No agenda, no rush, no leaving San Francisco: Benchmark’s partners on investing in a frenzied market
THE SO WHAT
When a top-tier firm leans into patience and locality while everyone else chases AI velocity and geography arbitrage, it’s a bet that true outliers are still relationship- and craft-driven, not auction-driven. For founders, that means the bar for partnering with these funds is higher — but so is the expectation that they’ll underwrite real company-building, not just the next markup.
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