INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Benchmark partner Mitch Lasky, who has served on Snap board of directors sinceDecember 2012, is not expected to stand for re-election to
Snap board of directors and will thus be stepping down, according to a report by The Information.
Early investors stepping down from the
board of directors — or at least not seeking re-election — isn&t that uncommon as once-private companies grow into larger public ones
Benchmark partner Peter Fenton did not seek re-election for Twitter board of directors in April last year
As Snap continues to navigate its future, especially as it has declined precipitously since going public and now sits at a valuation of
Partners with an expertise in the early-stage and later-stage startup life cycle may end up seeing themselves more useful taking a back seat
and focusing on other investments
The voting process for board member re-election happens during the company annual meeting, so we&ll get more information when an additional
proxy filing comes out ahead of the meeting later this year.
Benchmark is, or at least was at the time of going public last year, one of
Snap biggest shareholders
According to the company 424B filing prior to going public in March last year, Benchmark held ownership of 23.1% of Snap Class B common
stock and8.2% of Snap Class A common stock
Lasky has been with Benchmark since April 2007, and also serves on the boards of a number of gaming companies like Riot Games and
thatgamecompany, the creators of PlayStation titles flower and Journey
At the time, Snap said in its filing that Lasky was &qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors due to his extensive
experience with social media and technology companies, as well as his experience as a venture capitalist investing in technology
companies.&
The timing could be totally coincidental, but an earlier Recode report suggested Lasky had been talking about stepping down in
future funds for Benchmark
The firm only recently wrapped up a very public battle with Uber, which ended up with Benchmark selling a significant stake in the company
and a new CEO coming in to replace co-founder Travis Kalanick
Benchmark hired its first female general partner, Sarah Tavel, earlier this year.
We&ve reached out to both Snap and a representative from
Benchmark for comment and will update the story when we hear back.
