Bill Gurley

Bill Gurley is a general partner at Benchmark Capital, known for early investments in eBay, OpenTable, Zillow, and Uber. He became a central figure in Uber's governance crisis when he led the effort to remove CEO Travis Kalanick. Gurley is known for his "Above the Crowd" blog where he has been an outspoken critic of inflated private valuations, burn rates, and the "growth at all costs" mentality in Silicon Valley. He consistently argues that unit economics and path to profitability should be central to VC evaluation, not just revenue growth. His prescient warnings about unsustainable startup valuations, published years before the 2022 correction in technology valuations, demonstrated the value of first-principles business analysis over momentum-driven investing — a perspective that has only grown more influential as the venture market has grappled with the consequences of the 2021 valuation peak.