Matt Cohler on network effects
From "What Series A Investors Look For" - Matt Cohler, Benchmark, Roger Lee, Battery Ventures · · MarketplaceConference
“I think the real litmus test is if you can believe that either today or in short order there's a path for both the buyers and the sellers to look at this place as the preferred place where they accomplish this transaction — then you've got something really, really interesting.”
On , Matt Cohler, General partner at Benchmark at Benchmark, spoke about network effects during "What Series A Investors Look For" - Matt Cohler, Benchmark, Roger Lee, Battery Ventures on MarketplaceConference.
About Matt Cohler
Matt Cohler, a general partner at Benchmark, has spoken publicly about his investment philosophy and views on the technology industry. He has stated that Benchmark is principally focused on Series A investments, which he defined as committing to a board seat, having meaningful ownership, and staying involved for a long time. Cohler has described his criteria for evaluating marketplaces, saying he looks for a "living thing" where both buyers and sellers see it as the preferred place to transact, and he has warned against relying on averages, stating that "the average tells you nothing." He has also discussed the importance of network effects, defining them as a situation where "the value increases exponentially as the number of users increases linearly." Cohler has reflected on his experiences with companies like Facebook and Snapchat. He recounted that during the launch of Facebook's News Feed in 2006, the reaction was "rage," but founder Mark Zuckerberg refused to take it down, saying it was "the future of the company." Cohler has also described his initial reaction to Snapchat as a "stupid photo-sharing thing," which he said turned out to be the wrong reaction, and he noted that the product brought a "kind of presence and intimacy to technology." He has expressed concerns about broader societal issues, including the U.S. visa system, which he called "awful," and has questioned whether increased information transparency has prevented problems like genocide, stating that "the world doesn't seem to be doing anything about it."