Eclipse

Eclipse is a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, CA. By partnering with founders committed to harnessing the power of digitization, Eclipse is redefining physical industries across all sectors.

We’re grateful to have worked with Eclipse since 2016. Can you explain what you were looking for in an IT partner and how Pliancy fit the bill?

Coming from Sequoia Capital, I was accustomed to getting service from folks who knew venture capital.  When we started Eclipse, we understood we needed a true IT partner. Plenty of firms provide basic blocking and tackling support but were neither reliable nor accountable. We also recognized that a vendor with industry experience could be additive to us.

Looking for a new IT vendor, we wanted someone with that knowledge. We recognized that Pliancy was a provider who understood VCs, the clientele, the risks of our industry, and everything else. We also appreciated their partnership approach to business—in addition to the excellent support and maintenance, Pliancy provided a strategic perspective to our IT function.

When we started working together, we had a half billion dollars under management at the time, and around ten people on the team. Fast-forward to today: we’re a 30-person team with ~$4 billion under management, and our LP [limited partner] base of high-profile institutional investors. From the start, we saw Pliancy as a partner who understood the industry and someone who could grow with us and meet the needs of our institutional PE [private equity] base.

“From the start, we saw Pliancy as a partner who understood the industry and someone who could grow with us.”

Besides being on parallel growth paths, what makes Eclipse and Pliancy a culture match?

Our investment style at Eclipse is high conviction, high ownership, and high involvement. Pliancy takes a similar approach: it’s not a check-the-box exercise, but it’s going deep in a vertical, really understanding that vertical, and being a value-add partner. As Pliancy continues to grow, your team becomes more vital to the industry and the ecosystem, and to Eclipse as well. You’re investing in your people, you’re investing in the technology, and it shows. 

“It’s not a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ relationship. There’s been flexibility around a variety of issues time and again. You have the team and the infrastructure to handle whatever issues or ideas we throw at you.”

What role does Pliancy play in Eclipse’s long-term tech decisions?

As we’ve grown, expectations from our LPs have become heightened too. Every single time we make a decision, our risk increases, and we depend on Pliancy to help us consider all the possible factors from an IT perspective. Not only are Thai [Bui, primary consultant] and Kei [Nakazono, managing consultant] direct with us, but they also have a full bench behind them to think through these risks. This enables us to have thoughtful conversations about what we do and don’t need to adopt—and why.

Pliancy has such a large client base now, and your knowledge is key to helping us understand what’s happening in the industry. What are best practices? Where are the newer risks? Where are people being taken advantage of, who is being targeted, and how can we protect against that? Should we be doing anything differently or educating our employees in a new way?

Your support in these conversations has been extremely helpful as we’ve scaled. One of the reasons we stay with Pliancy is your knowledge of the industry. And over the years, you’ve developed an even deeper bench to help address increasing risks in our sector.

How do your Pliancy consultants fit in the day-to-day experience at Eclipse?

Day-to-day, Thai and Kei are always available for urgent issues, but it’s about more than just the emergency, one-time impacts. It’s the everyday consistency that stands out.

We’ve always treated Kei and Thai like one of our team members, and I hope they feel that way as well. It’s been great to have them here at Eclipse through our people growth, AUM [assets under management] growth, and office expansions—both in California (in a space built in the 1890s, which poses its own set of issues) and in New York, where our East Coast expansion is just kicking off.

Pliancy helps us be thoughtful about IT. You partner with us on decisions, whether it’s making the best use of our space or navigating a seamless transition to remote work. It’s not a “break glass in case of emergency” relationship. There’s been flexibility around a variety of issues time and again. You have the team and the infrastructure to handle whatever issues or ideas we throw at you.

“One of the reasons we stay with Pliancy is your knowledge of the industry, and as you’ve scaled, you now have an even deeper bench to help address increasing risks in our sector.”