Talk:Greylock Partners

Name origin
Of historical note, the company's name has its origin in the street that founder Bill Elfers lived on, in Massachusetts. Greylock Road, Wellesley Hills. Reference here.121.74.233.34 (talk) 02:10, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅, sorry it took so long. :-)      75.108.94.227 (talk) 11:30, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Introduction
Greylock has $2.1 under management and they invest in consumer and enterprise software - not semi conductors. Their offices are in the Bay Area and Cambridge, MA. All of this information can be found on their "About Us" page. They didn't have offices in India, and their Israel branch known as Greylock IL rebranded as 83North in January 2015. Esmilcsncm (talk) 17:46, 10 July 2015 (UTC)


 * For Wikipedia a difference between 2 billion and 2.1 billion is not relevant enough for a change. I would recommend to wait this they have 2.5 billion under management. The Banner talk 21:25, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Closing this request as 99% answered; the semi-conductor bit is covered under the pending request about investment-strategy. See also the checklist-section of this talkpage. 75.108.94.227 (talk) 11:52, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Info Box
Greylock Partners has $2.1B under management. They changed their logo in 2010. Esmilcsncm (talk) 17:49, 10 July 2015 (UTC)


 * For Wikipedia a difference between 2 billion and 2.1 billion is not relevant enough for a change. I would recommend to wait this they have 2.5 billion under management. The Banner talk 21:25, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
 * User:The_Banner, can you upload the new corporate logo to enWiki-not-commons, per a fair use exception, please? They changed it in 2010.  :-)      Direct URL is == http://www.greylock.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/New-Logo.jpg   75.108.94.227 (talk) 05:57, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Sorry, out of principle I don't upload images to ENWP. The Banner talk 09:57, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
 * No apologies needed, I also don't. :-)      Likely for slightly differing underlying reasons though, methinks.  I get really annoyed by the inability to properly fiddle with bulk dumps of wikipedia, because so many articles depend on trademarked logos... I'm having a trouble right now with that issue, where some of the presidential candidates in 2016 have trademarked their campaign logos (and trump has trademarked his campaign slogan... which he lifted from reagan).  Sigh.  Anyways, no worries, I'll have somebody at the teahouse see if they can do it.  I'm a stand-on-principle-type myself, but I'm also a pragmatist about the pedia; I don't think the tide can be fought by stalling, so I would rather see the tide be fought by loading it to the breaking point, to mix metaphors beyond all hope of recovering to a whiter shade of pale.  ;-)    Anyways, no prob.  75.108.94.227 (talk) 20:55, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

