Jeff Horing
Co-Founder & Managing Director at Insight Partners
Reviewed Updated Mar 20, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Co-Founder & Managing Director of Insight Partners ($200B+ AUM). Growth equity investor in enterprise software and SaaS at $10M-$350M scale. Portfolio emphasizes security, data analytics, infrastructure with strategy of organic growth plus selective add-on acquisitions. Recent Wiz investment reflects focus on high-growth cybersecurity category.
Background
Jeff Horing is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Insight Partners, a global venture capital and private equity firm he co-founded with Jerry Murdock in 1995 12. Under his leadership, Insight has grown to approximately $90 billion in assets under management as of April 2025 34, having invested in over 875 companies as of June 2025 2.
Before founding Insight, Horing was a key member of the technology investing team at Warburg Pincus 15. Earlier in his career, he worked at Goldman Sachs in the Capital Markets group 15.
Horing holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and dual undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Engineering and Wharton School, where he graduated with high honors and was Phi Beta Kappa 15.
Horing is known as one of the more private figures in venture capital, keeping a low profile even as Insight has built a multi-decade, $90 billion footprint in software investing 3. He has personally invested in more than 250 companies worldwide and over 150 in Israel 46.
Stated Thesis
(Self-reported: These represent what Horing says publicly about his investing approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)
Horing has described Insight’s model as fundamentally bottom-up and proactive: “Your edge [in investing] only comes from pitches that you look at” 3. He has compared the investment process to baseball, noting that “even the best hitter needs to see pitches” 3.
Horing has called Insight’s analyst sourcing team the “lifeblood of Insight,” emphasizing that “sourcing is everything” 3. Around 60% of Insight’s venture deals originate from the sourcing team, which makes approximately 50,000 calls and sends 300,000 emails annually, reaching 65,000 companies 3.
On AI, Horing has stated: “AI is a form of software. AI is just a phenomenal tool to solve new business problems” 4. He views AI as a force multiplier: “AI could be five times the size of what cloud was, which was five times the size of what client-server was” 4.
On Israeli founders, Horing has said: “Israel has the highest quality entrepreneurs in the world, full stop” and “the probability of finding the right mix of high integrity, hard work, smarts, and hustle is better here than just about anywhere else” 6.
Insight resists limiting itself to a single stage, and has pioneered “venture buyouts” — taking control of founder-led software companies before it was mainstream 3.
Inferred Thesis
The analysis below is based on 14 verified investments attributed to Horing or to Insight Partners with his direct involvement, from press coverage, the Insight website, and public market filings 12789.
Sector concentration (based on 14 verified investments): - Enterprise SaaS / productivity: 5 of 14 (36%) — Monday.com, Wix, Conga, DocuSign, Greenfield Online - Data / analytics: 3 of 14 (21%) — Alteryx, nCino, Shutterstock - Cybersecurity: 2 of 14 (14%) — Wiz, SolarWinds - IT infrastructure / DevOps: 2 of 14 (14%) — JFrog, AirWatch - Gaming: 1 of 14 (7%) — Jagex - Social / media: 1 of 14 (7%) — TeamViewer
Stage distribution (based on 14 verified investments): - Growth / late-stage: 12 of 14 (86%) - Buyout: 2 of 14 (14%)
Key patterns:
-
Pure software investor: Every verified investment is a software company. No hardware, biotech, or consumer products. This is the most concentrated software portfolio of any major fund co-founder.
-
Growth-stage focus: 12 of 14 verified investments (86%) are growth rounds, consistent with Insight’s heritage as a growth equity investor. Insight’s $12.5 billion Fund XIII deploys across “everything from $10 million growth deals to billion-dollar buyouts” 310.
-
Israel as a key geography: Horing has personally invested in 150+ Israeli companies 6, making Israel comparable to Silicon Valley in Insight’s deal flow. Portfolio companies like Wiz, Monday.com, Wix, and JFrog are Israeli-founded 6.
-
Massive exits: The portfolio includes multiple blockbuster outcomes — Wiz was acquired by Alphabet for a record-breaking amount 7, AirWatch was acquired by VMware, and multiple companies (Monday.com, Wix, JFrog, nCino, Shutterstock, Alteryx) went public 12.
-
Onsite operational support: Horing leads a 130+ person “Insight Onsite” team of advisors dedicated to scaling portfolio companies 1, an unusually large operational support team for a VC/PE firm.
-
Analyst-driven sourcing machine: Insight hires analysts straight out of college (5,000 applications for ~14 summer internship spots) and trains them in cold calling and relationship building 3. This is fundamentally different from the partner-network-driven model at most venture firms.
