Lightspeed Partner Jeremy Liew Steps Back at Firm

Jeremy Liew, the face of venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, is stepping back from investing after 15 years in which he made early bets on startups like Snap Inc. and Affirm Inc.

Liew, who worked at early web companies like Netscape and AOL before becoming a VC, was the first investor in Snap. He got Snap co-founder Evan Spiegel to pitch an initial investment of $485,000 in 2012 while Spiegel was still a sophomore at Stanford University. Snap’s initial public offering in 2017 represented a major windfall for Lightspeed. The company has grown its stock price 340% since then to become a $118 billion social media giant.