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Bessemer Venture Partners

also referred to as: bessemer

87 statements across 20 episodes · 38 bullish · 15 bearish · 15 people on the record · first statement Apr 6, 2016 by Sarah Tavel · said 248 times in 83 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (115), Byron Deeter (30), Jason Lemkin (12), Jeremy Levine (11), Mitchell Green (7), Anna Khan (7), Sarah Tavel (6), Ryan Denehy (4)

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0815201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
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2026 7 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2025 52 mentions in 12 episodes 4 per episode
2024 35 mentions in 14 episodes 3 per episode
2023 9 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2022 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2021 27 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
2020 21 mentions in 6 episodes 4 per episode
2019 29 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
2018 13 mentions in 5 episodes 3 per episode
2017 30 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
2016 20 mentions in 4 episodes 5 per episode
2015 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Bessemer Venture Partners, oldest first

Apr 6, 2016 bullish
Assertion Supported
Bessemer Invested in Pinterest When It Had Five Employees
“When we invested, it was a five-person company with tens of thousands of users”
Sarah Tavel Apr 6, 2016 ▶ 8:12 20VC: Greylock's Sarah Tavel on What Founders Need From A Good Investor and Why Products Need To Be 10X Better & Cheaper
May 2, 2016 negative
Insight
Deeter: Outbidding competition for tech talent is an unwinnable arms race
“Really the primary job of the CEO obviously is to hire a great team, but you do that not by outbidding your competition in this market. That's an unwinnable arms race. You need to pay fair market economics, but really what you need to do is compel them by the …”
Byron Deeter May 2, 2016 ▶ 6:32 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on The Commonalities Of Truly Great Founders and Learnings From Investing In Box, Twilio and GainSight
May 2, 2016 bullish
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer maintains deal cadence and capital deployment despite pullback
“We're still doing just as many deals. We're still putting out the door, roughly the same amount of capital.”
Byron Deeter May 2, 2016 ▶ 9:12 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on The Commonalities Of Truly Great Founders and Learnings From Investing In Box, Twilio and GainSight
May 2, 2016
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer expects $1 of ARR growth per $1 net burn at Series B
“A crude rule of thumb we use for call it series B companies, roughly that ten million dollar stage of ARR is one to one, which is we like to see for every dollar of net burn, we'd like to see a dollar of ARR growth added.”
Byron Deeter May 2, 2016 ▶ 16:01 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on The Commonalities Of Truly Great Founders and Learnings From Investing In Box, Twilio and GainSight
May 2, 2016
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer Venture Partners has made 105 cloud investments
“This is one of the points that I try to highlight in our 10 laws of cloud computing within investment framework, pattern recognition across now our 105 cloud investments we've done.”
Byron Deeter May 2, 2016 ▶ 6:22 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on The Commonalities Of Truly Great Founders and Learnings From Investing In Box, Twilio and GainSight
Nov 30, 2016 negative
Opinion
Farmer: Traditional VC model is outdated and must be rebuilt from scratch
“After a few years, I felt that VC was outdated. So I left Bessemer to study one question. If you were to strip a venture curve down to the bare metal to where to recreate a firm from scratch, how would you build a next generation VC?”
Chris Farmer Nov 30, 2016 ▶ 4:44 20VC: Why There Is A Revolution In VC, Why Boards Are Inherently Inefficient & Why Data Will Be Central To VC In The Future with Chris Farmer, General Partner @ SignalFire
Jun 26, 2017 bullish
Disclosure
Levine: Bessemer's LinkedIn investment generated a 100x return despite others passing
“Invested in LinkedIn, the two existing VCs thought the price we were paying was so crazy that they invested nothing in the round. I think that round ended up at something like a hundred X return.”
