Matt Cohler | |
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Matt Cohler, January 2008 | |
Born | March 27, 1977 New York City, US | (age 46)
Alma mater | Yale University |
Occupation | Venture Capitalist |
Employer | General Partner at Benchmark |
Known for | Former VP of Product Management, Facebook |
Spouse | Pia Pernille Øien Cohler |
Matt Cohler (born March 27, 1977) is an American venture capitalist. He worked as Vice President of Product Management for Facebook until June 2008[1] and was formerly a general partner at Benchmark.[2][3][4] Cohler has been named to the Forbes Midas List of top technology investors[5] and in 2019 was named to the New York Times and CB Insights list of top 10 venture capital investors.[6] Cohler made the Forbes 'America's 40 Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40' list in 2015.[7]
Cohler earned a B.A. with honors and distinction in music from Yale University.[8]
Early in his career, Cohler worked in China and was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.[9] He befriended Reid Hoffman and went on to become a founding member of Hoffman's startup LinkedIn.[10] Cohler was vice president and general manager at LinkedIn and was considered CEO Hoffman's right-hand man.[11]
Cohler was one of the first five employees hired at Facebook.[1] He was Facebook's vice president of product management and worked with the team during many of its critical growth phases. He continued to act as a "special advisor" to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.[12] In 2008, he left Facebook and became the youngest general partner at Benchmark.[9]
At Benchmark, Cohler has backed the firm's investments in Dropbox, Asana, Quora, Greenhouse,[13] Domo, Tinder,[14] Duo Security, DeepL, Edmodo, ResearchGate, 1stdibs, Peixe Urbano, CouchSurfing, Baixing, and Zendesk.[15][16] In 2011, he led a $7 million round of funding for Instagram,[17] which agreed in April 2012 to be acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.[18] In March 2014, Cohler led Benchmark's investment in Xapo, a Bitcoin wallet/insured cold storage vault.[19][20]
Cohler sits on the boards of Asana, Quora,[21] ResearchGate,[22] and 1stdibs.
In 2018, it was announced that Cohler would "step back" from Benchmark and not be a part of their next fund. Although he departed the Benchmark fund, he was expected to continue to hold his board seats, including at Uber.[23][2] Cohler later left the Uber board in July 2019, at the same time as Arianna Huffington.[24]
Cohler is vice president of the San Francisco Symphony board of governors,[25][26] board trustee at Environmental Defense Fund,[27] and a member of the endowment investment committees at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative[28] and the Yale Investments Office.[29]
In April 2013, a lobbying group called FWD.us (aimed at lobbying for immigration reform and improvements to education) was launched, with Cohler listed as one of the founders.[30]