When Keith Rabois announced he was leaving Founders Fund to return to Khosla Ventures in January, it came as a shock to many in the venture ecosystem – and not just because Rabois is a big name in the industry.
This was surprising because unlike many other fields, venture capitalists generally don’t move around much, especially those who rise to the partner or general partner level as Rabois had done.
Venture capital funds have life cycles of 10 years and partners have good reasons to maintain this course. In some cases, they may be a “key man” in a company’s fund, meaning that if they leave, the fund’s LPs have the right to withdraw their capital if they wish. Many associates and GPs have also invested some of their own money into their company funds, giving them an added reason to stay.
So while moves by big-name venture capital investors aren’t common, they appear to have become so in recent months. So far this year, there have been notable cases of investors returning to old businesses, striking out on their own, or stopping their investments altogether.
Just TodayVic Singh, one of the co-founders of Eniac Ventures, announced that he was leaving the company he helped launch in 2009 to launch his own.
Singh joins a growing list of venture capital firms that have recently exited their companies:
April
- Ethan Kurzweil announcement he left his role as an associate at Bessemer Venture Partners after 16 years on April 30. Kurzweil will launch an early-stage focused investment company, Axios reports. Kurzweil will launch the company with Kristina Shenwho left Andreessen Horowtiz after four years on March 29, and Mark Goldberg, who left Index Ventures after eight years last fall.
- The 1st of April, Chrissy Farr announcement that she would be leaving OMERs Ventures where she had been a lead investor and head of the firm’s health technology practice since December 2020. Far announced on X that she would work on its health technology newsletter, writing a book focused on the power that storytelling can have on business and consulting with health tech founders.
March
- After six years as an associate at Accel, Ethan Choi announced he would be leaving the company to join Khosla Ventures in March. Choi will focus on growth-stage investments in his new company and has backed companies such as Klaviyo, Pismo and 1Password.
- Although many of the recent venture capital moves have been from people looking to start something new or pursue a different opportunity, not all of them have. March 13, the social capital of Chamath Palihapitiya announcement that he fired partners Jay Zaveri And Ravi Tanuku. Bloomberg reported that this was due to an issue involving fundraising for AI startup Groq.
- Rabois wasn’t the only one looking to return to an old haunt in this recent wave of investor shakeups. On March 5, Miles Grimshaw announced that he will return to Thrive Capital as a general partner after serving in the same role at Benchmark Capital for three years. Grimshaw started at Thrive Capital in 2013 and has backed companies such as Airtable, Lattice and Monzo, among others.
- Although transitioning from operator to VC is a common career progression in the startup ecosystem, it is not suitable for everyone. On March 4, Sam Blond announced that he had come to this conclusion and would be leaving Founders Fund, of which he had been a partner for approximately 18 months. Blond said he would return to operations and has held positions at companies including Brex, Zenefits and EchoSign.
January
- After 12 years at Andreesen Horowitz, Connie Chan announced she was leaving the company on January 23. Chan had been one of the firm’s general partners for the past five years and has backed companies such as Cider, KoBold and Whatnot.
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