Shernaz Daver is small in stature but big in influence. Over three decades in Silicon Valley, she’s mastered the art of getting anyone on the phone with a simple text: “Can you call me?” or “Let’s talk tomorrow.” And they do.
Now, as she prepares to leave Khosla Ventures (KV) after nearly five years as the firm’s first-ever CMO, Daver could be an indicator of where the tech world is headed. Her career has been a remarkably accurate barometer of the industry’s next big thing to date. She was at Inktomi during the search wars of the late ’90s (the dot.com high-flier hit a $37 billion valuation before spiraling back to earth). She joined Netflix when people laughed at the idea of ordering DVDs online. She helped Walmart compete with Amazon on technology. She worked with Guardant Health to explain liquid biopsies before Theranos made blood testing infamous. She was even dressed down once by Steve Jobs over the marketing of a Motorola microprocessor (which could be its own short story).
KV’s founder Vinod Khosla portrays his work with Daver thus: “Shernaz had a strong impact at KV as she helped me build our KV brand and was a valuable partner to our founders. I’m grateful for her time here and know we’ll stay close.”
Asked about why she is leaving the firm, Daver was typically matter-of-fact. “I came to do a job, and the job was to build out the KV brand and to build out Vinod’s brand, and to help set up a marketing organization such that our companies and portfolios have somebody to go to. And I’ve done all of that.”
It’s certainly true that when founders think of top AI investors, two to three venture firms spring to mind, and one of them is KV. It’s quite a turnaround for a firm that, for a period, was better known for Khosla’s legal battle over beach access than for his investments.
The Daver effect
Daver says her success at KV came down to finding the firm’s essence and hammering it relentlessly. “At the end of the day, a VC firm doesn’t have a product,” she explains. “Unlike any company — pick one, Stripe, Rippling, OpenAI — you have a product. VCs don’t have a product. So at the end of the day, a VC firm is actually the people. They are the product itself.”
KV had already identified itself as “bold, early, and impactful” before she arrived. But she says she took those three words and “plastered them everywhere.” Then she found the companies to substantiate each claim.
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The breakthrough came with that middle word: early. “What is the definition of early?” she asks. “Either you create a category, or you’re the first check in.” When OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022, Daver asked Sam Altman if it was okay to talk about KV being the first VC investor. He said yes.
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