Benchmark founder Andy Rachleff explains why he invented the “entrepreneur in residence” position

What was your skill when you were an investor and what do you think the skill is?

My skill was identifying the tech great technologist before they started a company. In most companies there are two or three product people that are engineers that, that most everyone in the company goes to for their judgment. They're fantastic product people.

How did you get that playbook?

Well, you know, you've heard the term entrepreneur in residence.

Yes.

So I did. The first entrepreneur in residence in the venture capital industry.

You're such a humble guy. This is the playbook of playbooks.

You created it. So this is, this is how we created an entrepreneur in residence. It wasn't an executive in residence that we would put together with a company. We looked for people who worked in industries that were undergoing change because without change there's seldom opportunity. And we looked for the people in those companies who were the most likely to conceptualize an innovation and then we would pursue them for anywhere between one and five years.