Byron Deeter
Partner, Bessemer Venture PartnersBytes · Investor, Bessemer Venture Partners. On 3 shows, 11 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
He is a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners focusing on SaaS investments. He has led investments in companies including ServiceTitan, Twilio, Box, DocuSign, and SendGrid.
3shows
11appearances
195statements
76resolved
63supported
6contradicted
83%fully supported
106said about them ↓ Everything Byron Deeter said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Deeter: Anthropic's revenue growth trajectory is unprecedented in tech history
“Like, when you actually see the anthropic numbers that he's now sharing, and like, this is real, and, you know, their path to billions and billions in revenue, and, you know, really compelling unit economics, I just, we have never seen this in the history of o…”
Deeter: Cloud leaders are superseding FAANG as tech growth drivers
“Our thesis internally is that those horizons and the growth rates of those markets are starting to pull back, and that you see a changing of the guard. And it's really the cloud basket, and we pulled out six names in particular with Microsoft, Twilio, Shopify,…”
PaaS Customers Graduate to In-House Infrastructure Far Less Than Feared
“Whereas I think the market and the investors, and frankly, even the teams were very worried about this graduation phenomenon, it's happening way less than anyone feared. And it's really just very specific cases where people go narrower, not broader.”
Mega-Checks Fail in Enterprise Cloud Because Growth Isn't Paid Acquisition
“They haven't done much in the enterprise cloud world, but I think there's a reason why, which is it's hard to put hundreds of millions of dollars into mid-stage companies. You run the risk of overfunding them, and it's not a paid acquisition game in the way th…”
Cloud Valuations Over 20x Revenue and Snowflake at 80x Are Unsustainable
“The average multiple is trading north of twenty-x revenue, and you look at a snowflake that's trading at 80 times revenue. That's not sustainable.”
Deeter: Microsoft Azure could challenge AWS for top cloud slot
“At this rate, it is quite possible that Azure competes for AWS for the top slot in the coming years. And we're already seeing signs of that on the enterprise side specifically.”
Deeter: Claims of 'business as usual' in VC right now are crap
“I think the idea that it's business as usual is, is crap. I don't think any venture firm is approaching it that way. And I think anyone that's suggesting that is, is misleading at best.”
Deeter: Second-tier debt lenders recalled lines in 2008, killing a startup
“In oh eight, we did see several venture debt providers, not the tier one folks, but the level below them block lines or recall lines. And in, in one very painful case in our portfolio, it killed the company, a company that should not have died because of the c…”
Deeter: New and fringe investors in venture and debt will suffer the most in downturn
“So I think the, it's safe to assume that the new entrance or the fringe entrance in most cases are going to be the ones most impacted. That applies to venture firms, debt firms, corporate venture firms, et cetera. There, there's even potentially the crossover …”
Deeter: Economic Impact Will Be Worse Than Expected, Extending Into 2021
“I do believe the economic impact from this is going to be unfortunately more significant when than people are digesting yet. And this could take several quarters and well into next year for the overall economy to get started again.”
IBM acquired Red Hat because AWS was crushing them in public cloud
“This record acquisition by IBM of Red Hat is really all about Amazon Web Services crushing them in public cloud, them trying to make a play for hybrid cloud more aggressively and essentially draw a buffer line where they can be relevant and aspirationally they…”
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…”
Deeter: IBM bought Red Hat for $33B because it was late
“Thirty-three billion dollars for Red Hat. Because IBM was jammed, they were late to the cloud party, and hybrid cloud is their attempt to be relevant again in the cloud universe.”
Deeter: AI Productivity Will Come From Human-Machine Pairing, Not Displacement
“You hear a lot about this idea of worker displacement around automation. Ah, we see the other side of this, though. The AI and machine learning and, ah, productivity gains that are coming in particular from this human and machine pairing. In areas where you've…”
Deeter: The near future belongs to human-assisted AI, not full automation
“Prediction one is that this year and in the coming few years will be the era of the human-assisted AI. Take the most valuable knowledge workers, the high wage employees across your customer base, and figure out how to help them. Figure out how to take you know…”
Deeter: Screenless, non-graphical interfaces will be the winning paradigm
“So we are entering an era where different interfaces, and in some case, no graphical interface, is the winning paradigm.”
Deeter: Consumer delivery startups face shut downs as funding dries up
“A number of these delivery businesses, as an example, have been targeted. And I suspect several of those will have unfortunate outcomes and will not have further capital available.”
Deeter: Replacing founder CEOs is destabilizing because founder insight is irreplaceable
“I think that the founder product insight is irreplaceable. And so much of these businesses today are product led that we want to back founders who are unique and differentiated there. And we want them bought in for the journey. And tapping out and hiring a rep…”
Deeter: VCs shouldn't try to turn mediocre startups into great ones
“Don't try to be the operator. And that manifests itself in a few ways, but one of them from the investing side is don't find things that are doing okay and going to fix them so that you go from, you know, good to great. Go find the teams in the business that's…”
Deeter: Three Bessemer portfolio CEOs stepped down from stress in 2024
“A year and a half ago, I had three CEOs in the same year tap out, including one that had to go away and needed real time.”
Byron Deeter: AWS is the best business in software history
“And by the way, the best business in the history of software is sitting there with AWS in, in what people refer to as a commodity.”