Jeremy Levine Jun 26, 2017 ▶ 21:49 20VC: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on Why We Are In A Fallow Period For Consumer, Why It Is Bogus That Operational VCs Can Add More Value & 2 Golden Rules To Always Tell Entrepreneurs Pre-Investment
Jun 26, 2017
Insight
Levine requires immediate bad news alerts in exchange for unvarnished feedback
“I, when I invest in companies or as I'm about to invest in companies, I have sort of two golden rules that I will often discuss with an entrepreneur before we consummate a, an investment. The first one is I always say, You have one obligation to me if you take…”
Jeremy Levine Jun 26, 2017 ▶ 11:30 20VC: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on Why We Are In A Fallow Period For Consumer, Why It Is Bogus That Operational VCs Can Add More Value & 2 Golden Rules To Always Tell Entrepreneurs Pre-Investment
Jun 28, 2017 negative
Disclosure
Bessemer Passed on Yammer by Overfocusing on Technical Buyers
“Well, one early on in my career was a company called Yammer that we missed. You know, I had a number of opportunities to invest, and I think the reason we missed is we were very focused in those days, the developer platform, on selling a sort of API-like servi…”
Ethan Kurzweil Jun 28, 2017 ▶ 20:16 20VC: Bessemer's Ethan Kurzweil on How To View Pattern Recognition and Deal With The Anti-Portfolio, The Next Frontier In Developer Focussed Businesses & Why eSports Is Interesting Again
Jun 28, 2017 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Kurzweil: Next Developer Platforms Will Tackle AI and Deep Learning
“I think the next frontier is to take the deeper technical challenges, the data science, the artificial intelligence, which is, I know, a very hot buzzword these days, but the, you know, the practical applications of it are going to be real, as well as neural n…”
Ethan Kurzweil Jun 28, 2017 ▶ 8:42 20VC: Bessemer's Ethan Kurzweil on How To View Pattern Recognition and Deal With The Anti-Portfolio, The Next Frontier In Developer Focussed Businesses & Why eSports Is Interesting Again
Mar 4, 2019
Disclosure
GGV offered to lead Electric.ai's Series A but lost to Bessemer
“We actually met Ryan in the Series A. We offered lead the Series A, and he Politely chose Bessemer Venture Partners.”
Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 33:42 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital
Jul 8, 2019
Insight
Team misalignment causes Bessemer's most painful investment losses
“The team really is our number one factor and where we've lost money or where we've had very painful experiences along the way is where We just got out of sync with the team or didn't fully understand where the team was headed.”
Byron Deeter Jul 8, 2019 ▶ 15:45 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter On Lessons From Investing in 14 $Bn Companies, What The Heck Is Going On In Cloud Today and Why Cloud IPO Floodgates Are About To Burst Open
Jul 8, 2019 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
High cloud valuation multiples today will look cheap in the long term
“Whatever rich prices we're paying today, We will get rewarded many times over if we pick the winners and hold onto them long term, and so we're certainly anxious as everyone else is around the multiples. They are rich, but at the end of the day, I absolutely b…”
Byron Deeter Jul 8, 2019 ▶ 12:48 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter On Lessons From Investing in 14 $Bn Companies, What The Heck Is Going On In Cloud Today and Why Cloud IPO Floodgates Are About To Burst Open
Jul 8, 2019
Disclosure
Bessemer passed on Tesla after failing to foresee its financial viability
“Tesla is the one that is front and center for me. I'm a car geek at hard. I love hardware products, and spent a lot of time with them early on, and just couldn't see the path to viability of the high-end car in a tough automotive time, so I bought the first ca…”
Byron Deeter Jul 8, 2019 ▶ 28:23 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter On Lessons From Investing in 14 $Bn Companies, What The Heck Is Going On In Cloud Today and Why Cloud IPO Floodgates Are About To Burst Open
Jul 8, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
Deeter has 14 billion-dollar investments including eight IPOs
“14 won four of Byron's investments are valued above one billion dollars, including eight IPOs and counting.”
