To our founders, leaders, and friends,

A letter from Bessemer

February 2019

If you’re reading this, we probably caught you scrolling or on the brink of Inbox Zero. It’s 2019. You are AirPods-deep into the new year. For many, the strategic planning is done, the sprints are in motion, and there’s a renewed sense of motivation at work.

What you’re doing isn’t easy. Building a company in order to manifest something new into the world takes major guts. It requires grit and vision to believe that the way we work, play, travel, build, and connect could be entirely different (and better than how we did it a year ago).

When we raised our tenth fund, it motivated us to take stock of Bessemer, reflect on the work we’ve done, and see how things have changed.

Looking back on 2018

Our promise

We don’t make decisions lightly, but when we commit, we really commit. From seed to Series A investments, we stick with our founders through every stage of their growth and don’t forget to celebrate their wins along the way.

Portfolio highlights

Adaptive Insights was acquired by Workday
Bright Health tripled its geographic footprint with ten new markets
DocuSign went public in April 2018
Glint teamed up with LinkedIn to make work more engaging
Guild Education partnered with Walmart, Disney, Taco Bell, and more to provide education-as-a-benefit
PagerDuty hit a $1 billion valuation
Pinterest inspires people to connect and get offline.
RocketLab performed its first commercial launch
SendGrid joined forces with Twilio

Investor insights

As a tight-knit group of independent thinkers, we share what excites us most about founders, teams, and business models.

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Talia Goldberg

“Investors are there for the highs and the lows. I don’t look for founders that have all the answers. I look for founders that relish hard questions, stay honest about what is and isn’t working, and have a ‘learn-it-all’ mentality.”

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Kent Bennett

“It turns out ‘consumers’ are actually…people…not drones who buy whatever Facebook tells them to. When building a great consumer business, paid advertising can be useful at times, but having an amazing product that drives customer loyalty and organic growth is essential.”

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Kristina Shen

“My advice to founders is simple: prepare a watertight thesis as to why your company is 10x better than the competition.”

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Adam Fisher

“As an early stage investor, I try not to let the exact economic model, or even the distribution model, get in the way of backing a great team. I’m interested when there’s a compelling product idea in a market with tailwinds. Waiting for the perfect company is a sure-fire way to miss it.”

2019 is a critical inflection point

2019 is the semicolon connecting two decades—punctuating one’s ending and beginning the next. We hope you reap the rewards of your hard work and wish you continued success in the years to come.