ETHAN KURZWEIL
Bessemer Venture Partners partner who backed Yelp, Toast, and Intercom — and yes, his father invented the concept of the Singularity
Ethan Kurzweil’s father is Ray Kurzweil, the futurist who predicted the technological Singularity. Ethan took a more practical path — investing in restaurants via Toast ($14B IPO), local businesses via Yelp, and customer messaging via Intercom. He’s proof that the apple can fall pretty far from the tree and still land in money. While dad thinks about uploading human consciousness, Ethan thinks about SaaS metrics. Both are doing fine.
Net Worth
$200 million
Nationality
American
Time Horizon
Long-Term
Risk Appetite
5 / 10
Net Worth Context
- · 200x the average American's lifetime earnings, stacked and waiting.
CAREER & BACKGROUND
Kurzweil grew up surrounded by futurism — his father Ray Kurzweil is one of the most famous technologists alive. But Ethan went the VC route rather than the inventor route.
He joined Bessemer Venture Partners and built a strong portfolio across consumer and enterprise software. His investments include Toast (restaurant management platform, IPO’d at $14B), Yelp (local review platform, IPO), Intercom (customer messaging), and Bench (accounting for small business).
He has a particular interest in software that serves small and medium businesses — the unglamorous segment that many VCs ignore. Toast and Yelp both started by serving local restaurants and small businesses.
COMPANIES & ROLES
Bessemer Venture Partners — investments include Toast ($14B IPO), Yelp (IPO), Intercom (valued at $1.25B), and Bench.
He focuses on the intersection of consumer experience and enterprise software — tools that make small businesses work better.
INVESTING STYLE & PHILOSOPHY
Kurzweil invests in software that serves the unsexy middle — not big enterprise, not mass consumer, but the millions of small and medium businesses that need better tools. Restaurants, local services, small professional firms.
His insight is that these businesses are underserved by technology. Most software is designed for either Fortune 500 companies or individual consumers.
The SMB gap is where the opportunity lives.
THE PLAYBOOK
Risk Approach
Moderate. SMB-focused software is a relatively proven category, though individual companies can struggle with high churn rates and low customer lifetime values.
Kurzweil picks companies that crack the SMB distribution problem.
Money Habits
Kurzweil lives in the Bay Area and is active in the Bessemer community. He doesn’t have the public profile of his father but is well-respected in VC circles.
BIGGEST WIN
Toast’s IPO in 2021 at a $14 billion valuation. Toast transformed restaurant management from pen-and-paper to a complete digital platform.
It’s now used by hundreds of thousands of restaurants.
BIGGEST MISTAKE
Some SMB-focused investments haven’t worked out — the category has a high failure rate because acquiring small businesses as customers is expensive and churn is high. Bench, one of his investments, had a complicated journey before being acquired.
FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Kurzweil believes that every industry will be transformed by software, and the biggest opportunities are in industries that are most behind. Restaurants, construction, logistics — these are multi-trillion-dollar industries running on outdated tools.
FAMILY & PERSONAL LIFE
Son of Ray Kurzweil, the inventor and futurist. Lives in the Bay Area.
Keeps his personal life relatively private despite the famous family name.
EDUCATION
Yale University for undergrad. Went into venture capital rather than following his father into invention.
The Yale pedigree and Bessemer platform gave him access to top deals.
BOOKS & RESOURCES
The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil is the obvious family connection
Though Ethan’s investments are more grounded than his father’s predictions
Captures the SMB startup struggle
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QUOTES (5)
My dad thinks about the Singularity. I think about restaurant point-of-sale systems. Both are trying to improve the human condition.
The best opportunities in venture capital are in industries that VCs consider boring. Boring is where the money is.
Toast proved that restaurants — the most analog industry in America — were ready for a complete digital transformation.
Small businesses are 99% of American companies. Serving them at scale is one of the biggest opportunities in tech.
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