Investments: Pinterest, Airbnb
Rick Heitzman knew early on that Pinterest would be a smash hit, and invested in every round since leading a $600,000 Angel round in 2009. The company had a market cap around $15 billion as of Friday, and was Heitzmann's second exit and first public exit, according to Crunchbase.
As founder and partner of FirstMark, Heitzman also took early stakes in Airbnb, Draft Kings, and Riot Games. Although Hieztmann got to Airbnb much later as its Series E lead, he stands to make a substantial profit if the $31 billion company goes public. Airbnb has said that it is prepared to go public in 2019 or late 2020 at the latest.
Alfred Lin will see a big payday when Uber officially goes public, rumored to be mid-May. Lin led Sequoia's 2011 investment in Uber's $11 million Series A funding round with a pre-money valuation of $49 million, according to Crunchbase. Uber's most recent IPO prospectus puts a price range of $44 and $50 a share, which would value the company at $90 billion.
Lin also placed Sequoia's bet on Airbnb, leading its $600,000 Seed Round in 2009, according to Crunchbase. The company's most recent funding round valued it around $31 billion and is one of the most highly anticipated potential IPOs of 2019.
Investments: Slack
One of the biggest winners in Slack's direct listing is Accel's Andrew Braccia. The firm has a 24% stake in the company after leading its Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds. At its target direct listing price, Braccia and Accel stand to make nearly $3.4 billion from its 120 million shares.
Slack has raised $1.22 billion in venture capital during its life as a private company. It was most recently valued at $7.1 billion after its latest financing round in August.
Investments: Zoom
Emergence Capital invested in Zoom in its $30 million Series C in 2014, and Santi Subotovsky has been on the company's board ever since. The company was one of the breakout public debuts of 2019, and Emergence still owns over 12% of its stock.
Subotovsky's investment was worth $1.1 billion at the time of Zoom's IPO, and Emergence sold 1 million of its shares in the company on IPO day in April that valued the company at $9.2 billion.
Investments: Pinterest, Airbnb
Jeff Jordan led VC firm Andreessen Horowitz's investment in Pinterest and currently serves on the company's board of directors.
According to Crunchbase, the Jordan led Pinterest's $27 million Series B in 2011 and participated in every subsequent round leading to the company's public stock offering in April. As of Friday, Pinterest's market cap was $15 billion, up $5 billion from its IPO price.
Jordan also led the firm's $112 million Series B investment in Airbnb, one of the rumored IPO candidates. The company was most recently valued at $31 billion, according to Techcrunch, and has a total of $4.4 billion in private funding, according to Crunchbase.
Investments: Beyond Meat
Evan Williams' venture capital firm Obvious Ventures owned a little over 9% of Beyond Meat, a plant-based meat substitute, ahead of its recent public offering. Williams', who is known for his vegetarian lifestyle, now owns a stake worth roughly $111 million, according to regulatory filings.
Beyond Meat raised $241 million in its IPO by selling 9.6 million shares at $25 each, the top end of its planned pricing range, and trading was halted shortly after its debut after shares skyrocketed 163%, making it one of the most successful IPOs in 2019, according to a CNBC report.
Investments: Uber
Another big payday is coming Bill Gurley's way as the most valuable tech startup in the United States prepares to go public. Benchmark led Uber's $11 million Series A in 2011 that came with a $49 million pre-money valuation.
Other firms declined to participate thinking the valuation was overinflated, but Gurley's bet is primed to pay off as the company prepares to go public with what's expected to be a $90 billion market cap. Benchmark sold about 14.5% of its stake to Japan's SoftBank when SoftBank bought in via secondary markets, but it also held on to more than 150 million shares, 11% of the company.
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