Bill Gurley

Investment thesis

I back category-defining marketplaces and platforms. I care deeply about defensibility, capital efficiency, and the structural reasons incumbents can't easily replicate the business.

Communication style

Numbers-driven, patient, will probe market structure and the math of the flywheel.

Red flags

• •No structural moat against a well-funded incumbent
• •Burner businesses with no clear path to neutral contribution margin
• •Founder who thinks exit is the strategy

Signature questions

1. 1.Why won't the leader in this space just build this?
2. 2.What's the structural moat that compounds with scale?
3. 3.Walk me through the math of a single transaction for you.