Fundraising Fox
Sarah Tavel
InvestorVenture Partner at Benchmark
San Francisco, CA
Writes $4M – $30M checks · typically $12M
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About
Sarah Tavel joined Benchmark in 2017 as the firm's first woman general partner, backing Chainalysis, Hipcamp, and 11x, and transitioned to a venture partner role in 2025 to spend more time exploring AI. Earlier she was a product leader at Pinterest and a partner at Greylock. She writes a widely read newsletter on marketplaces, consumer products, and AI.
Contact· published on Sarah's own website
Invests in
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSocial
Deals · 4
Huddle LabsBoard seat
via Benchmark · filed Jul 2021 · $22.4M raise
ChainalysisBoard seat
via Benchmark · filed Apr 2021 · $100M raise
Attribution from SEC filings, press coverage, and firm rosters.
Other disclosed investments
Investor
11x11xCamblyEigenMedelyPaparazziPoparazziSupergreatTTYLWealthfront
Sources: SEC Form D filings · curated public sources.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring Sarah TavelBenchmark's Sarah Tavel on being recruited by Peter Fenton, disrupting VC from inside | Angel S4 E4
This Week in Startups
The hierarchy of engagement | Sarah Tavel (Benchmark, Greylock, Pinterest)
Lenny's Podcast
Becoming AI Native with Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel
OpenLP from Sapphire Partners
How to Survive the AI Shakeout — Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel on Startup Moats & Product-Market Fit
Deconstructed VC
The Next AI Wave Will Be Social, Not Solo | Sarah Tavel, Benchmark and ex-Pinterest
Every
Benchmark GP Sarah Tavel Says This is What Startups Need to do to Survive | Invested
Aleph
6 more appearances
- Why Benchmark is Different Than Other Firms with Sarah Tavel & Eric Vishria2025-02-18
- BENCHMARK VC: SaaS Companies Are In Trouble l Sarah Tavel on SaaS & AI2024-03-21
- New AI Startup Paradigm: Copilots Aren't Good Enough! -Benchmark Capital GP Sarah Tavel2024-02-27
- Sarah Tavel Q&A On Marketplace Aggregation2023-09-20
- Consumer Startups' Tough Reality: A Deep Dive with Sarah Tavel of Benchmark | The Newcomer Podcast2023-05-23
- Sarah Tavel: Setting the Benchmark For Future Startups | 2023 Upfront Summit2023-03-20
Writing
All posts ↗Sarah Tavel has recently written about consumer AI's potential compared to the mobile wave, and about becoming an AI-native company through a two-part interview with Rekki's CTO covering empowering non-engineers to code and the tradeoffs of AI-generated code.
Argues consumer AI will be a smaller wave than mobile because it can't expand digital minutes the way mobile did, with more opportunity in utility-style apps.»
Shares Rekki CTO Borislav's view that coding without AI two days weekly keeps engineering judgment sharp, and explains why reviewing LLM-generated code lacks a human theory of mind.
Interviews Rekki CTO Borislav on becoming AI-native by enabling every employee to code, shifting the CTO role toward building internal infrastructure and primitives that let staff solve their own problems.
Colleagues at Benchmark
Network1
Investors connected to Sarah in public investor directories — a warm-intro map.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Sarah Tavel?
- Sarah Tavel joined Benchmark in 2017 as the firm's first woman general partner, backing Chainalysis, Hipcamp, and 11x, and transitioned to a venture partner role in 2025 to spend more time exploring AI. Earlier she was a product leader at Pinterest and a partner at Greylock. She writes a widely read newsletter on marketplaces, consumer products, and AI.
- Where does Sarah Tavel work?
- Sarah Tavel is Venture Partner at Benchmark.
- What does Sarah Tavel invest in?
- Sarah Tavel invests in AI & Machine Learning, Data & Infrastructure, Developer Tools, Enterprise Software, Social.
- What check size does Sarah Tavel write?
- Sarah Tavel typically writes checks of $4M – $30M.
- What boards does Sarah Tavel sit on?
- Sarah Tavel holds tracked board seats at Agentio, Chainalysis, Hipcamp, Huddle Labs.
- What companies has Sarah Tavel invested in?
- Investments tracked here include 11x, 11x, Agentio, Cambly, Chainalysis, Eigen, Hipcamp, Medely, Paparazzi, Poparazzi, Supergreat, TTYL, and 1 more.
- What has Sarah Tavel written?
- Sarah Tavel has 3 tracked posts on sarahtavel.com, including "Will AI be as big of a catalyst for a consumer AI wave as mobile?", "The benefits of writing code two days every week without AI, and why the percentage of code written by AI is a vanity metric", "An AI "Metamorphosis": Transforming into an AI-native company".
- What podcasts and interviews feature Sarah Tavel?
- Tracked appearances include "Benchmark's Sarah Tavel on being recruited by Peter Fenton, disrupting VC from inside | Angel S4 E4", "The hierarchy of engagement | Sarah Tavel (Benchmark, Greylock, Pinterest)", "Becoming AI Native with Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel", and 9 more.
About this profile. Compiled from public sources — Benchmark's own website, regulatory filings, press coverage and public professional profiles — and summarised by Fundraising Fox; every fact is kept with where it came from. Spotted an error, or would rather not be listed? Email privacy@fundraisingfox.com · How we build profiles · Your rights