Harry Stebbings Jul 8, 2019 ▶ 0:34 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter On Lessons From Investing in 14 $Bn Companies, What The Heck Is Going On In Cloud Today and Why Cloud IPO Floodgates Are About To Burst Open
Jul 8, 2019 positive
Insight
Capital-efficient startups pull away from competitors in down markets
“However, in the medium to down markets, you will be disproportionately rewarded, because investors will flock to quality, and you will have the ability to invest in your model when others don't. As the cost of capital spikes in the market, the efficient busine…”
Byron Deeter Jul 8, 2019 ▶ 14:22 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter On Lessons From Investing in 14 $Bn Companies, What The Heck Is Going On In Cloud Today and Why Cloud IPO Floodgates Are About To Burst Open
Jul 8, 2019 neutral
Assertion Supported
Bessemer data shows tech foundings are evenly spread while exits cluster
“And we've actually empirically modeled this. If you look at founding dates of the great companies that we think of across tech, and it's amazingly even across cycles, what you tend to see those that exits do cluster.”
Byron Deeter Jul 8, 2019 ▶ 6:03 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter On Lessons From Investing in 14 $Bn Companies, What The Heck Is Going On In Cloud Today and Why Cloud IPO Floodgates Are About To Burst Open
Jul 8, 2019 bullish
Assertion Supported
Bessemer is tracking 53 private cloud unicorns globally as of 2019
“I think that the floodgates are about to burst wide open, and as we look at the private cloud landscape, we do the cloud 100 event every year with Forbes, and it'll be in the September issue this year from the cloud 100 list, but right now we're tracking 53 pr…”
Byron Deeter Jul 8, 2019 ▶ 9:20 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter On Lessons From Investing in 14 $Bn Companies, What The Heck Is Going On In Cloud Today and Why Cloud IPO Floodgates Are About To Burst Open
Jul 8, 2019 positive
Disclosure
Bessemer avoids market timing to pay fair prices for visionaries
“Great companies are built in all markets, and so I've really given up trying to time markets either as a founder or as an investor, and my point of view is Find great people with big vision and pay the fair market price, and generally, really good things happe…”
Byron Deeter Jul 8, 2019 ▶ 4:51 20VC: Bessemer's Byron Deeter On Lessons From Investing in 14 $Bn Companies, What The Heck Is Going On In Cloud Today and Why Cloud IPO Floodgates Are About To Burst Open
Feb 21, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Twitch pitched around 40 VCs before raising post-pivot round with Bessemer
“The first VC round after the pivot was with Bessemer and we struggled to raise that round. We had to pitch a lot of VCs, but Bessemer is amazing, but like we probably pitched four EVCs in that round. It was a struggle. Nobody wanted to invest in Twitch at firs…”
Emmett Shear Feb 21, 2020 ▶ 30:46 20VC: Twitch Founder & CEO Emmett Shear on When To Persist vs When To Give Up For Entrepreneurs, The Fundamental Tension When Scaling Orgs and How To Optimise Them & How The Role of CEO Fundamentally Changes with Scale
Aug 14, 2020
Assertion Partly supported
Bessemer Created the Original Metrics for Evaluating Cloud Software Growth
“At Bessemer, we were the ones that came up with metrics on how to measure great cloud companies when no one knew how to measure cloud growth, and so as a result, we gravitated a lot more to that than really focusing on kind of team or the early signs in the ma…”
Anna Khan Aug 14, 2020 ▶ 37:49 20VC: Why Few Firms Are Doing True Early Stage Investing Today, Why Founders Should Spend Time with Analysts When Raising & The Rise of Pre-Empting Rounds and How To Know When To Engage vs Wait with Anna Khan, General Partner @ CRV
Mar 24, 2021
Disclosure
Levine: Bessemer's Pinterest Memo Assigned 25-30% Chance of Total Failure
“And the chance of it being a big zero for a company at that stage is at least 25 or 30%, which means that the chance of it working is also not going to be huge.”
Jeremy Levine Mar 24, 2021 ▶ 35:09 20VC: The Pinterest Memo: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on The Secret To Success within User Generated Content Plays, Where Most Investors Make Mistakes When Analysing Consumer Social and How The Pinterest Deal Wouldn't Have Happened without a Diverse Partners
Mar 24, 2021 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Levine: Pinterest Had No Technical Founder When Bessemer Invested
“Young internet founding teams included a highly technical founder, and Pinterest had no technical founder.”
