The Logan Bartlett Show Peter Fenton (Partner, Benchmark) on VC and Founder Mindsets, Inflation, and the Current Market State
Early VC Interest
- Peter Fenton developed an early interest in VC through his father's work.
- As a teenager, he'd watch business plan pitches, sparking his curiosity in the field.
Shifting Perspectives on VCs
- Peter Fenton's dad initially criticized VCs, but later became one himself.
- This shift intrigued young Peter, leading him to study philosophy and later explore startups.
Joining Excel During the Dot-Com Bubble Burst
- Peter Fenton joined Excel in 1999 during the dot-com bubble burst.
- Despite initial insecurities and market downturn, he persevered, grateful for the opportunity.
Peter Fenton is a renowned venture capitalist and a Partner at Benchmark, a leading venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. With a remarkable track record in the tech industry, Peter has played a pivotal role in shaping the success of numerous high-profile companies such as Twitter, Yelp, Zendesk, Elastic, Docker, and many others. Peter's ability to spot trends and invest in transformative ideas has established him as one of the most respected venture capitalists in the industry.
In this episode, Peter discusses his early VC aspirations and the path to get where he is now, as well as the successful VC and entrepreneurial mindsets, plus inflation and the current market state.
(0:00) Intro
(1:38) Growing up wanting to be a VC
(16:33) Mentorship
(20:25) Benchmark
(30:56) Entrepreneurial mindset
(40:53) Successful founder characteristic
(45:42) Estimating timelines
(54:41 Everyone gets worse in venture over time
(1:05:22) VC websites
(1:10:52) Inflation
(1:18:29) Robert Sapolsky
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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