When Keith Rabois announced in January that he was leaving Founders Fund to return to Khosla Ventures, it shocked many in the venture capital ecosystem. It's not just because Rabois is a big name in the industry.
This was surprising because unlike many other fields, venture capitalists traditionally don't move around much. This is especially true when you reach the partner or general partner level, as Lavoie did.
The lifecycle of a VC fund is 10 years, and partners have good reason to stay that way. In some cases, they may be the “key people” for a company's fund. This means that if they retire, the fund's LPs have the right to raise their capital as they wish. Many partners and GPs also invest some of their own funds in their own funds, giving them further reason to stick around.
So while it's not common for big-name investors to move into venture capital, it seems to have happened in recent months. So far this year, we've seen investors return to old companies, go out on their own, or take a break from investing altogether.
Here's who we know so far:
May
Terry Burns announced on May 13th that he is launching a new venture company called Type Capital. Burns was previously GV's first black female partner, but she left in 2022. Her new fund will focus on pre-seed and seed-stage startups. Last week, TechCrunch got the scoop that Fika Ventures co-founder Eva Ho plans to transition out of the company once Fika finishes rolling out its current fund. Mr. Ho is withdrawing for personal reasons. The company confirmed this move in a May 9 blog post. On May 9, Alison Lange Engel announced that she will become CEO of Ceros, an AI-powered design company. Lange Engel left Greycroft in December, where she had been a partner since 2019, and she took on the role. 15 years later, Vic Singh announced Singh helped launch the company in 2009 and is planning to start his own new company.
April
April 30th, Ethan Kurzweil announced He was leaving his role as a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, where he worked for 16 years. According to a report from Axios, Kurzweil plans to launch an investment firm focused on early-stage investments. Mr. Kurzweil plans to launch the company as follows. Christina Shen, who left Andreessen Horowitz on March 29 after four years, and Mark Goldberg, who left Index Ventures last fall after eight years. April 1st, Christina Farr announced Mr. Farr announced that he plans to retire from OMERS Ventures, where he has been the company's lead investor and head of its health tech business since December 2020. Farr announced at X that he will work on a health tech newsletter and write a book focused on health tech. How storytelling influences business and health tech founders.
march
After six years as a partner at Accel, Ethan Choi announced in March that he was leaving the firm to head to Khosla Ventures. Choi will focus on growth-stage investments at his new company, having backed companies such as Klaviyo, Pismo and 1Password. A lot of the recent VC activity has been from people looking to start something new or try a different opportunity, but not all of it has been like that. March 13th, Chamath Palihapitiya Social Capital announced The company announced that it has fired partners Jay Zaveri and Ravi Tanuk. Bloomberg reported that the issue was due to funding issues for AI startup Groq. Lavoie isn't the only one boomeranging back to his old home amid the recent uptick in investor turnover. On March 5, Miles Grimshaw announced that he would be returning to Thrive Capital as a general partner after three years in the same role at Benchmark Capital. Grimshaw originally started at Thrive Capital in 2013, where he has backed companies such as Airtable, Lattice, and Monzo. Moving from operator to VC is a common career progression in the startup ecosystem, but it's not for everyone. On March 4, Sam Blond announced that he had come to that conclusion and was leaving Founders Fund, where he had been a partner for about 18 months. Blond said he will return to sales, where he previously held positions at companies including Brex, Zenefits and EchoSign.
January
After 12 years at Andreessen Horowitz, Connie Chan announced her departure from the company on January 23rd. Chan has served as one of the firm's general partners for the past five years, supporting companies such as Cider, KoBold, and Whatnot.
TechCrunch has been monitoring recent developments in ventures and will continue to update this article. If you have a tip or call for our attention, please contact us: rebecca.szkutak@techcrunch.com.
This post was originally published on May 1st. He was then updated on May 13th to include additional moves within the venture.