Jeremy Levine Mar 24, 2021 ▶ 17:49 20VC: The Pinterest Memo: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on The Secret To Success within User Generated Content Plays, Where Most Investors Make Mistakes When Analysing Consumer Social and How The Pinterest Deal Wouldn't Have Happened without a Diverse Partners
Mar 24, 2021 positive
What-if
Levine: Bessemer Would Have Missed Pinterest Without Partner Sarah Tavel
“Had we not had, at least on a gender basis, A diverse duo of people looking at the investment. I think we would have missed it, too.”
Jeremy Levine Mar 24, 2021 ▶ 19:31 20VC: The Pinterest Memo: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on The Secret To Success within User Generated Content Plays, Where Most Investors Make Mistakes When Analysing Consumer Social and How The Pinterest Deal Wouldn't Have Happened without a Diverse Partners
Mar 24, 2021 negative
Insight
Levine: Publicizing Early VC Funding Rounds Hurts Long-Term Startup Prospects
“A lot of people, particularly around their early financings, like to go tell the world about it. It's validation. If nothing else, it's nice to have your mom read about you in TechCrunch. But the truth is, that does almost no value. It adds no value to your co…”
Jeremy Levine Mar 24, 2021 ▶ 37:33 20VC: The Pinterest Memo: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on The Secret To Success within User Generated Content Plays, Where Most Investors Make Mistakes When Analysing Consumer Social and How The Pinterest Deal Wouldn't Have Happened without a Diverse Partners
Mar 24, 2021 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Levine: Pinterest Grew 50% to 70% Monthly After Bessemer's Investment
“I think in that first year or so after we invested, the business was growing like 50 or 70% in a month.”
Jeremy Levine Mar 24, 2021 ▶ 23:21 20VC: The Pinterest Memo: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on The Secret To Success within User Generated Content Plays, Where Most Investors Make Mistakes When Analysing Consumer Social and How The Pinterest Deal Wouldn't Have Happened without a Diverse Partners
Mar 24, 2021
Disclosure
Levine: Bessemer Invested $9M in Pinterest's Series A at $40M Pre-Money
“The first step was a simple ten million dollar investment. It was a forty million dollar pre-money valuation, fifty million dollar post-money valuation. I think Bessemer was eight and a half or nine million of the 10 existing investors put up the balance.”
Jeremy Levine Mar 24, 2021 ▶ 13:18 20VC: The Pinterest Memo: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on The Secret To Success within User Generated Content Plays, Where Most Investors Make Mistakes When Analysing Consumer Social and How The Pinterest Deal Wouldn't Have Happened without a Diverse Partners
Mar 24, 2021
Disclosure
Levine: Bessemer Kept Its 2011 Pinterest Investment Secret for Nine Months
“Our initial investment in Pinterest was maybe in March or April of 2011. You can't find anything on the internet about our involvement with the company for at least six or nine months. In fact, it was the subsequent financing That somehow got leaked to the pre…”
Jeremy Levine Mar 24, 2021 ▶ 38:11 20VC: The Pinterest Memo: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on The Secret To Success within User Generated Content Plays, Where Most Investors Make Mistakes When Analysing Consumer Social and How The Pinterest Deal Wouldn't Have Happened without a Diverse Partners
Mar 24, 2021 negative
Disclosure
Levine: Bessemer Passed on Minted Series A Due to Revenue Seasonality
“We decided we were not going to pursue an investment in Minted.”
