Chetan Puttagunta

Background

Chetan Puttagunta is an American venture capital investor and General Partner at Benchmark ¹². He earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2007, where he also participated in algorithm research at Stanford’s STARlab ³⁴.

After Stanford, Puttagunta worked as a technology investment banker at Houlihan Lokey and then as an investor in H.I.G. Capital’s Leveraged Buyout Group ³⁴⁵. He also had early involvement with Gaikai, a cloud gaming company subsequently acquired by Sony ³.

Puttagunta joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 2011, focusing on enterprise software across early and growth-stage investing ⁴⁴. During his seven years at NEA, he led investments in MuleSoft, Elastic, MongoDB, Acquia, Reltio, Placester, Heap, Sentry, Swiftype, Forter, ScoutRFP, Canopy, and Folloze, among others ⁴⁴. In October 2016, he was promoted to General Partner at NEA ⁴. Two of his most notable NEA investments — MongoDB and MuleSoft — completed their IPOs in 2017, and in 2018 Salesforce acquired MuleSoft for approximately $6.5 billion, with NEA as the company’s largest shareholder at the time ⁴⁶.

In July 2018, at age 32, Puttagunta joined Benchmark as a General Partner with equal authority and ownership alongside the firm’s existing partners ⁶. Bill Gurley, then a Benchmark partner, introduced Puttagunta through his blog announcement of the hire ⁶. Peter Fenton, an existing Benchmark partner, had first observed Puttagunta’s work on the Elastic board ⁶.

Puttagunta was named to Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” in venture capital in 2015 ²³ and has been featured on the Forbes Midas List for multiple consecutive years, ranking #74 on the 2024 list ²⁷.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Board and Lead Independent Director at Elastic (NYSE: ESTC) ⁵.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Puttagunta says publicly about his investment approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Puttagunta has consistently described his focus as investing in enabling infrastructure and developer tools. He has stated that a common thread across his investments is thinking about “what is the enabling technology application developers need to take advantage of the current and up and coming technologies” ⁸.

On open source as a go-to-market strategy, Puttagunta has been an early and vocal proponent. He has stated that Benchmark has “a long history of investing in open-source startups, including being an early investor in Red Hat, as well as Elastic, MongoDB, Acquia and many others” ⁹. He has also stated: “We deeply believe in open source, and in this case it would be open weights” ¹⁰.

On Benchmark’s approach to investing, Puttagunta has said: “We want to back transformational companies primarily at seed and Series A” ¹⁰ and “Valuation frankly is not the governor in our investment decisions. The conversation is really about the company and does the partner want to work with that entrepreneur” ¹¹.

On early-stage company building, Puttagunta has cautioned against over-reliance on metrics: “I think there has been, frankly, an over rotation into just running businesses simply on metrics” and “by really just focusing on metrics at these early stages, you miss the feel for the product itself” ¹². He has emphasized that “NPS and customer satisfaction is critically important, especially in the early stages” ¹².

On professional services in startups, Puttagunta has pushed back against conventional wisdom: “Being scared of professional services is this weird dogma that doesn’t make sense” ¹³.

On AI applications, Puttagunta has stated that AI application companies have “totally inverted” their product philosophy from traditional software, with “the best ones” having “a four-week roadmap, maybe two-week roadmap” ¹⁰. He has described the AI application wave as a moment where “every large horizontal category was up for grabs again” ¹¹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 25 verified investments across his NEA and Benchmark career, the following patterns emerge. Note: Puttagunta’s full portfolio is likely larger; this analysis is based on publicly confirmed investments only.

Sector breakdown (25 verified investments): Enterprise infrastructure and developer tools dominate his portfolio. Open-source infrastructure companies (Elastic, MongoDB, MuleSoft, Airbyte, MindsDB, Acquia) account for 6 of 25 (24%). Developer tools and APIs (Stytch, Modern Treasury, Duffel, LangChain, Sentry, Swiftype, Reducto) account for 7 of 25 (28%). AI/ML applications (Manus, LangChain, Reducto, MindsDB, Legora, Levelpath) account for 6 of 25 (24%). Fintech/payments (Modern Treasury, Forter, Numeral) account for 3 of 25 (12%). Other enterprise/SaaS (ScoutRFP, Sitetracker, Reltio, Placester, Heap) account for 5 of 25 (20%). Note: some companies span multiple categories; primary category used for each.

Stage distribution: At NEA, Puttagunta invested across early and growth stages, including leading growth rounds in Elastic and MongoDB. At Benchmark since 2018, he has focused exclusively on seed and Series A, consistent with Benchmark’s fund structure ¹⁰. Benchmark manages approximately $425M-$500M per fund ¹¹⁰.

Geographic patterns: The majority of Benchmark-era investments are US-based (San Francisco Bay Area dominated). Notable exceptions include Duffel (London, UK) ¹⁴ and Manus (Singapore/China-founded) ¹⁵, showing willingness to invest internationally for exceptional opportunities.

Check size: At Benchmark, typical investment range of $1M-$15M with a sweet spot around $8M ¹.

