Benchmark, a well-established venture capital firm, has welcomed Miles Grimshaw as its fifth general partner. The 29-year-old Yale alumnus transitions from Thrive Capital, where he initially joined a team of four partners in 2013 and contributed to the raising of the firm’s fourth and fifth funds (as reported by Forbes).

During his time as a general partner at New York-based Thrive, Grimshaw identified promising investment opportunities in several rapidly growing startups and actively participated on their boards, including Lattice, Mapbox, Benchling, and Airtable. Through these engagements, he developed relationships with investors at Benchmark.

He previously represented Thrive on the board of Benchling – a company providing software solutions for biotech research – alongside Eric Vishria, a seasoned entrepreneur who became a Benchmark general partner in 2014.

Grimshaw also shared board representation with Peter Fenton, now Benchmark’s longest-serving general partner, on behalf of Thrive at Airtable, a cloud collaboration software provider. This occurred as Bill Gurley, a prominent venture capitalist, began to reduce his active involvement within the firm. (Fenton was recruited from Accel in 2006.)

Furthermore, Grimshaw collaborated on a board with Sarah Tavel of Benchmark, who herself joined the firm in 2017 after being recruited from Greylock. The company in question is Supergreat, a two-year-old New York-based platform for beauty aficionados focused on building a community of reviewers and shoppers.

Supergreat represents one of Benchmark’s more recent investments, having recently secured $6.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Benchmark earlier this month.

Prior to Grimshaw’s appointment, Benchmark’s most recent general partner addition was Chetan Puttagunta, who joined the firm in 2018 following over seven years at New Enterprise Associates.

Benchmark has demonstrated a successful approach to partner succession, even as many of its general partners continue to support portfolio companies beyond their daily involvement with the firm.

For instance, firm co-founder Bruce Dunlevie joined the board of WeWork in 2012 and is currently involved in a legal action against SoftBank, alleging breach of contract and fiduciary duty following SoftBank’s withdrawal of a tender offer for WeWork shareholders after the company’s IPO was withdrawn last year.

Additionally, Matt Cohler – a former Facebook executive who transitioned from an active general partner role at Benchmark in 2018 after a decade with the firm – reportedly played a key role in securing Benchmark’s position as the lead Series A investor in Popshop Live, a live-streaming e-commerce platform. According to The Information, Cohler agreed to join the startup’s board to finalize the investment.

Alongside Cohler and Gurley, who have reduced their involvement in recent years, Mitch Lasky, who joined the firm in 2007, also stepped down from the core team in 2018.

Benchmark publicly announced its search for a fifth partner earlier this year, suggesting this addition would complete the firm’s team for the foreseeable future. As Fenton explained during a September interview at our TechCrunch Disrupt event, Benchmark believes that maintaining a team of six partners is optimal for the firm’s effectiveness; exceeding that number has historically proven less successful.

Fenton discussed Benchmark’s approach to team composition at length, and also addressed the WeWork investment. Those interested can view the full interview below.