Jeremy Levine Mar 24, 2021 ▶ 4:28 20VC: The Pinterest Memo: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on The Secret To Success within User Generated Content Plays, Where Most Investors Make Mistakes When Analysing Consumer Social and How The Pinterest Deal Wouldn't Have Happened without a Diverse Partners
Apr 15, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Zapier reached $140M ARR and $5B valuation on $1.4M primary funding
“Post-YC in 2012, Wade raised 1.4 million dollars for the company from Bessemer and Threshold, but since that round, he's scaled the company to a hundred and forty million in ARR and a five billion dollar valuation without any traditional style venture rounds h…”
Harry Stebbings Apr 15, 2021 ▶ 0:30 20VC: Scaling Zapier To $140M ARR and a $5Bn Valuation on $1.4M of Funding, What Founders Misunderstand About Fundraising & How Founders Should Think About Secondaries Today with Wade Foster, Founder & CEO @ Zapier
May 27, 2021 bullish
Disclosure
Twilio Built Software Layers to Avoid Becoming a Commoditized Infrastructure Pipe
“The commoditization of communications or the migration of their larger customers. So I think you asked a very insightful question along the way, which I probably didn't give enough due to, which is we worried about that very heavily. And so part of our Preempt…”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 36:32 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
May 27, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
Twilio's Revenue Was Declining Month-Over-Month When Bessemer First Invested
“When we made the investment, not only was the revenue tiny, but it was actually down month over month.”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 6:17 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
May 27, 2021 bullish
Assertion Supported
Twilio Is Bessemer's Largest Investment in Total Dollars and Returns
“The initial investment started with David Callen leading a 125,000 dollar seed investment as part of this seed extension round that Mitch Kapoor led, and Ethan Kurzweil, who's now one of our great partners, was a senior associate at the time, and Ethan slid a …”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 4:22 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
May 27, 2021 positive
Disclosure
Stripe Is Number One on Bessemer's Private Cloud 100 List
“Stripe, which is cloud number one on our private cloud 100 list today with Snowflake's graduation, most likely.”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 16:24 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
May 27, 2021 bullish
Disclosure
Bessemer Holds 25 to 30 Unicorns in Its Private Cloud Portfolio
“Within our private cloud portfolio right now, I think we have between 25 and 30 Unicorns that have obviously chosen to raise, you know, large financings north of a billion”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 31:07 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
May 27, 2021
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Venture Capital Will Bifurcate Into Regional Seed Firms and Global Platforms
“I do believe that the world is going to skew to a bimodal curve where there's going to be Super stage or regional firms. I put you in that bucket where you are going to be a fantastic early stage European partner for seed stage firms, and we look forward to co…”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 28:47 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
May 27, 2021 neutral
Insight
Startups Facing Preemptive Term Sheets Should Raise Half-Rounds Ahead
“Raise a half round ahead, not a full round ahead. So this idea of if you can envision deploying more capital and initially we are going to raise this money to get through these phases, let's think about the intermediate milestones where we can then go out and …”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 32:10 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
May 27, 2021 bearish
Insight
Tech Incumbents Face an Incumbent Disadvantage Against Lean Startups
“When realizing that this notion of an incumbent advantage, I firmly believe now is an incumbent disadvantage. It is really hard to beat a focused, you know, lean team with their head down going after a problem set.”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 9:12 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
May 27, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Home Run IPO Valuations Expanded 100x to $50B+ Over 15 Years
“What used to be a home run at a half billion dollars for an IPO, is now a fifty billion dollar and above IPO. I mean, literally two orders of magnitude bigger than”
Byron Deeter May 27, 2021 ▶ 27:35 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage
Jul 15, 2021
Assertion Supported
Stebbings: Gainsight raised over $156 million before its acquisition
“Prior to that, Gainsight raised over one hundred and fifty six million from some of the best, including Lightspeed, Battery, Bessemer, Insight, and Bain, to name a few.”
Harry Stebbings Jul 15, 2021 ▶ 0:38 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight
Dec 4, 2023 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bessemer capped Procore's upside potential at $300M in its Series A thesis
“So Bessemer, I don't know if Brian told you this, but Bessemer had an investment thesis on Procore that they, of course, they don't tell the company about. They thought that Procore the best outside scenario they could come up with was that Procore was going t…”
Tooey Courtemanche Dec 4, 2023 ▶ 22:07 Tooey Courtemanche: From Construction Worker to Billionaire CEO | E1090 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 4, 2024
Disclosure
Lemkin: Byron Dieter Sat on My Steps With Term Sheet
“Byron Dieter did it with me back in the day at Bessemer of just sitting on your steps with the term sheet.”
