As the year 2021 ended, The Exchange wondered what would happen if the startup music stopped playing. Therefore, we called renowned venture capitalist Matt Murphy to chat about it. Murphy began his career with Sun Microsystems in the mid-1990s before joining Kleiner Perkins in 1999 and remaining there until 2015. The investor then moved to Menlo Ventures, where he has worked ever since. Murphy has invested in companies such as DocuSign, Egnyte, AppDynamics, and Carta, among others.
His experience investing during downturns, such as the 2000-era startup contraction and the 2008 financial crisis, is particularly important today. So, equipped with a list of questions and a tape recorder, we discussed everything from current startup benchmarks to the long-term viability of today’s firms to changes in the overall startup hit rate.
Our conversation with Murphy covered a wide range of topics. To keep it manageable, we divided his responses into themes and added subheadlines where the topic shifted slightly. We have also condensed our questions and made minor changes to the transcript for clarity and length, including enlarging certain acronyms.
Have fun reading on your snowy day! Whether or not the current time is overheated or fundamentally sounds, Matt Murphy: I am fine with my previous investments marked up because it makes you feel like a hero, but I am terrified of trying to go into new things because it makes you feel like a chump. [Laughter]
However, the rate at which valuations have changed and continue to shift in such a short period has been remarkable, certainly more so than it in 1999. It just feels like this has been a longer amount of time. It more dispersed, and every time you think you have reached a new maximum, something unexpected occurs. How the startup market today differs from that of, and what you will need to raise a hot Series A – TechCrunch Link to the original source how the startup market today differs from that of 1999, and what you will need to raise a hot Series A – TechCrunch.
