Comments on: The Matt Cohler Exit Interview

By: Benchmark Capital’s Big Day | Techdare

Benchmark Capital’s Big Day | Techdare — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:17:31 +0000

[...] into $5 billion by 1999. Partner Bill Gurley talks about that deal and Benchmark in general in our video interview with him last [...]

By: Benchmark Capital’s Big Day | Design Website Blog

Benchmark Capital’s Big Day | Design Website Blog — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:09:07 +0000

[...] into $5 billion by 1999. Partner Bill Gurley talks about that deal and Benchmark in general in our video interview with him last [...]

By: Benchmark Capital’s Big Day | Geek News and Musings

Benchmark Capital’s Big Day | Geek News and Musings — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:40:36 +0000

[...] into $5 billion by 1999. Partner Bill Gurley talks about that deal and Benchmark in general in our video interview with him last [...]

By: Benchmark Capital’s Big Day | Family Learning Center

Benchmark Capital’s Big Day | Family Learning Center — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:25:57 +0000

[...] into $5 billion by 1999. Partner Bill Gurley talks about that deal and Benchmark in general in our video interview with him last [...]

By: Benchmark Capital’s Big Day

Benchmark Capital’s Big Day — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:49:14 +0000

[...] into $5 billion by 1999. Partner Bill Gurley talks about that deal and Benchmark in general in our video interview with him last [...]

By: Benchmark Capital’s Big Day

Benchmark Capital’s Big Day — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:41:26 +0000

[...] into $5 billion by 1999. Partner Bill Gurley talks about that deal and Benchmark in general in our video interview with him last year. CrunchBase Information Benchmark Capital SpringSource FriendFeed Information [...]

By: Facebook Have Trouble Keeping Execs « shankarsoma; Change the View

Facebook Have Trouble Keeping Execs « shankarsoma; Change the View — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:52:58 +0000

[...] co-founder and CTO left in May ‘08 Matt Cohler, VP of product development and #5 employee – left in June ‘08 Katie Geminder, Director of Product, left sometime after Jun ‘07 Jeff Hammerbacher [...]

By: Facebook Sure Does Have Trouble Keeping Execs

Facebook Sure Does Have Trouble Keeping Execs — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:17:20 +0000

By: Facebook Sure Does Have Trouble Keeping Execs | CHARGED's Digital Lifestyle at Work or Play

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:45:18 +0000

By: Benchmark Capital Advises Startups To Conserve Capital

Benchmark Capital Advises Startups To Conserve Capital — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:02:18 +0000

[...] a source says is an email from General Partner Bill Gurley to their portfolio companies (See our interview with Gurley and new partner Matt Cohler from earlier this [...]

By: TechnoDiary.com

TechnoDiary.com — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:12:20 +0000

After Google, now it\’s facebook\’s time to lose people

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:57:34 +0000

I will compliment Mike though. I think he conducts a good interview and actually sounds like a human being. Those Benchmark partners need to do the world a favor and stay off camera, then leave the valley and socialize with human beings for a while. That kid was so stifled with office speak political correctness it was disturbingly tragic. Maybe these guys are way ahead of us and are the living embodiment of corporate avatars in some sort of virtual existence. I think this video is more a comment on what a broken society we have rather than anything else. I shudder to think that these guys have managed to become the elite in start-up investing. I think this is a signal that we are in the graying years of Silicon Valley technology dominance. This is truly the pinnacle of ‘the consummation of empire’. We know what comes next.

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:27:26 +0000

Thank god I bankrolled my own business and am thousands of miles outside Silicon Valley. This whole conversation is an excruciating exercise in verbal hedging. How the hell could anyone live in that kind of bizarro world. It’s amazing how that was a 10 minute conversation about nothing. Seinfeld would be proud. I wouldn’t hang out with these losers for all the money in the world. Just listen to these guys. I think they are successful due to a surplus of capital above and beyond anything else. They are no more talented than corporate drones the world over.

By: Matt Cohler Exit Interview - Arrington Interviews Cohler on Why He’s Leaving « Furrier.org - Business & Technology Blog

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:58:40 +0000

[...] on Why He’s Leaving June 20, 2008 Posted by John Furrier in Technology. trackback Mike Arrington has a really well timed video interview of Matt Cohler regarding why he’s leaving Facebook. What I find interesting is that Benchmark [...]

