Peter Fenton is a General Partner at Benchmark, with a stellar two-decade track record in tech investing. Victor Lazarte, also a General Partner, previously built Wildlife Studios into a mobile gaming giant. They discuss the critical role of shared purpose in partnerships, the unique culture of Benchmark, and their transition from builders to investors. Insights on navigating the evolving tech entrepreneurship landscape reveal the importance of genuine relationships, mental health, and the creative interplay between technology and gaming innovations.

Join Peter Fenton, Sarah Tavel, Chatham Williams, and Eric Vishria from Benchmark for a captivating discussion. They share insights on their unique investment strategies, the significance of informal dinners in fostering partnership culture, and the emotional complexities of venture decision-making. The team delves into what it takes to become a Benchmark GP and why there's no growth fund, along with their supportive ethos towards entrepreneurs. Listen to their humorous takes on family dynamics and the evolving landscape of venture capital!

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 HrabovskyProduced: Rashad AssirExecutive Producer: Josh MachizMusic: Griff Lawson 🎙 Listen to the showApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the ShowLogan 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 AssirProducer: Leah ClapperMixing 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 ShowLogan 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.Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.

Peter Fenton is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the world's leading VC funds with a portfolio including the likes of Twitter, Uber, Snapchat, eBay, WeWork, Yelp and many more revolutionary companies of the last decade. Peter himself sits or has sat on the board of Twitter, previous guest Cockroach, Optimizely, New Relic and ZenDesk just to name a few. Prior to Benchmark, Peter was a Managing Partner @ Accel. It is clearly not just me that has a man crush on Peter though as he has been named to Forbes Midas List for many consecutive years with the last list placing Peter as No 3 in the world. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Peter made his way into the world of VC with Accel and came to be a General Partner @ Benchmark? 2.) How does Peter differentiate between the good and the great VCs? How can VCs use hyper-curiosity and hyper-competitiveness to improve their investing ability? Why does Peter not believe that operational experience is a necessity pre-VC? 3.) How does Peter view the importance of valuation in the investment decision making process? How much of a role does it play for him and what is his psychology around valuation, especially with regards to ownership levels? 4.) Why is Peter amused when he hears other investors say they must 'invest in big markets'? What were his big takeaways from watching the investment and hyper-growth journey of Snapchat? How did that influence his view on markets? 5.) Peter has previously said that he is a 'student of great board members'. What are the commonalities among the truly great board members? How do they engage and interact with the entrepreneur? How do they get the most out of their fellow board members? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Peter's Most Recent Investment: Zen.ly As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Peter on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. eShares is the No 1 Cap Table Management platform, allowing for equity management, 409A valuations, and liquidity, all in one place. eShares is made for companies of all sizes with over 5,000 trusted customers including the likes of Squarespace, Kickstarter, and DoorDash just to name a few. To try out the must have service of the industry, simply head over to esharesinc.com it is a must. Fond is the employee engagement suite with 3 core products, rewards: a recognition platform for rewarding achievements and milestones, perks: a premium corporate discounts program to show employees you care about them and then finally engagement IQ, a free employee engagement survey that allows you to measure the health of your organization. To check it out head over to fond.co

In the 40th episode Benchmark’s Peter Fenton joins to discuss his early VC aspirations and path to get where he is now, the successful VC and entrepreneurial mindsets, plus inflation and the current market state. Rashad also joins to discuss Rahul Ligma, Twitter layoffs, and his brand new show No Agenda.(0:00) Intro/Rahul Ligma(04:56) Rashad’s new podcast “No Agenda”(9:28) Introducing Peter Fenton(17:06) Working at Accel(24:59) Mentorship(28:50) Benchmark(39:21) Entrepreneurial mindset(49:19) Successful founder characteristic(54:08) Estimating timelines(1:03:07) Everyone gets worse in venture over time(1:13:48) VC websites(1:19:18) Inflation(1:26:55) Robert Sapolsky(1:32:06) Outro Show Notes:Subscribe to No Agenda: https://open.spotify.com/show/2KHruq3qC0IKm5U9wOIjKZ?si=13bab75351d74c70https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBgv57GHyNgjhl3CBB3XtXp2JylaVKdNsRahul Ligma: https://twitter.com/Rezowan_/status/1586047782351441920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1586047782351441920%7Ctwgr%5Ef725476e02dc15cc5f19f20bc8c3527e61e44c4f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2022%2F10%2F28%2F23428775%2Ftwitter-fake-employee-layoff-rahul-ligma-elon-musk Mixed and edited: Justin HrabovskyProduced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad AssirExecutive Producer: Josh MachizMusic: Griff Lawson 🎙 Listen to the showApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg Follow on Socials📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/cartoonavatars🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars About the ShowA Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise. Executive Producer: Rashad AssirProducer: Leah ClapperMixing 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 ShowLogan 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.Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.