Mayfield

Mayfield is one of the few venture firms on Sand Hill Road that can trace its roots to the 1960s. It was founded in 1969, three years before Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia opened their doors. It has stayed focused on very young companies ever since. Its record runs from biotech pioneers such as Amgen and Genentech to recent software names like HashiCorp and Lyft.

This profile is a neutral explainer for visitors and founders. It draws on Mayfield's own website and on published accounts of its history. For the basics of how venture funds work, start with our venture capital guide.

Founding in 1969

Mayfield's founder was Tommy Davis, a Harvard-trained lawyer who had moved into investing in the 1950s. At Kern County Land Company he managed investments in young technology companies, including Watkins-Johnson in Palo Alto. In 1961 he and Arthur Rock formed Davis and Rock, a San Francisco partnership best remembered for its early backing of Teledyne.

In 1969 Davis started a new partnership and called it the Mayfield Fund. Published accounts of his career say Wally Davis was part of the founding and that Stanford University was involved from the start. Stanford's tie to the firm still shows today through the fellows program described below.

The firm has never said much in public about its name. Locally it is hard to miss the echo of Mayfield, the 19th century town that grew up along El Camino Real and was later absorbed into Palo Alto. Our page on Mayfield, Palo Alto's rival town tells that story. We have not found the firm itself confirming the link, so treat it as a coincidence of local geography rather than a fact.

For how Davis, Rock and their peers built the industry on the Peninsula, see our history of venture capital.

The office at 2484 Sand Hill Road

Mayfield's privacy policy gives its mailing address as 2484 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park. Street numbers on Sand Hill Road climb as you head west from El Camino Real, so the 2400 block sits on the eastern part of the venture corridor, a short drive from Stanford Shopping Center. Most of the big firms are spread along the next couple of miles toward Interstate 280.

Like every office on the road, it is a private workplace in a low-rise office park. There is nothing to visit and no reception desk for walk-in pitches. If you want to see the area, our Sand Hill Road guide explains where the firms are, where to park and where visitors can sit down for coffee.

What Mayfield says it backs

Mayfield calls itself an early-stage venture firm and says it aims to be the first institutional investor in a company. Its website makes a few specific claims about how it works:

• Very early. It says 70 percent of its investments begin at inception and that it backs founders from their first idea through Series B and later rounds.
• AI first. The site describes the firm as investing $3 billion in AI companies. It calls the current period the "100x Collaborative Intelligence era."
• People first. Its motto is "people first." It lists a set of values it calls The Mayfield Way, including "be loyal to a fault" and "don't beat around the bush."
• Two partners per deal. Every potential investment is evaluated by at least two investing partners, according to the firm.
• Hands-on help. A Founder Amplification team works with portfolio companies on business development, marketing, hiring and strategy.

The firm also says it pledges 1 percent of its management fee and carry each year to philanthropy, with a focus on education, health and food security. It groups its companies into AI, enterprise, consumer, semiconductors and human health.

Notable investments

Mayfield publishes an unusually long list of companies it has backed, each tagged with its current status. A selection from that list, grouped by era:

The firm's news page in 2026 highlighted the Alif deal at more than $1.6 billion and a $900 million raise by Lumilens at a $5.5 billion valuation. Partner Navin Chaddha is listed on the firm's site as Mayfield's contact for several of its best known companies, including HashiCorp, Lyft and Poshmark.

One local link stands out. TIBCO, the software company long based in Palo Alto, is on Mayfield's list. Our TIBCO profile covers its time in town.

As with any firm, a list of winners leaves out the many investments that returned little. Venture returns usually depend on a small number of very large outcomes.

The Stanford connection

Mayfield's best known public footprint in Palo Alto is not an office but a student program. The Mayfield Fellows Program has been run by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program since 1996. Each year a small group of Stanford students takes classes on entrepreneurship, works a paid internship at a startup and is paired with a venture mentor. The firm sponsors the program but does not run it. It is not a way to raise money.

Our page on Stanford entrepreneurship programs explains how the fellowship fits alongside StartX, the d.school and other campus options.

How founders reach Mayfield

Mayfield's website does not offer an open pitch form on the pages we checked. It does publish a full team page with each investor's focus area and the companies they work with. Founders usually start there:

1. Find the right partner. Match your company to the investor whose practice area fits, such as AI, enterprise, semiconductors or human health.
2. Look for a shared connection. A short introduction from a founder in the Mayfield portfolio, a lawyer or an angel the partner knows is the usual route.
3. Expect two partners. The firm says at least two investing partners evaluate every potential deal, so plan for more than one meeting.

Our guide to pitching Silicon Valley investors covers first emails, decks and follow-ups. The venture capital glossary explains terms like inception stage, lead investor and carry.

Visiting the area

Most people reach Sand Hill Road by car. From downtown Palo Alto, take El Camino Real north to Stanford Shopping Center and turn west onto Sand Hill Road. Outside rush hour that takes 10 to 15 minutes. Caltrain does not stop on Sand Hill Road, so founders arriving by train usually take a rideshare from Palo Alto or Menlo Park station.

If you want to see the companies behind the money, our famous tech addresses tour covers the garages, offices and labs within a few miles of Mayfield's door.

Frequently asked questions