Benchmark’s AI Pressure Test: High Prices, Smaller Stakes—and a Poached Star

Last year, Benchmark, the storied venture capital firm, embarked on a lavish courtship of Brendan Foody, founder and CEO of Mercor, a startup that fills a lucrative niche in AI by hiring workers to train AI programs. First, General Partner Victor Lazarte chatted with Foody over Zoom. Then Peter Fenton, the firm’s longest-tenured active GP, took Foody out on his helicopter for a tour around San Francisco. And finally, Benchmark’s most famous investor—Bill Gurley, who hasn’t regularly...