Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy explains what AI startups founders must do differently
TechCrunch AI Theresa Loconsolo, Julie Bort ● Covered by 2 sources
Menlo Ventures' Matt Murphy discusses his investment in Anthropic, which grew from pre-revenue to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May—growth Murphy says exceeds anything he's seen in 25 years across internet, mobile, and cloud. Anthropic's valuation was $4 billion at the Series D despite having no revenue, and success came from building a full platform with Claude Code, MCP, and Claude Skills rather than relying solely on the underlying model. Founders competing in AI must move faster and broader to match the pace of companies like Lovable and Legora, which are scaling quicker than any startups Murphy has previously encountered.
Why it matters
Anthropic leaped to a $47 billion revenue run rate by May, compared to $9 billion in 2025. It’s the kind of growth that Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy says he’s never seen in 25 years of investing, not in the internet wave, not in mobile, not in the first cloud boom. Menlo led Anthropic’s $500M Series D, and Murphy has had a front-row seat as the company went from a pre-revenue, […]
