Reflections on 2024–and a Peek at What Lies Ahead

This year, we have much to be thankful for: a host of #CapitalGfamily companies broke new boundaries, we welcomed incredible new companies and advisors into the fold, longtime CapitalG investors Mo Jomaa and Alex Nichols were promoted to partners, and talented new colleagues joined the CapitalG team, including investment partner Jane Alexander and operating partner Monica Plaza.

In addition, our existing portfolio companies continue to raise the bar, achieving remarkable milestones and setting ambitious goals. Some especially noteworthy highlights:

• Monzo, DTEX, Cribl, Clio, Grafana, Farther, Odoo and /dev/agents joined the CapitalG family

• CrowdStrike became listed on the S&P 500

• Duolingo surpassed 100 million monthly active users

• Databricks announced expected annualized revenue of $2.4 billion

• Armis, AlphaSense and Dataiku all surpassed $200 million in ARR-and UiPath reached $1.6 billion.

• Magic achieved 100 million token context windows

• Whatnot achieved $2 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV)

• Stripe revealed that its users processed a collective $1 trillion on its platform in 2023, truly living up to its mission to expand the GDP of the internet

Looking ahead

We asked CapitalG investing partners what they're most grateful for this past year and are especially looking forward to in 2025. Here's what they had to say:

5 Qs with CapitalG partner James Luo

• What I'm most grateful for in 2024: The birth of my daughter!

• I'm in awe of: The drive and resilience demonstrated by the founders and teams in our portfolio. Their passion and commitment to making an impact on the world is truly inspiring.

• My goal for 2025: To read at least 25 books! I fell far behind this year given my entrance into fatherhood, but I'm hoping to get my reading back on track next year.

• Investment sector poised for explosive growth in 2025: Healthcare across both technology and services, accelerated by rapid adoption of AI.

• Advice for my 22-year-old self: Try to find the experiences that will give you the steepest learning and development curve; it'll feel uncomfortable, but you'll grow so much more in those situations.

5 Qs with CapitalG partner Jill Chase

• Incredible moment from 2024: I was blown away by the outpouring of support for David Singleton, Hugo Barra, and the entire /dev/agents founding team when we announced the launch of their company in November. The fact that so many people are rooting for them, believe in them, and want to work with them is a testament to just how exceptional and inspiring they are. I am grateful to be a small part of their journey as they build a generational company; I believe that /dev/agents will be the exclamation mark on their already legendary careers!

• Prediction for 2025: I predict that 2025 will be the year of the autonomous software engineer that makes developers more productive than ever! (On a directly related note, I'm anticipating another great year for Magic.dev!)

• Investment sector poised for explosive growth in 2025: AI agent infrastructure

• Area of gratitude this past year: This past year I've been incredibly grateful for my time spent with my one-year-old and getting to be a part of so many of his "firsts." It is both incredibly fun and…incredibly exhausting.

• A personal fun fact from 2024: I was able to play tennis on the courts at Wimbledon.

5 Qs with CapitalG partner Mo Jomaa

• What I'm most grateful for in 2024: Getting engaged to my best friend since freshman year of college.

• A personal win from 2024: I started running 25+ miles a week and lost 80 pounds in the process!

• A goal for 2025: To run my first half marathon.

• What to expect next year: I predict that in 2025 we will continue to see open source technologies consume the infrastructure layer in software. We have seen this trend play out in several categories already, including data and analytics (which led to our first investment in Databricks in 2021) and observability (which drove our investment in Grafana this year). Enterprises will continue to adopt open source solutions because they save businesses money, minimize vendor lock-in, and enable companies to help shape the product roadmaps of the technologies that they procure.

• Career advice to people hoping to break into venture capital: The best way to learn how to invest is to talk to as many smart builders, buyers, and investors as possible. They will have the most insight into the innovations that matter.

5 Qs with CapitalG partner Alex Nichols

• A prediction for 2025: I predict that in 2025 the way businesses interact with their customers will radically change as LLMs expand the frontier of individualization.

• Investment sector poised for explosive growth in 2025: We're still in the early innings of the globalization of information work accelerated by better infrastructure (such as Rippling/Deel) and habit change. This will be a defining trend of the next decade.

• A market trend I consider to be overlooked: The compounding exponential advances in battery and solar technology will dramatically reshape the grid and bring energy abundance.

• Favorite books read this year: Three books that have really stuck with me: 1) Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government by Christopher Achen and Larry Bartles, 2) Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein, and 3) Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China's Rise by Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell.

• A goal for 2025: To get avalanche safety training!

5 Qs with CapitalG partner Jane Alexander

• A goal for 2025: To build a community of go-to-market leaders to get together and share best practices as the go-to-market landscape changes. I have loved being an operator and can't wait to see how leaders navigate the next decade of change.

• A prediction for 2025: I predict that in 2025 we'll see a shift in how teams go to market. AI will drive not only increases in sales volume, but in creativity as well.

• I'm in awe of: Founders making the transition from early stage to growth stage. The reward for success in the early stage is a whole new set of opportunities and challenges in the growth stage - whether that is scaling from founder-led sales to a true GTM machine, hiring at scale, going from single-product to multi-product, or implementing the People processes that preserve culture and also work for an organization with thousands of employees. The beauty of great founders is they never stop learning and growing with the organization, and it is a real privilege to support them along the journey.

• Reflections on my first year at CapitalG: I am grateful to the entire CapitalG partnership for the way we push each others' thinking. This team maintains a high bar for deeply rigorous work, creativity and imagination-all while having fun. We take the work seriously, but not ourselves.

• Favorite book read this year: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. It is an incredible look into first principles thinking and how to create a truly excellent experience.