Greylock Partners: 61 years of betting on people before companies

Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture firms in Silicon Valley — and one of the most influential. Founded in 1965 in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Bill Elfers and Dan Gregory, and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, it calls itself "your first believer in what doesn't exist yet". Its fingerprints are on LinkedIn, Airbnb, Meta, Palo Alto Networks, Workday, Coinbase, Figma, Discord and Roblox — and it incubated Palo Alto Networks inside its own offices.

Investment thesis

"Our mission is to be the most important partner to the most important entrepreneurs," partner Saam Motamedi told TechCrunch in 2026. Greylock makes concentrated, high-conviction bets: 10 partners, one or two new investments a year, roughly 25 companies per fund. When the partners review their pipeline each Monday, the agenda is organised by people's names, not company names — "we're getting to know people even before they start a company. It's really a bet on the person."

Sectors & stages

Greylock focuses on early-stage consumer and enterprise software — pre-seed, seed and Series A — with a current emphasis on AI-native companies across infrastructure, cybersecurity, applications, deep tech, consumer and fintech. Roughly 15% of its newest fund is reserved for later-stage chances it "missed early on", such as Anthropic, Revolut and Wiz.

Fund & cheque sizes

In July 2026 Greylock announced Greylock 18, a $1.5 billion fund — 50% larger than its $1 billion 17th fund from 2023, but deliberately capped below what it could have raised. Across its history the firm has been involved in more than 100 IPOs and 250 acquisitions, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion. It publishes no standard cheque sizes; its model is leading seed and Series A rounds in a small number of companies.

Notable portfolio

Early bets include LinkedIn, Meta, Airbnb, Coinbase, Roblox, Discord, Figma, Dropbox, Workday and Wiz. Its company-building record stands out: Palo Alto Networks launched inside Greylock's offices; Abnormal was incubated there in 2018 and valued at $5.1 billion; Baseten, backed at Series A in 2022, reached a $13 billion valuation.

Partners & team

The partnership includes LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, longtime enterprise investor David Sze, cybersecurity specialist Asheem Chandna, Jerry Chen and Saam Motamedi — partners who have been founders and operators themselves.

Programs run

Greylock Edge, launched in 2023, is a bespoke programme for a small set of pre-idea, pre-seed and seed founders, who work directly with partners on flexible financing, early customers and first hires, on a rolling basis. Since 2014 it has also run Communities — quarterly gatherings of product, engineering and data talent from leading tech companies.

How to approach

Greylock invests in people before decks, so relationships matter: a warm introduction — or its Communities events — is the strongest route. Pre-idea and pre-seed founders can explore Greylock Edge, which accepts founders on a rolling basis. Expect the firm to diligence the team as much as the idea. A note for Indian founders: partner Asheem Chandna has a long record of backing Indian-origin founders, including Rubrik's Bipul Sinha and Arvind Jain — a natural entry point for enterprise and infrastructure founders from India.