt panel. The short answer is there is no magic number that automatically leads to a Series A. Instead, what we are looking for is the quality of the existing customer base. We'd rather a company have fewer but more discerning customers in their target ICP at strong ACVs that sets the base for a repeatable and scalable sales motion, rather than a higher top-line ARR that isn't repeatable. For more on the panel, see full video here: https://lnkd.in/gK4v8KBE

Now Hiring: Series A Companies We at Greylock are focused on backing founders on day one and working with them through their company’s lifecycle. Several companies that we first partnered with at the seed stage and have since raised a Series A are hiring. Check out some of the open jobs, all based in San Francisco: Senior Product Manager: https://lnkd.in/gwh4tNJ2 Staff Software Engineer - Systems: https://lnkd.in/g_hVrXC7 SDR/BDR - Enterprise Software: https://lnkd.in/gZzJNmKy Introduce yourself: We help talented engineers, designers, sales, and product leaders join the next iconic tech companies.  If you are interested in joining an early stage Greylock-backed startup now, or just want to connect for future opportunities, we would love to hear from you.  >> Connect with us: https://greylock.com/jobs

At TechCrunch Disrupt earlier this week, I was fortunate to speak on the topic of what founders need to know when going from seed to Series A. When it comes to milestones, one of the things that what matters most is quality of the customer base - and Braintrust is a perfect example of this. When Greylock invested in Braintrust at the seed Ankur Goyal was only a few months into the company but already working with some of the best AI builders in the industry like Coda, Zapier, Airtable, Replit. Between the Seed and the A, Braintrust stayed laser focused on partnering with the best AI builders and grew their customer base with some of the best names in the industry like Stripe, Notion, Instacart, Brex, Vercel and more. This ruthless focus on AI tastemakers, people building AI products that all of us would aspire to, has allowed them to become the leading LLM evaluation product in the market, and raise an impressive series A with us, Elad Gil, and with Andreessen Horowitz leading.

Congrats to Abnormal Security, Cato Networks, Cribl, Dazz, Upwind Security, and Wiz for being featured on the Fortune Cyber 60. There's no doubt that cybersecurity is more important than ever. We at Greylock are proud to partner with these companies as they help enterprises protect themselves against the ever-growing and evolving threat landscape. https://lnkd.in/gdAHwEi6

Today's newsletter recaps Greylock partner Corinne Marie Riley's session at TechCrunch Disrupt focused on what founders need to know when going from seed to Series A. She notes how we like to see repeatable ARR that targets the ideal customer profile, and the importance of a product that can dovetail into a large scale company. Read on for more insights 👇

Introducing the all-new Cresta Voice Virtual Agent! Finally, a unified platform for both human and virtual agents helping you deliver efficient, effective, and delightful customer experiences. Curious how? Read the full announcement here:  https://lnkd.in/dWYBE7gC 

After hitting 6 years at Greylock yesterday, here is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen founders make. With a limited window to make a startup work, it's baffling that founders don’t take hiring seriously or make this a top priority. And for all the due diligence investors do on founders, is the same being done on the firm a founder is considering as a long term partner? Before you sign that term sheet, ask yourself: How well do you really know the VC firm offering it? Beyond the capital, are you sure they’ll deliver the talent support they’re promising? Many founders make the mistake of taking VC recruiting services at face value—only to discover later that they’re left doing most of the heavy lifting. (And, in some cases, they may even charge startups for this support which is wrong for so many reasons.) If talent support is part of the VC firm’s pitch, it’s more than reasonable for founders to dig deeper and understand what that really means for your startup. Here are a few things to consider: • When and how do the talent partners get involved? Are they embedded in your hiring process early or after the fact? • Do they truly understand your company’s unique needs, both in terms of skills and culture fit? • What are the backgrounds of the talent team members? Have they been a part of anything significant? Do they have a track record of building startups or have tenure at a company that scaled quickly? • Are they proactively sending you high-quality leads that are a good fit and potentially a warm introduction? Or are you getting lists of names or random people applying on their portal? • How hands-on are they in the interview process? Are they a partner in shaping your strategy, or do they step in with canned “one size fits all” content? Can they teach you something about hiring? • Do they deliver value as part of the investment, or is there an extra fee for these services? • Other founders’ feedback can also give you a window into how the talent team works. Did they feel heard and supported by a trusted talent partner? Do those founders boast key hires from that firm's support? What’s the ratio of quality to quantity in the leads they provide? Did they come away with a scalable hiring process or learning for future growth? After some diligence, ask yourself: What’s the track record and will the support from this firm be beyond just the dollars? In the end, great recruiting work and support can make or break your team in the early days. How have you seen VC talent teams add (or not add) value to your startup? Would love to hear your thoughts! 👇