Eclipse welcomes Rivian alum Jiten Behl to the team as Partner to address critical challenges within physical industries that are foundational to our society.
In my early days at Rivian — when the company consisted of just 25 employees — my daughter, a toddler at the time, asked, “Papa, what do you do for work?” That got me thinking. The simplest answer would have been, “I build and sell cars.”
But in reality, that was the tip of the iceberg. It was hard to summarize what we were doing at Rivian. We were designing vehicles that let people explore the world responsibly, and therefore, preserving its beauty for future generations. Rivian was our attempt to ensure our children inherit a planet as magnificent as the one we’ve enjoyed.
After mulling over my response, I said, “Papa is building a special car that will take you on adventures while being nice to nature.” I scored several brownie points right away!
Eight years after this discussion, I began to think about what comes next. How could I help other companies accomplish what we did? That is, to build something meaningful from the ground up.
At Rivian, that looked like scaling employment from a handful of people in a garage to 14,000 people globally; starting with an empty warehouse to opening offices around the world, including a three million square foot manufacturing plant; transforming the company from a clean sheet to launching three different vehicles. As I thought about how I could continue to pursue my passion for building impactful businesses, one industry in particular kept popping up: venture capital. I knew one of my Rivian peers, Charly, had gone the venture route, but recognized I was a complete newcomer to the space. Thus kicked off an exploration phase that included spending a lot of time connecting with various people I respected, including my wife, mentors, colleagues, and VCs, to understand how I could potentially be a fit for the industry.
