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Mercedes Bent

Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners

Mercedes Bent is a well-known investor and operator in the startup world. She has a vast background in economics and education with a BA degree from Harvard University and dual master's degrees from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Education. Mercedes is a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and has invested in a variety of companies such as Fintech, Crypto, Consumer Social, and more. Mercedes worked as an early employee and General Manager at General Assembly, where she accelerated the company's growth and drove significant revenue improvements. In 2016, Mercedes was named a 40 Under 40 for Tech Diversity in Silicon Valley. She is enthusiastic about the intersection of learning, entrepreneurship, and technology and uses her experience to invest in the future of income, edtech, fintech, crypto, and more. Mercedes has formed successful ventures, scaled sales and product teams, built cultures, and identified go-to-market.

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?

82 Black founders and investors to watch in 2023 - PitchBook News & Analysis
82 Black founders and investors to watch in 2023 - PitchBook News & Analysis
Jan 22 · TechCrunch
Payments remain the darling of the fintech space - TechCrunch
Payments remain the darling of the fintech space - TechCrunch

Related Questions

What are some of the notable investments Mercedes Bent has made at Lightspeed Venture Partners?
How did Mercedes Bent transition from Goldman Sachs to venture capital?
What is Mercedes Bent's role at Birthright AFRICA?
Can you share more about Mercedes Bent's experience at General Assembly?
What are the key achievements of Mercedes Bent in the tech industry?
Mercedes Bent
Mercedes Bent, photo 1
Mercedes Bent, photo 2
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Experience

Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners (August 2019 - Present)
Non-Profit Board Member at Birthright AFRICA (2019 - 2021), Vice President at Upload (2016 - 2017)

Location

San Francisco, California, United States