Chemistry founders Mark Goldberg, Kristina Shen and Ethan Kurzweil were "anxious" to get going. "We feel the market is right for this," Kurzweil said.

After quitting his partner job at venture capital firm Index Ventures in a surprise move last December, Mark Goldberg headed out on holiday vacation with his family, promising his wife that no work call would interrupt time with their two small kids. Then, like clockwork, Ethan Kurzweil rang. “This is an exception, a friend calling!” Goldberg, 39, insisted. He picked up.

But Kurzweil, a partner at another established firm, Bessemer Venture Partners, wanted to talk shop – more specifically, a seed that Goldberg had planted weeks before, that perhaps they should team up. “I can’t stop thinking about this,” Kurzweil, 45, told him. “This idea is like sand between my toes.”

Their next call was to Kristina Shen, a former colleague of Kurzweil’s and a partner at a16z. Shen, 37, had first heard about Goldberg’s plans in the final days before heading to the hospital for the birth of her third child; now, she was atop both of Goldberg’s and Kurzweil’s lists for a third cofounder. “It’s a little crazy, but this is the time,” Goldberg pitched. “Let’s go play offense with a focused fund.”

Over the next couple of months, the trio graduated from weekly catch-ups to a daily WhatsApp channel, mock investment discussions and, after what the partners estimated was 200 hours of test collaboration, a multi-day offsite at Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco, where they fully committed. Axios first reported on their plans for a new firm in April.

“It’s incredibly rare for people to come together who are in the right stage of their career to do this,” Shen said. “It felt obvious.”

The result is Chemistry, a new venture capital firm that has raised $350 million for a debut fund. An equal partnership between Goldberg, Kurzweil........

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