Benchmark invested $5M for 21.5% of ebay in June 1997 when it was growing 20-30% a month, making millions of dollars a year, earning 80% profit margin, with a staff of <10. 

The site looked like shit, was branded AuctionWeb and ebay at the same time, lacked image uploads, crashed constantly, and had sellers pay fees by mailing cash/checks AFTER their auction closed. 

Benchmark took 2 months to decide to invest. People were skeptical online Flea Markets could work. The eBay team thought an ISP would copy their product and kill them, and believed licensing the platform would be a bigger business.

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