Jason Lemkin Jan 4, 2024 ▶ 1:17:18 Jason Lemkin: Predictions for 2024 - What Does a Trump Administration do for Startups? | E1099 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 10, 2024
Assertion Supported
Ball: Bessemer invested in MindBody at $10M ARR on a $42M valuation
“This was 2010, and they were doing a deal at ten million of ARR at 42 pre”
Jamin Ball Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 59:40 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 negative
Insight
Fisher: High cost basis forces VCs into risk-averse board mindsets
“When you invest a lot more money at a lot higher valuations you actually end up behaving a little bit different as a board member even when all of a sudden you have a hundred million of cost basis in a company, in which I do have several companies where that's…”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 56:56 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 positive
Insight
Fisher: Founders need a confidant partner, not a prescriptive investor
“One of the things that I eventually, ah, did myself when I started at Bessemer, ah, this is in 2000 and seven, was to, Take a very different approach to take this kind of partnership type of approach with the entrepreneur, because I realize what they really ne…”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 4:31 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024
Disclosure
Fisher: Investing exclusively in my ideal founder typecast does not scale
“I accept that sometimes I have a lot of biases towards certain types of entrepreneurs, and I can't always invest in the same Adam Fisher typecast entrepreneur that even though that works for me, it doesn't scale and I'll probably miss out on some very good one…”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 30:24 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 positive
Insight
Fisher: Niche market first movers offer better arbitrage than big market competitors
“That that it's a better arbitrage opportunity to be the lone player or the first mover in a even in a smaller market, even in a niche market, than to be the number two or three in a large market. Because a number two, it's like a gladiator competition. Number …”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 16:28 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Fisher: Worst venture investments are made under competitive time pressure
“My worst decisions have been the ones that I made in the least amount of time, due to pressure.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 6:00 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Fisher: I rarely reject early-stage startup deals based on price alone
“Rarely have I turned down deals in the very early stages due to price alone.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 43:34 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 neutral
Insight
Fisher: Executive mis-hires stem more from stage mismatch than personality clashes
“The latter because hopefully I've done my work and I've figured out the personal chemistry and the founders pretty good at that themselves, which I, again, I look for when I fund people. But sometimes it's a mismatch in the stage.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 37:59 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024
Disclosure
Fisher: Bessemer partnership gave outright negative feedback on my Wix deal
“In both cases, I received what would be politely say very lukewarm feedback from the partnership. In fact, in the case of Wix, it was outright negative feedback.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 27:55 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024
Disclosure
Fisher: Back founders who can raise capital even when missing operating plans
“I invest in people who I think can raise money even when they're not, even when they don't meet their plan.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 18:30 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024
Insight
Fisher: Founder relationship outweighs market and product when investing
“I make it very clear to the entrepreneur that I'm choosing them more than I'm choosing the market or the particular product, and that I'm choosing them because I'm also not just choosing somebody that I hope will succeed or want to succeed, but somebody that I…”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 41:38 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 negative
Opinion
Fisher: Raising too much seed capital distorts startup culture and execution
“No, at seed I don't think so. I think it distorts everything. Everything from the go-to-market model to how you hire, to the offices and the culture you're creating, it's all wrong. I, so I completely disagree.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 47:15 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Fisher: I refuse to double down on companies with unsustainable burn rates
“I don't mind having missed an opportunity to invest three more million dollars in a company that could have generated another thirty million dollars of gains, but I do worry a lot about doubling down in a company, investing another twenty million dollars, and …”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 54:38 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 negative
Insight
Fisher: Never raise funding at valuations equal to your target sale price
“I try and make sure my companies I back never raise at valuations that they want to sell the company at, and I warn them of that.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 44:25 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024
Disclosure
Fisher: Avoid contrarian investments that lack follow-on venture capital interest
“As much as I am willing to be contrarian, I'm not willing to invest in something that others are not going to fund. So I need to find, it's a fine line, but I need to find something That perhaps is not mainstream, perhaps is not and yet a headline in TechCrunc…”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 17:12 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 positive
Insight