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…”
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…”
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…”
The other half of the tape: Byron Deeter's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 101 times in 39 episodes across the shows. 5 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 30Jason Lemkin 26Ara Mahdessian 23David Cohen 3Anna Khan 3Rachel Carlson 2Hans Tung 2Tooey Courtemanche 1
Statements about Byron Deeter, by other people (5)
Lemkin: An active VC can lead at most five investments simultaneously
“How many active investments can you be number one in? And it might be five. Like the traditional, the old school metric for board seats was, it was supposed to be 10, ok, but when you started to run the place, it would be 20. Ok, if you go back and talk, when …”
Rathmann refused Zoom partner meetings with Bessemer and Coatue
“Byron would tell you, and I think Thomas from KOTU as well as, you know, as we were going through the partner meeting process, it was, you know, they're sending a zoom link over and saying, Hey, you know, just zoom in at this time. And that'll be that. And I s…”
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.”
Major telecom carriers launched API side projects during Twilio's early years
“And actually it's during the period of time Byron was talking about almost every major carrier did have an API program, believe it or not, but it were like small side project.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 87
the Official SaaStr Podcast 14
2026 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
- Anthropic's Raise & What It Means for Potential IPO? Mag7: Google & Amazon Up, Meta & Microsoft Down · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Will Open-Source Threaten Anthropic's Business & Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | Matt Murphy
- How Agents Will Steal Your Customers. Plus: The $10K App Our Agent Replaced and the $14 Migration
- every mention in 2026, scene by scene →
2025 13 mentions in 7 episodes 2 per episode
- Predictions for 2026: Top Buy & Biggest Short | Why Salesforce Could Win & NVIDIA’s Challenges · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Peter Thiel and Softbank Sell NVIDIA - Why? & Why VC Will Hit $1TRN and The Opening of Retail · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- The Impact of H1B Visas on Startups in the US & NVIDIA Invests $100BN Into OpenAI · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- What Happens When AI Kills Your SaaS Growth? Live Q&A with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
- OpenAI’s $10BN Secondary Sale, Ramp Hits $1BN ARR & Brex Hits $700M · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- From Startup to $11B: ServiceTitan's CRO Breaks Down Their Sales Playbook
- AI, M&A, and the Future of SaaS: Lessons from Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO, Co-Founder and Chair
- every mention in 2025, scene by scene →
2024 31 mentions in 4 episodes 8 per episode
- Ara Mahdessian: ServiceTitan Would Not Be the Success if We Raised VC Earlier | E1175 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Advice Every SaaS Founder Needs to Know to Scale to $100m with Sam Blond and Jason Lemkin
- Adam Fisher: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets | E1106 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Jason Lemkin: Predictions for 2024 - What Does a Trump Administration do for Startups? | E1099 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2023 17 mentions in 10 episodes 2 per episode
- Jason Lemkin & Rick Zullo: How "Mark to Market" Corrupted Venture Capital | E1052 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Jason Lemkin: Every VC has a FRAUD in their portfolio; The IPO market is about to EXPLODE | E1046 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- What SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin Really Thinks About AI, Sales & Lead Gen In 2024
- DEBATE: State of Seed Investing w/ Jason Lemkin, Sam Lessin, Frank Rotman & Harry Stebbings | E1047 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Is AI the Only Thing in SaaS that Anyone Cares About Anymore? AMA Part 1 w/ SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin
- Tooey Courtemanche: From Construction Worker to Billionaire CEO | E1090 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Scott Farquhar: Founding Atlassian; How We Scaled to a $50B Valuation; The 4 Jobs of a CEO | E1070 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Is the VC Model Broken? Jason Lemkin, Mike Maples, Eric Paley & Harry Stebbings Debate | E1062 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- 2 more episodes that year, every mention in 2023 →
2022 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- Jason Lemkin: Cold Email Tips; Why Only 15% of Founders Listen to their VCs | 20VC #954 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- 20VC: Why the Traditional Seed Fund Model No Longer Works, Why Multi-Stage Funds Investing at Seed Bring Signaling Risk but also Less Pressure, The One Criteria All Potential Sales Hires Need to Have and The Clear Signs of 10x Sales Hires with Jason Lemki
- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2021 5 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Twilio's Jeff Lawson on What It Takes To Create a Tribe, How To Create Anti-Fragile Organisations Through Decentralised Decision-Making and Why Values Are Nice But Principles Are Better
- Scaling a Successful SaaS Sales Team w/ 20VC Founder Harry Stebbings and SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin
- 20VC: Why Bundling Does Not Work, How The Best Founders Analyse Unit Economics, Why The Way We Approach Mental Health in Venture and Startups is Wrong with Nigel Morris, Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ QED Investors
- every mention in 2021, scene by scene →
2020 8 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
- 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
- 20VC: Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table with Kurt Rathmann, Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor
- How to Win the Talent War with Elisa Steele, CEO at Namely
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
2019 12 mentions in 3 episodes 4 per episode
- 20VC: Guild Education's Rachel Carlson on The Benefits of Scaling Startups Outside of Silicon Valley, Why Mission and Margin Are So Tightly Integrated & Why Mums Are The Most Under-Utilised Asset In The Economy
- 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
- 20VC: Matrix's Ilya Sukhar on How The Seed Ecosystem Could Be Optimised, Why The Bar For The Break-Out Series A Has Risen & The Art of Effective Referencing
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
2018 2 mentions in 1 episode
2017 6 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
- 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
- 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
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Byron's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners | 4 | 98 | 77% 23/30 | full record on 20VC → |
| SAASTRLEDGER | Partner, Bessemer Venture PartnersBytes | 6 | 82 | 89% 40/45 | full record on the Official SaaStr Podcast → |
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Investor, Bessemer Venture Partners | 1 | 15 | 0% 0/1 | full record on Masters of Scale → |