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Uncapped #18 | Peter Fenton from Benchmark

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

Pins

Uncapped #18 | Peter Fenton from Benchmark

Uncapped with Jack Altman

Jul 23
Uncapped with Jack Altman

Uncapped with Jack Altman

Jul 23
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Peter Fenton is the longest-serving full-time partner at Benchmark, a renowned venture firm known for its artisanal approach and deep alignment with founders. Over the last two decades, Peter led investments in Twitter, Yelp, Elastic, Docker, Zuora, and many others. He also achieved one of the rarest feats in venture history in 2014 when two of his investments, Hortonworks and New Relic, went public on the same day. More recent investments include Sierra, Ollama, ClickHouse, and Airtable. Peter is considered one of the most successful tech investors of our time and is an incredible person to learn from. We covered: Darwinism and Silicon Valley Who wins as a result of AI Embracing things that don’t scale Sourcing and winning motions Being a great board member --- Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:23) Darwinism and Silicon Valley (5:38) Silicon Valley vs everywhere else (12:09) Highly adaptive ecosystems (19:40) Who wins with AI (26:22) Applying Darwinism to venture (36:54) North Stars in venture (42:22) Embracing things that don’t scale (49:51) A young person’s game (57:10) Sourcing methodologies (1:07:50) Convincing founders to choose you (1:10:56) Not a winner-take-all game (1:13:35) Being a great board member --- More on Benchmark and Peter: https://www.benchmark.com/ https://x.com/peterfenton More on Alt Capital and Jack: https://www.altcap.com/ https://x.com/jaltma --- https://linktr.ee/uncappedpod Email: friends@uncappedpod.com

Highlights

In this episode, Peter Fenton, a leading venture capitalist and long-serving partner at Benchmark, shares his insights on the evolving landscape of Silicon Valley, the impact of AI on innovation, and the principles that guide successful venture investing. Drawing from his extensive experience backing companies like Twitter, Yelp, and Airtable, Peter reflects on the importance of adaptability, long-term relationships, and strategic board governance in the startup ecosystem.
03:45
Silicon Valley's adaptability ensures its lasting innovation leadership
08:46
Entrepreneurship is more about leverage, pace, clarity, and focus than deep R&D.
18:07
Netflix faced tough times but emerged stronger through adaptation.
22:25
Only 10% of AI's potential has been realized with $20 trillion still to be generated.
29:29
Benchmark refuses to enter a data room for HeyGen, emphasizing trust in entrepreneurs.
36:54
The most fulfilling part of the job is building deep relationships with founders
47:28
Early-stage investments allow for greater long-term impact and entrepreneurial freedom
49:51
Benchmark would be better with an average age closer to 40.
1:02:27
Investing in open source began with an 'oceanic' response to Mark Fleury of JBoss in 2003.
1:07:50
Help entrepreneurs expand their thinking by engaging dialectically.
1:13:08
It's more important to not miss opportunities for deep partnerships than to avoid investment mistakes.
1:16:32
A board meeting should leave the team more energetic, aware, conscious, and curious.

Chapters

Intro
00:00
Darwinism and Silicon Valley
00:23
Silicon Valley vs everywhere else
05:38
Highly adaptive ecosystems
12:09
Who wins with AI
19:40
Applying Darwinism to venture
26:22
North Stars in venture
36:54
Embracing things that don’t scale
42:22
A young person’s game
49:51
Sourcing methodologies
57:10
Convincing founders to choose you
1:07:50
Not a winner-take-all game
1:10:56
Being a great board member
1:13:35

Transcript

Peter Fenton: Six minutes in, you're like, okay, there's 40 coding companies and this and that, but there's one person who has this clarity. Totally. And you just don't even have to finish like the five minutes in the meeting, you're done. But then it's cl...