Greylock Partners

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@GreylockVC

Partnering with early-stage entrepreneurs since 1965. 100+ IPOs. 250+ acquisitions.

Silicon Valley greylock.com Joined May 2009

1K Following 297K Followers 9.2K Posts

Latest posts 5

Greylock Partners @GreylockVC 4d

Congratulations to the entire @cresta team on this remarkable milestone! Proud to have partnered with you since Series A and excited for what’s ahead with @salesforce. 🎉🎉🎉

Saam Motamedi Verified account @saammotamedi 4d

On Monday, Cresta announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Salesforce.

When Greylock Partners led @Cresta's Series A in 2019, co-founders @zaydenam and @timshi_ai were pioneering generative AI, long before the term existed, and using it to transform customer experience. @ping_wu joined the team in 2021 and became CEO in 2023, building on that foundation to scale an exceptional organization that serves companies like Marriott, Comcast, and Alaska Airlines.

Seven years later, I deeply appreciate the conviction, customer focus, and persistence behind Cresta’s journey. It has been a privilege to partner with Zayd, Tim, Ping, and with the many extraordinary people who have made this possible. Excited for more of their journey to be shared soon.

Together with Salesforce, the Cresta team has the opportunity to bring its platform and technology to many more businesses and their customers.

Congratulations to everyone at Cresta. All of us at @GreylockVC will be cheering you on in this next chapter.

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Greylock Partners @GreylockVC 4d

One of the biggest bets startup employees make is on the founder. That trust may not be tested until years later, when the company exits.

A startup can sell for billions, and the people who helped build it can walk away with vastly different outcomes.

During M&A negotiations, investors bought in at different prices and have different return expectations.

The buyer has its own priorities. Employees don’t have a seat at the negotiating table, even when the deal could be a life-changing event for them. So much can come down to whether the founder has their back when they're not in the room.

In the latest Greylock Originals, @chronosphereio co-founder Martin Mao (@martin_c_mao )and Greylock Partner @jerrychen share what happened behind the scenes of Palo Alto Networks' $3.35B acquisition of the company.

00:00 The decision behind the headline
01:01 Why sell a fast growing company?
02:15 What makes an offer worth accepting?
03:36 "You only get one chance to sell"
05:18 A first-time founder vs. a Fortune 500 CEO
07:11 Who speaks for the employees?

9:54

Greylock Partners @GreylockVC Oct 29

A top seller can be a terrible first sales hire.

After 14 years of recruiting early-stage talent, Omar Muñoz from Greylock Core Talent team breaks down the most common mistakes early-stage founders make when hiring their first salespeople:

0:57 | Pitching sellers like engineers.
2:08 | Forgetting that good sellers qualify founders, too.
2:45 | Falling for the logo trap.
5:57 | Overlooking career decisions.
6:54 | Auto-rejecting short stints.

The first sales hire needs to find customers, build pipeline, and figure out what works before a playbook exists.

Watch Omar break down these mistakes in the latest episode of In Practice.

9:29

Greylock Partners @GreylockVC Oct 27

A founder can be right about the market, right about the product, and still run out of money before the bet pays off.

When runway gets short, founders and investors may see the same risks differently.

A down round buys time, but at a cost. Waiting preserves the chance for a better outcome, but also risks leaving the company with fewer options.

The hardest part is knowing how much confidence to place in each other's judgment. The numbers can tell you what's at stake. They can't tell you whether someone is seeing the business clearly or simply believing what they want to believe.

That understanding comes from years of working together, especially seeing how someone handles setbacks and bad news.

When the numbers turn ugly, the founder-investor relationship gets its real test.

@chronosphereio co-founder and CEO @martin_c_mao and Greylock partner @jerrychen revisit how they navigated some of the company's most consequential decisions.

0:00 Intro
01:03 Chronosphere's Early Growth
02:22 Building the Next Product
03:26 A Changing Market
04:54 A Critical Quarter
06:28 Weighing the Options
09:06 A Conversation After the Board Meeting
09:34 The Turnaround

11:13

Greylock Partners @GreylockVC Oct 26

Venture capital runs on optimism. At Greylock, we aim to be the first believer, the partner who says yes when a company is still just a bold idea in a founder’s mind.

Congratulations to Asheem Chandna @chandna, @reidhoffman, David Sze, and Aneel Bhusri being named to the Forbes 250 list of America’s Greatest Living Optimists.

Forbes Verified account @Forbes Oct 25

Optimism is at the heart of the American dream.

In that spirit Forbes is recognizing the country’s 250 Greatest Living Optimists. These are founders who took a big risk on new possibilities, investors who prioritize long-term value over short-term gain, market-minded philanthropists and educational pioneers. #Forbes250
Read more: forbes.com/sites/alexknap…
Illustration: Lina Jaradat for Forbes; Photos: Guerin Blask for Forbes, Cody Pickens for Forbes, Jamel Toppin for Forbes, Martin Schoeller for Forbes, Tim Pannell for Forbes

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