Wikipedia

Matt Cohler

Matt Cohler (born March 27, 1977) is an American venture capitalist. He worked as Vice President of Product Management for Facebook until June 2008[1] and was formerly a general partner at Benchmark.[2][3][4] Cohler has been named to the Forbes Midas List of top technology investors[5] and in 2019 was named to the New York Times and CB Insights list of top 10 venture capital investors.[6] Cohler made the Forbes 'America's 40 Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40' list in 2015.[7]

Matt Cohler
Matt Cohler, January 2008
BornMarch 27, 1977 (1977-03-27) (age 47)
New York City, US
Alma materYale University
OccupationVenture Capitalist
EmployerGeneral Partner at Benchmark
Known forFormer VP of Product Management, Facebook
SpousePia Pernille Øien Cohler

Education and early career

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Cohler earned a B.A. with honors and distinction in music from Yale University.[8]

Early in his career, Cohler worked in China and was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.[9] He befriended Reid Hoffman and went on to become a founding member of Hoffman's startup LinkedIn.[10] Cohler was vice president and general manager at LinkedIn and was considered CEO Hoffman's right-hand man.[11]

Cohler was one of the first five employees hired at Facebook.[1] He was Facebook's vice president of product management and worked with the team during many of its critical growth phases. He continued to act as a "special advisor" to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.[12] In 2008, he left Facebook and became the youngest general partner at Benchmark.[9]

Benchmark

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At Benchmark, Cohler has backed the firm's investments in Dropbox, Asana, Quora, Greenhouse,[13] Domo, Tinder,[14] Duo Security, DeepL, Edmodo, ResearchGate, 1stdibs, Peixe Urbano, CouchSurfing, Baixing, and Zendesk.[15][16] In 2011, he led a $7 million round of funding for Instagram,[17] which agreed in April 2012 to be acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.[18] In March 2014, Cohler led Benchmark's investment in Xapo, a Bitcoin wallet/insured cold storage vault.[19][20]

Cohler sits on the boards of Asana, Quora,[21] ResearchGate,[22] and 1stdibs.

In 2018, it was announced that Cohler would "step back" from Benchmark and not be a part of their next fund. Although he departed the Benchmark fund, he was expected to continue to hold his board seats, including at Uber.[23][2] Cohler later left the Uber board in July 2019, at the same time as Arianna Huffington.[24]

Additional affiliations

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Cohler is vice president of the San Francisco Symphony board of governors,[25][26] board trustee at Environmental Defense Fund,[27] and a member of the endowment investment committees at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative[28] and the Yale Investments Office.[29]

Politics

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In April 2013, a lobbying group called FWD.us (aimed at lobbying for immigration reform and improvements to education) was launched, with Cohler listed as one of the founders.[30]

References

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  1. ^ a b Ha, Anthony (June 19, 2008). "Facebook's Matt Cohler leaves for Benchmark Capital". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Bill Gurley is stepping away from an active role at Benchmark, 21 years after joining the firm". TechCrunch. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  3. ^ Kincaid, J. (October 29, 2008). "VCs Speak on the Economic Downturn: Batten Down the Hatches", TechCrunch.
  4. ^ Schleifer, Theodore (2018-10-01). "One of the most successful investors in Silicon Valley, Matt Cohler, will step back at Benchmark". Vox. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  5. ^ "#68 Matt Cohler". The Midas List Tech's Top Investors. Forbes. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  6. ^ Griffith, Erin (2019-03-31). "These Silicon Valley Investors' Bets May Pay Off (Published 2019)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  7. ^ "America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40". Forbes. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  8. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia (25 July 2012). "Path's Dave Morin And Benchmark Capital's Matt Cohler Will Join Us At Disrupt SF!". TechCrunch. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  9. ^ a b Swisher, Kara (June 19, 2008). "Facebook's Matt Cohler to Benchmark". AllThings D. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  10. ^ Sengupta, Somini (9 May 2012). "A Circle of Tech: Collect Payout, Do a Start-Up". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  11. ^ Kirkpatrick, David. The Facebook Effect. p. 105.
  12. ^ Ante, Spencer (June 19, 2008). "Big Loss: Matt Cohler Leaves Facebook". Businessweek. Archived from the original on December 27, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  13. ^ Constine, Josh (11 March 2015). "Greenhouse Rakes In $13.6M B From Benchmark To Save You From Recruiting Hell". www.techcrunch.com. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  14. ^ Swisher, Kara (2014-10-28). "Sweat Equity: Benchmark Takes Stake in Tinder in Exchange for Matt Cohler Joining Board". Vox. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  15. ^ Bort, Julie (9 April 2012). "The "Facebook Mafia" Is On The Rise In Silicon Valley". News. Business Insider. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  16. ^ Lawler, Ryan (22 September 2014). "Two-Factor Authentication Startup Duo Security Raises $12 Million From Benchmark". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  17. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (2 February 2011). "Path, Instagram, and what the 'Facebook mafia' sees". CNET. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  18. ^ Levy, Ari (27 April 2012). "Benchmark Capital Scores With Instagram, Demandforce and IPOs". Bloomberg. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  19. ^ Saitto, Serena (14 March 2014). "Benchmark Backs Bitcoin Secure Storage Provider Xapo". Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  20. ^ "Introducing Xapo". Blog post. Xapo Blog. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  21. ^ Arrington, Michael (28 March 2010). "Quora Has The Magic: Benchmark Invests at $86 Million Valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  22. ^ Arrington, Michael (8 September 2010). "Benchmark And Accel Partners Reach Across The Atlantic To Fund ResearchGATE". TechCrunch. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  23. ^ Schleifer, Theodore (2018-10-01). "One of the most successful investors in Silicon Valley, Matt Cohler, will step back at Benchmark". Vox. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  24. ^ Feiner, Lauren (2019-07-24). "Uber loses two more board members: Arianna Huffington and Matt Cohler". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  25. ^ "Board of Governors". Board & Staff. San Francisco Symphony. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  26. ^ Cooper, Michael (2018-12-05). "San Francisco Symphony Lands a Disrupter: Esa-Pekka Salonen (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
  27. ^ "Board of trustees". Environmental Defense Fund. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  28. ^ "David Lee Named Chief Investment Officer for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative". Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 2018-12-14. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  29. ^ "The Investment Committee". Yale Investments Office. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  30. ^ "Our supporters". FWD.us. Archived from the original on 2013-04-16. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
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