Fisher: Founder naivety beats industry insider experience due to lack of bias
“Insiders are just blinded by convention, by knowing a little bit too much of what hasn't worked in the past of where others failed. Naivete is a strength in these cases, and if you have the right entrepreneur who, again, is self-aware and perhaps also has a ce…”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 11:20 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 positive
Insight
Fisher: Avoiding bad executive hires matters more than finding the optimal candidate
“So I'm much more interested in not making a mistake with a hire than making sure that this is the Best possible candidate we could hire.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 37:00 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 positive
Insight
Fisher: Hiring experience is one of the most underrated founder skills
“Experience in hiring is, is definitely underrated. You're absolutely right. It's one of the greatest skills of second time entrepreneurs is that they actually don't even need me to interview any of the candidates.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 39:29 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024
Insight
Fisher: Maintaining composure drives founder transparency and lasting VC partnerships
“And when you express that kind of balance, when you react to entrepreneurs, whether it's good news or bad news, with some kind of composure, they become more transparent with you, more forthcoming. They'll share the good information and the bad information as …”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 42:49 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Fisher: Israeli startup ecosystem is not just cybersecurity and technical founders
“Oh, it's probably that they're all techies and they're all in cyber security, which is just not the case. I've backed a lot of entrepreneurs that have no technical background or minimal technical background. And obviously I have very few, if not any cyber secu…”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 1:11:44 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024
Insight
Fisher: Fastest-growing and most ambitious startups often crash and burn
“I don't think that the way you build a big company or the way you get a big exit is by investing in the most ambitious companies, growing the fastest. Those are also the companies that crash into it.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 0:00 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024
Insight
Fisher: VCs cannot accurately predict which portfolio companies will win
“There's no question that, at the end of the day, you, most of your returns are gonna come from very few deals. It's not gonna be spread evenly. That's a fact. The question is, can you recognize it early on, or can you recognize it really at any point? And I do…”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 52:15 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Fisher: Raising $50M for an early-stage startup is inappropriate
“I mean, any early stage company that's raising fifty million dollars, I don't know what stage that was that you were thinking about, it's inappropriate. Those are not the type of invest, of entrepreneurs that I back.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 20:02 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 22, 2024 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fisher: I have achieved surprisingly high exits on sub-$2M revenue startups
“And so I would say at least six or seven times I've had exits where, I mean, the company Was almost worthless. You know, less than two million dollars of revenue, and we had offers that shockingly good.”
Adam Fisher Jan 22, 2024 ▶ 1:04:32 Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 26, 2025 positive
Opinion
Mitchell Green: Bessemer is as good as any mega-fund for $50M+ checks
“If you need to own a large fund and write a fifty hundred million dollar plus check, like I think Bessemer is as good as any of the other big funds.”
Mitchell Green Mar 26, 2025 ▶ 1:12:55 Mitchell Green, Founder @ Lead Edge Capital: Why Traditional VC is Broken · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 positive
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer portfolio company hit 90% automated support with higher NPS via Fin
“I was at one of our portfolio company board meetings the other day, and they mentioned that they had switched from, you know, human-based interventions to the FIN product from Intercom, And they showed the stats of deflections went up, I forget to, you know, 9…”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 14:08 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer owned 28% of Shopify and Twilio at IPO
“We own 28% of Shopify and Twilio at IPO and we owned, you know, well less than that of Procore and Service Titan just because we, you know, included a lot of other investors downstream.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 51:22 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Deeter: Growth Is Valued at 2x to 2.5x Efficiency at $50M ARR
“The rule of X mathematically shows it's about a two to two and a half X multiplier value of growth over efficiency at mid-stage scale. Call it fifty million ARR or so.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 27:41 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Deeter: Top AI Startups Hit $100M ARR in 1.5 Years
“We're seeing businesses go from zero to a hundred million in 1.5 years. That's the supernova profile.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 24:44 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer refuses to hire sector-specific investors or protect cooling sectors
“This is very much why we don't hire sector-specific investors, and we don't give you air cover if your sector goes out of favor, meaning our job's to make RLPs money, and if you're in a sector that's cooling off, you better get the hell out and go somewhere el…”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 1:00:54 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 bullish
Prediction Open · timeframe Aug 2028