Founder profile patterns: Puttagunta shows a strong preference for technical founders building infrastructure. Multiple portfolio companies were founded by engineers who experienced a pain point firsthand (Airbyte founders on data integration, Modern Treasury founders on payment operations, Stytch founders on authentication). He also backs repeat founders — Levelpath was founded by the same team behind ScoutRFP (acquired by Workday), which Puttagunta invested in at NEA ¹⁶.

Co-investor patterns: At Benchmark, Puttagunta frequently co-invests with Y Combinator alumni companies (Airbyte, Numeral, Reducto were all YC companies). Downstream co-investors on his deals include Sequoia (LangChain Series A), a16z (Reducto Series B), Redpoint (Levelpath Series A), and Thrive Capital (Stytch Series A) ^17181920.

Open source to AI evolution: The clearest pattern in Puttagunta’s career is an evolution from pure open-source infrastructure (2011-2020: Elastic, MongoDB, MuleSoft, Acquia, Airbyte) toward AI-native applications and AI infrastructure (2022-present: LangChain, MindsDB, Manus, Reducto, Legora, Levelpath). Beginning in 2022, Benchmark under Puttagunta’s leadership aggressively moved into AI applications ¹⁰¹¹.

Notable gap: Despite publicly discussing the AI coding tools market (referencing Benchmark investments in Cursor and Greptile), Puttagunta has expressed caution about that space, comparing it to “food delivery in San Francisco in 2012” — implying heavy competition with margin pressures where “the developer — or the user that’s generating code from these tools — is capturing a tremendous amount of value” ¹⁰. This suggests a more nuanced view on coding tools than his broader AI enthusiasm might imply.

Portfolio

Benchmark Investments (2018-present)

NEA Investments (2011-2018)

This table represents publicly confirmed investments. Puttagunta’s full portfolio, particularly seed-stage investments, is likely larger. NEA-era investment years are approximate where exact dates were not independently verified; “—” indicates year could not be confirmed from available sources.

In Their Own Words

On enabling technology for developers:

“A common thread amongst all of them is that I really think about what is the enabling technology application developers need to take advantage of the current and up and coming technologies.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, referenced in multiple podcast appearances ⁸

On AI applications inverting traditional product development:

“The really interesting things we’ve noticed is the application companies that are doing remarkably well, their view of product is totally inverted from how traditional software used to think about it.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, Adams Street Partners interview, 2025 ¹⁰

On AI coding tools and competitive dynamics:

“The developer — or the user that’s generating code from these tools — is capturing a tremendous amount of value.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, Adams Street Partners interview, 2025 ¹⁰

On over-rotation into metrics at early-stage companies:

“I think there has been, frankly, an over rotation into just running businesses simply on metrics.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, The Twenty Minute VC podcast, 2019 ¹²

On getting first customers:

“Can you get the first five lighthouse customers? You just can’t guess. It’s hard.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, A Letter a Day interview, 2023 ¹³

On professional services dogma:

“Being scared of professional services is this weird dogma that doesn’t make sense.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, A Letter a Day interview, 2023 ¹³

On startup advantages over big companies:

“Startups are better equipped to do that than any big company, period.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, A Letter a Day interview, 2023 ¹³

On Benchmark’s investment philosophy:

“Valuation frankly is not the governor in our investment decisions.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, The Split podcast, 2025 ¹¹

On his portfolio company Manus reaching $90M ARR:

“Remarkable execution and a fantastic product being built in Singapore. Building exclusively on models from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, Manus is defining the next generation of AI powered productivity software for consumers and teams.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, post on X, 2025 ²⁵

On open-source data integration (regarding Airbyte investment):

“Integrating data from multiple sources is a painful process — every company is spending time and resources making and maintaining these connections in a bespoke fashion. Michel, John and the team at Airbyte had the insight to use the power of open source to solve this for the entire industry.”

— Chetan Puttagunta, Airbyte Series A announcement, May 2021 ⁹

What Founders Say

Bill Gurley, introducing Puttagunta to Benchmark’s community in 2018, wrote that founders and CEOs of MuleSoft and MongoDB called Chetan “the MVP of our board” and noted that “despite being nearly 20 years younger than everyone else, Chetan managed to deliver insights no one else had” ⁶.

Gurley also described Puttagunta’s qualities: “His energy and devotion, his capacity to listen and to provide crisp, well reasoned advice set him apart in that elusive way that leads him to be a CEO’s first phone call” ⁶.

Caryn Marooney, in a 2023 interview featured on A Letter a Day, stated: “To see Chetan and his partners in the boardroom is the difference between having one of those real coaches and having an investor. It’s an entirely different level of input and strategic thought and care” ¹³.

Max Junestrand, founder of Legora, specifically chose to work with Chetan Puttagunta at Benchmark for his company, selecting him as a board partner for the competitive Y Combinator deal ⁶.

Note: The Gurley quotes are sourced from Benchmark’s own announcement post. While Gurley attributes the “MVP of our board” quote to founders and CEOs, the specific individuals are not named. Independent founder testimonials from sources outside Benchmark’s own communications were limited in available public sources.

Sources