Former Kleiner Kid Matt Murphy Heads To Menlo Ventures

Matt Murphy, formerly of Kleiner Perkins, is joining Menlo Ventures. The latter firm is currently investing a new $400 million fund.

Murphy led Kleiner’s investment into Aerohive Networks, which is currently public, and has been involved with Egnyte, a firm that is looking to go public next year. Kleiner has become best known recently for gender bias suit filed by former denizen Ellen Pao.

Given Murphy’s former employment at a venture firm of current note, especially in the legal context, I caught up with him on the phone to dig into his new role. According to Murphy, he was attracted to his new by having already known the team, and generally speaking, Menlo having fund size and cadence that match his prior investment patterns.

That sounds like standard boilerplate, and it must be to some category, but Murphy was emphatic in his excitement to work with Menlo Ventures. The current venture market, akin to the tech blogger market, is hot at the moment, with movement between firms.

Murphy told TechCrunch that while he will maintain a focus on enterprise-facing investments, he may spend more time on consumer-facing startups.

It’s a rich moment in the market, and it will be interesting to see what hits Murphy can bring home to his new team.