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Mercedes Bent

Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners

Highlights

Apr 26 · twitter

the SF version of "kids flocking in the fields" 😍 https://t.co/PkFbCrkWpU

the SF version of "kids flocking in the fields" 😍 https://t.co/PkFbCrkWpU
Apr 8 · twitter

don't give up: lower funded, later entrants can win

Dropbox: entered a crowded 2007 cloud market late. used simple UX to beat heavily-funded enterprise suites like Box and early versions of Microsoft SkyDrive

Netflix: offered to sell to Blockbuster for $50M in 2000. blockbuster had 9,000 stores and billions. Netflix pivoted to streaming

Salesforce: entered in 1999 when Siebel Systems was the undisputed CRM king. invented "SaaS"

Google: launched in 1998 long after Yahoo and AltaVista. won by focusing on a technical algorithm (PageRank) while better-funded rivals focused on "web portals" and ads

Atlassian: bootstrapped on credit cards in 2002. Outplayed heavy-spending incumbents like Microsoft (SharePoint) and IBM with a low-friction, developer-first model

GitHub: no VC for the first 4 years (2008). stayed lean, focused on UX. better funded legacy giant SourceForge (founded 1999) dealt with "gatekeeping" and poor UI

Mailchimp: started as a 2001 side project with zero outside funding. competed against Constant Contact (founded 95), which had raised $100M+, by mastering the "freemium" model for SMBs

Qualtrics: bootstrapped for 10 years (founded 2002) while early rival SurveyMonkey (founded 1999) took on massive capital earlier

who else came from behind?

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Mercedes Bent
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Experience

General Manager And Product Manager at General Assembly
Investment Team at Owl Ventures, Lp

Education

Master Of Business Administration, Stanford University Graduate School Of Business
Master Of Education, Stanford University Graduate School Of Education
Marketing, Web Development, Design, General Assembly
Bachelor Of Arts In Economics, East Asian Studies, Harvard University

Location

Long Island City, New York, United States