Okay, we are eleventh in the upload-queue for the new logo, WP:TEAHOUSE folks directed me to WP:FFU image-upload-wizard. User:The_Banner, are you against deleting accidental-copyvio upload-attempts, on principle? :-)     Somebody already uploaded the logo, but mistakenly put it on commons as CCBYSA, which is incorrect.  I asked the WP:FFU reviewer to look that over, so maybe they will fix up the accidental-copyvio-stuff.  Also, they were using a promotional username, which should potentially be fixed as well, but I'm not sure what the username-policy is over on commons; might be different from enWiki?  User:Esmilcsncm, are you the same person as this person, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Greylock_Partners, who uploaded the 2010 logo in July, or do you know who that was?  They accidentally marked it as modify-and-reuse-for-any-purpose-by-anyone-including-commercial-use, which seems like a goof, to my eyes at least.  75.108.94.227 (talk) 14:45, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
 * No, I just try to upload copyright-free pictures to Commons and nothing more. But failed attempts.... ai, ai ai. (If I recall correctly I have also made mistakes with uploading. ) The Banner talk 15:16, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Speaking of mistakes... looks like I just almost made one... here is what our local copyright expert says about the new logo:
 * Now, while I agree with Nick that the new-in-2010 logo is not something that can be copyrighted, I'm NOT so sure it could not be trademarked. User:Esmilcsncm, can you tell us whether 1) Greylock believes that the new logo *is* copyright despite the commons:COM:TOO stuff, and also 2) whether Greylock has, or intends to, file a trademark/servicemark/registeredTrademark/etc claim for the new-in-2010 logo?  In any case, the article looks better now; the older logo is in the history-section, and the new&current logo is in the infobox.  75.108.94.227 (talk) 11:15, 19 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Now, while I agree with Nick that the new-in-2010 logo is not something that can be copyrighted, I'm NOT so sure it could not be trademarked. User:Esmilcsncm, can you tell us whether 1) Greylock believes that the new logo *is* copyright despite the commons:COM:TOO stuff, and also 2) whether Greylock has, or intends to, file a trademark/servicemark/registeredTrademark/etc claim for the new-in-2010 logo?  In any case, the article looks better now; the older logo is in the history-section, and the new&current logo is in the infobox.  75.108.94.227 (talk) 11:15, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Funding
Greylock raised a $1B 14th fund in 2013. Committed capital exceeds $2.1B. And Greylock Israel has rebraded as 83North in January 2015. Esmilcsncm (talk) 17:55, 10 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Sources I found confirm the 14th fund, and also the "rebrand" of the Israel branch (which is now concentrating on Israeli and European startups). Also confirm the $2.1B, and was at one point $2.6 billion or something (see sources below), so I agree with TheBanner that simply saying "over two billion" is enough accuracy for the encyclopedia.  Is there a chart, or a table, which shows the average asset-size over the course of the company's history on a quarterly or yearly basis?  *That* would be worth putting into mainspace, if it exists, and if it is sourced to more than statements made by Greylock itself... are they filing these fund-sizes with some agency or something, that is double-checking the figures are correct?  75.108.94.227 (talk) 05:54, 17 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Closing this request as 99% answered. See also the checklist-section of this talkpage. 75.108.94.227 (talk) 11:52, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

Investments
Greylock categorizes their investments into two sectors: Consumer Internet and Enterprise IT.

Consumer sectors include: advertising, commerce, gaming, marketplaces, media, mobile, services, and social.

Enterprise sectors include: applications, cloud/SaaS, data center, management, networking, security and storage. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Esmilcsncm (talk • contribs) 17:58, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
 * What do you mean by that? Did they reduce their "areas of investment" or did they rename them? Do you have independent sources for this? The Banner talk 21:29, 30 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Ping User:The Banner, and also User:Esmilcsncm, as I understand it, the firm's focus *is* narrower in 2010+ now that Greylock is a west-coast-VC-firm, than it was back in the 1980s/1990s, when Greylock was an east-coast-firm. See cites below.  Could not find many about the earlier Cambridge/MIT era of the company, most of the online sources are about the BayArea/Stanford era (HQ moved in 2009 ... but in 2000 Greylock was still primarily an east-coast-firm ... changeover began around 2004 w/ LinkedIn said one source, but was gradual).  Their investment-portfolio is still the same, in the sense that they are early-stage-high-tech-VC-startups... but there are more software ones nowadays, whereas in the 1980s there were at least as many hardware-startups as software-startups.  Anyways, I think I found enough sources that the article can be properly fleshed out now... mainspace has a bunch of flat factual errors, at the moment.  Esmilcsncm's characterization of Greylock's portfolio-focus-as-of-2015 is basically correct (though I don't know of any "gaming" startups they have actually invested in).   75.108.94.227 (talk) 05:46, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I was going to add some investment history and thought the bullet list is a little unorthodox. I saw in old revisions that some additional information was being added but maybe too promotional. So Ill work with the info in my sandbox to get it down to just the facts, but I think their investment history is worth noting as it seems to be well-sourced and more specific than just a vague bullet list, per WP:USEPROSE. Tiltedtonic (talk) 20:28, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
 * To my opinion, the separate investments they do are irrelevant. After all, it is their work to invest. The fields where they invest are far moren important and they are already in the article. The Banner <i style="color:maroon">talk</i> 20:56, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I added some of the more historic investments and technically all this could go into the History section but as the Investment section already existed and needed work, I added it there. I don't think the funding information is promotional --the article states that it's one of the oldest venture capital firms so including these details just reinforces its significance. Tiltedtonic (talk) 21:04, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I fear we have different opinions and I reverted your edit. <span style="font-family:'Old English Text MT',serif;color:green">The Banner <i style="color:maroon">talk</i> 22:12, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Well we do indeed disagree; I felt that the only reason this company is significant is because of its major investments in companies that have become billion dollar companies that disrupt industry norms. I feel like that's really the main reason someone would come to this article to read about why it matters. But I hear you and Im not trying to engage in some edit war Tiltedtonic (talk) 21:29, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