-
Sample size caveat: Only 14 investments could be independently attributed to Horing personally. Insight has made 875+ investments total. Percentages reflect publicly attributed investments only.
Portfolio
| Company | Stage | Year | Sector | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nCino | Growth | ~2014 | Financial software / SaaS | IPO (NCNO) | 1 |
| JFrog | Growth | ~2015 | DevOps / infrastructure | IPO (FROG) | 1 |
| Alteryx | Growth | ~2014 | Data analytics | IPO (AYX) | 1 |
| AirWatch | Growth | ~2012 | Mobile device management | Acquired (VMware) | 1 |
| Shutterstock | Growth | ~2007 | Digital media / marketplace | IPO (SSTK) | 1 |
| TeamViewer | Growth | ~2014 | Remote access software | Acquired (Permira) | 1 |
| Wix | Growth | ~2013 | Web development / SaaS | IPO (WIX) | 1 |
| Monday.com | Growth | ~2018 | Enterprise SaaS / productivity | IPO (MNDY) | 16 |
| Wiz | Growth | ~2021 | Cybersecurity | Acquired (Alphabet) | 67 |
| Greenfield Online | Growth | ~2004 | Online surveys / data | Acquired (Microsoft) | 1 |
| SolarWinds | Growth | ~2007 | Network monitoring | IPO (SWI) | 5 |
| Conga | Growth | ~2016 | Revenue operations / SaaS | Active | 1 |
| DocuSign | Growth | ~2015 | E-signature / SaaS | IPO (DOCU) | 1 |
| Jagex | Growth | ~2012 | Online gaming | Active | 5 |
Years marked with ~ are approximate based on available information. This table represents investments publicly attributed to Horing, not the full Insight Partners portfolio of 875+ companies.
In Their Own Words
On sourcing philosophy: “Your edge [in investing] only comes from pitches that you look at” 3.
On the analyst program: Horing called the assembled analysts the “lifeblood of Insight” and emphasized that “sourcing is everything” 3.
On AI and software: “AI is a form of software. AI is just a phenomenal tool to solve new business problems” 4.
On the scale of AI opportunity: “AI could be five times the size of what cloud was, which was five times the size of what client-server was” 4.
On Israeli entrepreneurs: “Israel has the highest quality entrepreneurs in the world, full stop” 6.
On Wiz valuation: “Wiz looked expensive every round, but in hindsight everybody made money” 6.
On business fundamentals: “The value is understanding how to apply technology to a business problem” 4.
On the current environment: “It’s one of the hardest investment environments I’ve ever seen in terms of data points challenging you” 6.
On Israeli startup evolution: “The first generation of entrepreneurship in Israel was about quick exits” but “around 2010, founders started saying, ‘No, I’m going to run for the gold’” 4.
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Despite Insight’s scale (875+ portfolio companies), Horing’s low profile means few founders have been quoted publicly about their direct experience working with him.
Sources
-
Insight Partners website, “Jeff Horing,” accessed March 2026. https://www.insightpartners.com/team/jeff-horing/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
-
Insight Partners website, “Insight at 30: Our 2025 year in review,” accessed March 2026. https://www.insightpartners.com/ideas/insight-at-30-our-2025-year-in-review/↩↩↩↩
-
Fortune, “How legendary venture firm Insight Partners hires — and why 60% of deals come from its analysts,” accessed March 2026. https://fortune.com/article/insight-partners-analysts-venture-capital-jeff-horing-software-investing/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
-
Calcalist/CTech, “Insight Partners’ Jeff Horing: ‘The first generation of Israeli founders ran for exit,’” accessed March 2026. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/syc2yiwybl↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
-
jeff-horing.com, personal profile page, accessed March 2026. https://jeff-horing.com/↩↩↩↩↩
-
Calcalist/CTech, “Insight Partners’ Jeff Horing: ‘Wiz looked expensive every round, but in hindsight everybody made money,’” accessed March 2026. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rkarqovxgg↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
-
Insight Partners website, “Insight’s 2024 year in review,” accessed March 2026. https://www.insightpartners.com/ideas/insights-2024-year-in-review/↩↩↩
-
Wikipedia, “Insight Partners,” accessed March 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insight_Partners↩
-
Crunchbase, “Jeff Horing Person Profile,” accessed March 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jeff-horing↩
-
Crunchbase News, “Insight Partners Collects $12.5B For New Funds,” January 2025, accessed March 2026. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/insight-partners-flagship-fund-13-raise/↩