Deeter: Anthropic will be valued over $1 trillion within three years
“I mean, we put our money where our mouth is. We've been a buyer. So over, and that's again, like we a year ago when we were buyers, we still wouldn't have didn't conceive of that.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 1:22:03 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer's largest all-time investments include Twilio, Canva, and Anthropic
“So it used to be Twilio. Then you know, probably StubHub, Canva, Anthropic Yeah, probably, probably that bucket.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 44:54 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025
Disclosure
Bessemer distributed Shopify stock to LPs rather than selling directly
“So importantly, we distributed early. We didn't necessarily sell. So what we did is we gave people the choice.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 56:28 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Bessemer Cloud 100 List Reaches $1 Trillion Aggregate Private Value
“We're over a trillion dollars In private market cap now among just the top 100 cloud AI companies right now which is just a astronomical number to consider.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 41:07 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 positive
Assertion Contradicted
Deeter: Canva and Intercom AI products generate hundreds of millions
“I look at a company like a Canva, or I look at a company like Intercom that's at a scale where in some ways they're already becoming an incumbent in those markets, and yet they're disrupting themselves at awesome rates and have AI products that are already, yo…”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 13:23 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 bullish
Opinion
Deeter: Bessemer invested in Anthropic believing it could be a 30x return
“You know, 3.8 X will keep you in business for a long time, but the reason to do it is because you believe it could be a 30 X. And that's the basis of our anthropic investment is we believe that it is a generational company.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 7:09 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 positive
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer created 'Century Team' to re-underwrite top portfolio companies
“And we've actually added people and processes to make sure that we don't get subject to this kind of mental inertia where we invite in, you know, another partner to look at it and our best deals were constantly saying, You know, okay, we have the century team,…”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 46:23 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 negative
Prediction Open · timeframe Aug 2028
Bessemer unlikely to pursue evergreen structures or asset management roll-ups
“We're seeing, you know, other firms adding asset management businesses and debt products and roll-ups and doing all sorts of things. You know, there's some kernels in there that we agree with. There's a lot in there we probably aren't going to pursue.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 58:02 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Deeter: My first Bessemer investment roadmap was in zero-trillion-dollar RFID market
“My first roadmap at Bessemer was RFID, radio frequency identification, which was and is a zero trillion dollar market.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 1:03:14 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 positive
Opinion
Deeter: Secondary liquidity for venture investors is healthy as companies stay private longer
“This is a change in my view. I'll confess that I was pretty hard lined against this, not for founders and teams. I always feel that taking some pressure off of them is good, but I didn't love it when our co-investors were looking for liquidity. Early in busine…”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 38:39 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer is evaluating nuclear fusion investments accelerated by AI
“We're looking at, you know, fusion investments now that I think will be supported and accelerated by AI.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 22:13 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer Is Targeting Vertical AI in Accounting, Legal, and Medical
“We're going down accounting and legal and medical. We're going through these sectors where there's a lot of, you know, front edge humans doing busy work and paperwork, and we're supercharging them.”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 16:11 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Deeter: Passed on Tesla Over Roadster Unit Economics
“One of the most famous and most painful for me was Tesla early on. It's on my anti-portfolio. If you go to the Bessemer website, we have a page dedicated to our screw ups, and that's one of mine. And it was because I couldn't fundamentally see how the unit eco…”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 35:21 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 25, 2025 positive
Disclosure
Deeter: Bessemer invested over $100M each in Anthropic, Perplexity, and Canva
“You know, you look at an Anthropic or a Perplexity or a Canva and we, you know, we have, you know, nine figures into each of these companies and yet we are still, you know, well below historical venture standards where you aspire to own 20% or something in the…”
Byron Deeter Aug 25, 2025 ▶ 5:56 BVP Partner, Byron Deeter: The Future of Venture - Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 11, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Forquer: Legora leverages investors like Bessemer and GC to close deals
“A hundred percent. I mean, with our, the cool thing about the space that we're occupying is because the VCs themselves, like if you think about Iconic, General Catalyst, Bessemer, they have huge legal networks themselves. They're big spenders on legal services…”
Patrick Forquer May 11, 2026 ▶ 32:40 Inside Legora: Jude Law Generated $50M Pipeline | Are They Undervalued at $5.5BN? | Patrick Forquer · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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