Menlo will sustain its success after the Anthropic windfall by preserving a challenger mentality and focusing on compounding its AI positioning, not by resting on the monetary outcome.
Matt Murphy reflects on how Menlo plans to avoid the trap that has caused other firms to fade after big wins. He emphasizes that Menlo has always operated with a challenger mindset since the leadership team came together 11 years ago, and that the Anthropic success is fuel to compound their AI advantage, not a reason to coast. ✦ AI generated
Matt Murphy · 20VC · 2026-07-27 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 54:56
“How do you think about firm sustenance when there is such a big win? We have seen firms candidly struggle to maintain dominance when everyone makes so much money bluntly.”
You know, I think Menllo has always had a challenger mentality since myself and Venkey came over a little over 10 years ago and kind of Sean Carolyn came back and and you know, Mark Seagull was the partner who was there who kind of put the band together and ever since that moment about 11 years ago, it's just been a grind, a fight, uh a a build, exhilarating to kind of get to this point. And I feel like everyone we've brought along has kind of felt Menllo move up that stack and be more and more successful. So I think what's driving us is what you would expect less about that monetary outcome. And holy [ __ ] we've put oursel in a place to be one of the hopefully leading firms in AI and how do we really compound and double down on that advantage. And that's the energy I feel every day certainly from myself and all my partners. And I I just can't see that going away. It's kind of like it's kind of like we arrived. We're here. what we what do we do with that? And you know, the money's great, but that's not what that's not why we did all this.
verbatim transcript · starts at 54:56
54:56money, Matt. Um do how >> not in carry, right? Our position is is north of that, but that's not that you can do the math on what Carrie usually is. So it's not quite that on on Carrie but our death. >> Okay. Okay to totally understand. Two to three >> two. It's a very big number. How do you think about firm sustenance when there is such a big win? We have seen firms
55:24candidly struggle to maintain dominance when everyone makes so much money bluntly. How do you think about sustenance post such success? You know, I think Menllo has always had a challenger mentality since myself and Venkey came over a little over 10 years ago and kind of Sean Carolyn came back and and you know, Mark Seagull was the partner who was there who kind of put the band together and ever since that
55:50moment about 11 years ago, it's just been a grind, a fight, uh a a build, exhilarating to kind of get to this point. And I feel like everyone we've brought along has kind of felt Menllo move up that stack and be more and more successful. So I think what's driving us is what you would expect less about that monetary outcome. And holy [ __ ] we've put oursel in a place to be one of the
56:15hopefully leading firms in AI and how do we really compound and double down on that advantage. And that's the energy I feel every day certainly from myself and all my partners. And I I just can't see that going away. It's kind of like it's kind of like we arrived. We're here. what we what do we do with that? And you know, the money's great, but that's not
56:31what that's not why we did all this. >> I think richer investors make better investors because you do not worry about downside mitigation, but you focus on upside optimization. How big can this be? What happens if this works? You're not worried about LPS not re-upping. You're not focused on risk mitigation. Do you agree with me in thinking that? >> Of course I do. And I think it's it's
56:59it's at a firm level and it's in an at an individual level. And you know, there's been times in my career, you know, where you where you feel some some doubt either from yourself or those those around you and it it makes you dramatically worse, right? And so we try to do is have a high trust environment, build people up, and everyone is going to fail in this business, right? It's
57:21just kind of recognizing that sooner and kind of landing the plane or doing the right thing. the worst thing in the world is to kind of hold on and just go to try to, you know, um act like the reality is not is not the reality. And often times you're doing a founder a favor by even helping them, you know, kind of kind of land the plane. So, um
57:41so yeah, I I I think it's an an important point and an important thing, you know, to to to manage in this business. >> Totally get that, dude. I uh I would love to move into a quick fire round. I have uh pushed and prodded around many different areas. So I I appreciate the patience. >> This is where the really uh offputting stuff comes or I'm ready.