When Keith Rabois announced he was leaving Founders Fund to return to Khosla Ventures in January, it shocked many in the venture capital ecosystem — and not just because Rabois is a big name in the industry.
It was surprising because, unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists traditionally don’t move around much — especially those who make it to the partner or general partner level as Rambois had.
VC funds have 10-year life cycles, and partners have good reason to stay that way. In some cases, they can be a “key man” in a company’s fund, meaning that if they leave, the fund’s LPs have the right to withdraw their capital if they choose. Many partners and GPs also have some of their own money invested in their firms’ funds, which gives them additional reasons to stay.
So while moves by large venture capital investors aren’t common, they seem to have happened in recent months. So far this year, there have been notable cases of investors returning to old companies, exiting on their own or pausing from investing entirely.
Here’s who we know so far:
May
- Terry Burns was announced on May 13, when he was launching a new venture firm called Type Capital. Burns was previously GV’s first black female partner and will leave the firm in 2022. Her new fund will focus on pre-seed and seed-stage startups.
- Last week TechCrunch caught up with the co-founder of Fika Ventures Eva Ho He was set to leave the company after Fika completed raising its current capital. Ho steps down for personal reasons. The move was confirmed by the company in a blog post on May 9.
- On May 9, Alison Lang Engel was announced was taking on the role of CEO at Ceros, an artificial intelligence design company. Lange Engel left Greycroft in December, where she had been a partner since 2019, to take up the role.
- After 15 years, Vic Singh was announced to X that he was leaving Eniac Ventures on May 1st. Singh helped start the company in 2009 and plans to start a new company of his own.
April
- On April 30, Ethan Kurzweil was announced was leaving his role as a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners after 16 years. Kurzweil will launch an early-stage investment firm, according to report from Axios. Kurzweil will launch the company with Christina Senwho left Andreessen Horowitz after four years on March 29 and Mark Goldberg, who left Index Ventures after eight years last fall.
- On April 1st, Christina Farr was announced that she would be leaving OMERS Ventures, where she has served as lead investor and head of the firm’s health technology practice since December 2020. Farr announced to X that she would be working on its health technology newsletter, writing a book focused on the power that storytelling can have in business and consulting with health tech founders.
March
- After six years as a partner at Accel, Ethan Choi announced that he would be leaving the company to head to Khosla Ventures in March. Choi will focus on growth-stage investments at his new company and has backed companies such as Klaviyo, Pismo and 1Password.
- While many of the recent VC moves were made by people looking to start something new or take a different opportunity, not all of them were. On March 13, Chamath Palihapitiya Social Capital was announced that he fired partners Jay Xaveri and Ravi Tanuku. Bloomberg reported that this was due to a fundraising issue for AI startup Groq.
- Rambois wasn’t the only person looking to boomerang back into an old haunt in this recent uptick in investor reshuffles. On March 5, Miles Grimshaw announced that he would be returning to Thrive Capital as a general partner after serving in the same position at Benchmark Capital for three years. Grimshaw originally started at Thrive Capital in 2013 and has backed companies such as Airtable, Lattice and Monzo, among others.
- While the transition from operator to VC is a common career progression in the startup ecosystem, it’s not for everyone. On March 4, Sam Blond announced that he had come to that conclusion and would be leaving Founders Fund, where he had been a partner for about 18 months. Blond said he would return to the operation and has held roles at companies including Brex, Zenefits and EchoSign.
January
- After 12 years at Andreessen Horowitz, Connie Chan was announced was leaving the company on January 23. Chan had served as one of the firm’s general partners for the past five years and had backed companies such as Cider, KoBold and Whatnot.
TechCrunch is following recent venture moves and will continue to update this article as they happen. If you have any tips or clarifications to consider, please contact me here: rebecca.szkutak@techcrunch.com.
This post was originally published on May 1st. It has since been updated on May 13 to include additional moves within the business.