checklist
Firm overview
 * task#1A, Investment strategy
 * task#1B, Investment geography ✅(?)
 * task#1C, Offices ✅
 * task#1D, Employees (see preliminary list of partners && former partners at bottom of 'sources' subsection)
 * task#1E, Capital under management ✅
 * task#1F, Add an infobox ✅
 * task#1G, Add a company logo ✅

Firm history
 * task#2A, Founding of the firm: founder(s), ✅ predecessor firm(s) ✅(?)
 * task#2B, Add newspaper or journal references to new funds raised by the firm  (have refs for 14th and 13th funds, not for #1 to #12 though)
 * task#2C, Fundraising: Investment funds, ✅ (listed by year), capital raised (ought to list this by year), fund vehicles (ought to list names not just years)
 * task#2D, Other historical items: Controversies, spin-outs, name changes, geographic expansion, etc.

Portfolio:
 * task#3A, Add newspaper or journal references to investments in portfolio companies  (see 'sources' subsection of talkpage, needs integrating with mainspace prose)
 * task#3B, Listing of sizeable or otherwise notable current or former investments
 * task#3C, Identify existing portfolio company articles  (see preliminary list at bottom of 'sources' subsection)
 * task#3D, Wikilink portfolio company articles back to private equity firm article, and add portfolio company articles to Category:Private equity portfolio companies

Requests by Esmilcsncm:
 * req#4A, Greylock has $2.x under management ❌ (prose-maintenance hassle... "over $2 billion" is preferable, until and unless the article gets a dedicated wiki-steward)
 * req#4B, offices are in the Bay Area and Cambridge, MA; They didn't have offices in India ✅ (please verify current mainspace info is correct ... and if anyone wants to re-add the branch-office-in-India claim, please find WP:SOURCES that WP:PROVEIT first)
 * req#4C, Israel branch known as Greylock IL rebranded as 83North in January 2015. ✅
 * req#4D, changed their logo in 2010 ✅ (but still making sure we have the legalese behind the imagefiles fully wiki-proper)
 * req#4E, Greylock raised a $1B 14th fund in 2013. ✅
 * req#4F, Greylock [now] invests in consumer and enterprise software - not [any longer in] semi conductors.
 * req#4G, Greylock [now] categorizes their investments into two sectors: Consumer Internet and Enterprise IT.
 * req#4H, Consumer Internet subsectors [now] include: advertising, commerce, gaming, marketplaces, media, mobile, services, and social.
 * req#4J, Enterprise IT subsectors [now] include: applications, cloud/SaaS, data center, management, networking, security and storage.

I swiped the 'todo' list from the top of this page, plus compiled a list of requests-so-far. I've numbered the pieces, so we can refer to task#1A and req#4F (which are basically the same thing methinks). I've also closed the edit-requests that I think are done; the main one left open is about properly reflecting the current-as-of-2015 investment strategy (consumer internet corporations + enterprise IT software (never hardware?)). But we also want to retain info about Greylock's *historical* investment strategy; prior to Y2K they were an east coast firm that regularly invested in hardware-startups like Teradyne, which is where the "semiconductor" stuff in the current strategy-description-section comes from. Wikipedia needs to cover both the history of the firm, and the current stances (up-to-the-year rather than up-to-the-minute) of the firm. 75.108.94.227 (talk) 11:47, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

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