Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says the lesson for founders now is that a great model isn't enough
Anthropic leaped to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures' Matt Murphy says he's never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in mobile, not in the first cloud boom. Menlo led Anthropic's $500M Series D, and Murphy has had a front-row seat as the company went from a pre-revenue, pre-launch bet to one of the most valuable startups out there.
On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Julie Bort talks with Murphy about backing Anthropic before anyone else would, why a great model was never the point, and what's driving the fastest-growing startups he's ever seen.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about:
Why Menlo bet on Anthropic at a $4 billion pre-revenue valuation when the deal didn't fit cleanly into any of the firm's funds, and why Google and Amazon signing on as investors was an early “green shoot.”
Why Murphy says the model was never the real moat, and how Claude Code, MCP, and Claude Skills turned Anthropic from a strong model into a full platform.
Murphy's take on the backlash to Anthropic's Mythos rollout, and why he pushes back on the idea that it was more marketing than safety.
Why companies like Lovable and Legora are growing faster than any startups Murphy has seen in 25 years, and what that speed means for founders trying to compete.
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How Matt Murphy Made Marvell Essential to AI and Cloud
Matt Murphy transformed Marvell from a broad-based chip supplier into a $100B data infrastructure leader—powering the rise of AI, cloud, 5G, and custom silicon.
On this week’s Grit, the Marvell CEO shares how he refocused the company’s strategy, led major acquisitions like Inphi ($10B) and Cavium ($6B), and positioned Marvell at the center of the next era of compute.
He also reflects on lessons from his father, a longtime CEO, the discipline of running 90 miles a week, and how staying steady through industry cycles has set him apart.
Chapters:
00:00 Trailer
00:47 Introduction
03:00 Huge company, taking the long view
10:28 Market cap shift to big tech
14:44 The data infrastructure opportunity
20:30 Massive economic opportunity
31:33 Semiconductor industry and geopolitics
40:46 Taiwan and Moore’s Law
44:05 Getting hammered down 50%
47:05 Silicon Valley
51:15 All in despite risks
55:37 The CEO checkbox
1:01:22 Email from Matt, subject: Grit
1:07:35 The higher you go
1:15:44 Who Marvell is hiring
1:20:14 What “grit” means to Matt
1:24:40 Outro
Mentioned in this episode: Jim Cramer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), Maxim Integrated, Mattel, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc, Juniper Networks, Meta Platforms, Amazon.com, Inc., Cavium, Inc., Inphi Corporation, Aquantia Corporation, Mellanox Technologies, Nvidia Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, OpenAI, Anthropic, John Chambers, Facebook, Spotify, Airbnb, Google, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, Intel Corporation, Robert Norton Noyce, Gordon Moore, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Andrew "Andy" Stephen Grove, Bloomberg, Intuit Inc., Lip-Bu Tan, Sehat Sutardja, Whay S. Lee, Starboard Value, Rick Hill, Novellus Systems, Inc., Michael Strachan, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, Chris Koopmans
Links:
Connect with Matt
LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
X
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
SaaStr 064: Why Now Is A Really Good Time For SaaS Startups To Raise, How SaaS Startups Can Innovate Their Business Models & The Biggest Takeaways From Working With John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins with Matt Murphy, Managing Director @ Menlo Ventures
Matt Murphy is a Managing Director @ Menlo Ventures where he focuses on multi-stage investments across cloud infrastructure and AI-first SaaS applications. Since joining Menlo, Matt has led investments in Heap Analytics, Usermind, and Veriflow. Previously, Matt was a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins for over 15 years. Matt was also an observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO), launched the iFund in '08 (a collaborative initiative with Apple to build the defining applications on the iOS platform), and led KPCB's investments in AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP, 2010) and Aerohive Networks (Nasdaq: HIVE, 2014). Before joining KPCB, Matt worked at semiconductor startup Netboost (acquired by Intel) and prior to that at Sun Microsystems.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Matt made his way into the world of VC and enterprise investing? What were his biggest takeaways from working alongside John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins?
How is the enterprise investing landscape changing? What fundamental shifts have we seen and what have been the dominant repercussions of this?
Nakul Mandan stated that 'we would see the 2nd wave of consumerisation of enterprise through business model'. Does Matt agree with this and what key trends is Matt most excited about in SaaS?
How does Matt look to evaluate early stage SaaS valuations? What are people fundamentally misvaluing and how should the topic be approached?
Is it harder now for SaaS companies to raise than ever before? What metrics does Matt look for in a Series A investment opportunity?
60 Second SaaStr
Matt's Fave SaaS reading material?
What are the greenfield opportunities in SaaS today?
What was Matt's biggest takeaway from working with John Doerr @ Kleiner Perkins?
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Matt Murphy