By: Jon Doerr

Jon Doerr — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:05:18 +0000

Matt – you’re a cut above. Congratulations on all your successes, now and to come.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:16:24 +0000

It’s interesting to see someone with such a facility for total bullshit at such a young age. Granted, he’s had a great amount of experience in the companies he’s been involved with, but he parried Arrington very well on many turns. Clearly, he’ll be learning at the feet of one of the best with Hurley & Co.
Too bad you can’t short Facebook though…

By: SunnyGirl

SunnyGirl — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:30:59 +0000

There’s no chance that Matt left on his own accord. No one leaves a company like Facebook unless there’s a serious problem with the company OR there’s a serious problem with their performance. I defy anyone to argue this point…

i will defy that statement…If he had left to go to another company like Yahoo! eBay, etc you could easily make that argument but leave to go to Benchmark, a top-tier vc firm, with great partners, great history, he would be a fool not to go – it is a great opportunity that most will NEVER get!!!

Good luck Matt!

By: Johnny

Johnny — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:14:29 +0000

Also wanted to say I enjoyed the interview. It’s always interesting to hear more about how successful people get to where they are.

By: Carlos R Hernandez

Carlos R Hernandez — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:50:19 +0000

My takeaway or better yet…challenge:

“How do I keep innovating?”

By: Bernie

Bernie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:20:16 +0000

And so the cycle in the Valley continues…
Mega celebrity startups lose their most talented and innovative minds (like Matt) and the calcification of Facebook starts to set in.
Think about the ‘kinds’ of people that Facebook is hiring today vs the intrepid entrepreneurs that founded the company. Imagine the kinds of people that are willing to go work at Facebook (valued at $15Bn) today vs those that came on earlier. Really how much headroom can there be left? 3-5X? Well, that’d be fine if you’re joining as a VP or above…but the people that are getting the real work done are going to never be the same.

SUper psyched for Matt. It’s good to see that such a cool guy is getting recognized for his youthful perspective and smarts.

Go Benchmark! Way to bust a power move in an otherwise stodgy old-boy industry.

By: Falafulu Fisi

Falafulu Fisi — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:50:34 +0000

Good interview and nice to hear VCs view on startups.

Matt Cohler said in the interview…
- deliver great product
- solve real problems
- deliver real value to people/end-users

Umm! Facebook delivers a great product to advertisers and not users. It has zero value to users except those who are self-deluted thinking that it is.

Facebook doesn’t solve real problems, it just give its users an exaggerated self-important and nothing else. Users who think that Facebook solves their ability to connect with friends are vain, since you can connect with your friends via email. Any users who think otherwise, please just state why email communication with your friends is less attractive to make connection with your friends by Facebook makes it easy. Tell us your problem, which I guarantee that I can show you how to effectively use your own email to keep connecting to your friends without using Facebook. Software that solve real problems are Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and a whole lot of vendors that without them, the world would come to a halt (in productivity , daily running of important services, etc…). What does Facebook offer? None. If it disappears today, the world would be normal just as if Facebook didn’t exist. However, the only effect probably as a result of a Facebook close down is perhaps, its users will be crying like their parents (or a family member) had just died. Remember the death of Lady Diana from a decade ago? Londoners were crying/moaning all week. This what would happen to Facebook users if Facebook went out of business.

Facebook delivers real value to advertisers and not the users (the suckers which are the innocent target). Facebook delivers nothing to users.

I cut & paste the following comment from this link, and it rings true.

What could stop Web 2.0 is when advertisers come to the realization that nobody actually clicks on the advertisements on these social networking sites because people are too busy networking to click an ad. How does a social networking company make money without advertising? They charge a fee to use it that’s how, then what will happen?

By: Facebook Loses Another Exec - Matt Cohler Joins Benchmark

Facebook Loses Another Exec - Matt Cohler Joins Benchmark — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:37:34 +0000

[...] Update: See our interview with Matt here. [...]

By: pasan

pasan — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:36:04 +0000

Good interview but lots of spin. There’s no chance that Matt left on his own accord. No one leaves a company like Facebook unless there’s a serious problem with the company OR there’s a serious problem with their performance. I defy anyone to argue this point.

By: what

what — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:52:06 +0000

Scott Yates: that joke was in very poor taste.

Mike: I liked your side of the interview, but I noticed just as you did, there was a lot of media-speak and overly positive enthusiasm for… well… everything…

What I find odd is that you have been proclaiming doom for Yahoo for weeks now on TC (almost happily) yet you stated in that interview that “we” are all rooting for Yahoo. It’s quite clear from recent posts that you really aren’t. More than that, your Yahoo posts have a personal nature to them which suggest that you believe that they *should* go down (because of mistakes, or whatever). Isn’t it phony to chime in support when an interviewee expresses it?

By: Ryan L. Cox

Ryan L. Cox — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:41:46 +0000

@39 thanks bro!