People, every show

Peter Fenton

General Partner, Benchmark. On 3 shows, 4 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.

investor@peterfenton ↗benchmark.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Peter Fenton is an early-stage venture capitalist and the longest-serving active partner at Benchmark. He has led investments in technology and open-source companies including Twitter, Yelp, Docker, Elastic, New Relic, Zuora, and Sierra.

3shows
4appearances
83statements
9resolved
4supported
2contradicted
44%fully supported
405said about them ↓

Everything Peter Fenton said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

ACQUIRED Insight
Fenton: Late-stage investing dilutes venture fund return multiples
“If we start, all we're doing, we're investing more money in late stages. We're lowering our returns. That's all we're doing because our commitment is fixed. It's not like we're going to be more committed. So we're, you could say we're getting more cash on cash…”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 47:27 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
20VC Opinion
Fenton: Capital Oversupply Is Good for Innovation Because It Increases Entropy
“I personally think that oversupply of capital is historically a good thing for innovation insofar as it creates higher degrees of entropy.”
Peter Fenton Mar 29, 2021 ▶ 15:42 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on The Single Question That Defines The Art of Early Stage Venture, Marketing Timing Risk, Why The Oversupply of Capital Is Good & His Biggest Lessons from 12 Years On The New Relic Board
20VC Insight
Fenton: Early-stage VC returns are never determined by entry valuations
“I've never seen ever seen a venture investment from the early stage standpoint become bad because of valuations in the flip side. I've never seen one become great because of valuations going in.”
Peter Fenton Jun 19, 2017 ▶ 15:49 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on How To Differentiate Between Good & Great VCs, Why Ownership Is A Bigger Determinant Of Returns Than Valuation & What Makes A Truly Exceptional Board Member
MAD Opinion
'Product market fit' is an overused tautology
“Product market fit. Which, I mean, if I hear that again, that's where, big data, whatever big data went to, or Synergy I mean, it's such a tautology, you know, it's like, yeah, ok, people want what you've built a product that people want to buy, it's so insigh…”
Peter Fenton Mar 18, 2016 ▶ 7:08 A Fireside Chat with Benchmark General Partner Peter Fenton (Data Driven NYC / FirstMark)
ACQUIRED Prediction Open · timeframe Oct 2052
Fenton: Benchmark probably won't be around in 30 years
“Benchmark probably isn't going to be around in 30 years.”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 23:56 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Assertion Partly supported
Fenton: Docker's valuation plummeted from $1.5B to zero, stranding Benchmark
“So last time I did an all hands meeting at Docker was three years ago, and there were 60 employees that, that we'd spun out of the prior company, and the valuation was zero. So we'd gone from over a 1,000,000,004, 1,000,005 to zero, and I was working with some…”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 38:48 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Insight
Fenton: A VC's true customer is the founder's purpose, not the founder
“Our customer isn't, it's not the founder. We say it is, but it's really the purpose of the founder, and it turns out that purpose, if that's the customer, One of us may be deviating from that, and we can keep each other accountable, and that happens internally…”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 41:24 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Insight
Fenton: Every 2–3 years a $100B company is founded regardless of cycles
“We have faith that every year, some number above zero companies will be founded that are going to be worth more than ten billion dollars, and then about every two or three years, a company's going to be found out it's going to be worth more than a hundred bill…”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 46:45 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Disclosure
Fenton: Benchmark GPs pay standard LP fees and carry on personal commitments
“As an LP. And that's, well, that's crazy. And this is-... But for this, for the super majority of my investment in benchmark, I'm paying limited partner rates and management fees.”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 53:45 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Insight
Fenton: A venture firm's quality is measured by how good its failures are
“One benchmark, no pun intended, I guess, one measure of quality for the firm will be how good our failures are. Webvan was a really good failure.”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 1:20:19 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Insight
Fenton: Well-executed bad ideas are dangerous because investors keep funding them
“It turns out that a bad idea well executed is a problem because then you give it more money. Or a good idea, poorly executed, well, that hurts because you think, oh, I mean, we can think of companies like Friendster and think, oh, but the bad idea of poorly ex…”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 1:23:39 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Disclosure
Fenton: Benchmark took equity in Tinder without investing cash
“There have been examples and we're, we don't, there's some awkwardness to talking about it publicly. One of the ones is probably a good example is Tinder. And, you know, Barry Diller said, what do you want? And it's like, well, we want equity in Tinder.”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 1:26:47 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Opinion
Fenton: AI and crypto lack Big Tech incumbency barriers, unlike AR/VR
“I think that somewhere between AI, crypto, and Not AR VR, sorry for the future AR VR. But I think those areas don't have the incumbency of some of the traditional, you know, network effect giant trillion dollar market cap companies.”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 1:40:02 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Disclosure
Fenton: Benchmark will not expand to eight partners or launch a growth fund
“Now that doesn't mean we're going to have eight partners And a growth fund. And then there's some hard lines where you just say, but this is, you know, getting closer to people who are embody our values, but at a different stage in their career, that's okay wi…”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 1:48:06 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
ACQUIRED Insight
Fenton: Company culture is permanently set by its first few employees
“The founding two or three employees set the culture. And it doesn't change unless there's some catastrophic event where it has to get reborn, but good luck with Elon at Twitter. You know, that culture was set in motion, and its root system goes so deep.”
Peter Fenton Oct 17, 2022 ▶ 1:55:16 Benchmark Part II: The Dinner · Acquired
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fenton: 2021 Venture Capital Is Overfunding Non-Existent Market Preconditions
“One of the bigger risks that's going on in 2021 is there's a lot of invested capital is going in to market preconditions that either don't exist or are still too early to support the economic development of the businesses.”
Peter Fenton Mar 29, 2021 ▶ 14:15 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on The Single Question That Defines The Art of Early Stage Venture, Marketing Timing Risk, Why The Oversupply of Capital Is Good & His Biggest Lessons from 12 Years On The New Relic Board
20VC Insight
Fenton: Initial valuation does not matter if an early-stage startup succeeds
“If you zoom out, Harry, big picture, if the company works, if it really works, it doesn't matter.”
Peter Fenton Mar 29, 2021 ▶ 17:57 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on The Single Question That Defines The Art of Early Stage Venture, Marketing Timing Risk, Why The Oversupply of Capital Is Good & His Biggest Lessons from 12 Years On The New Relic Board
20VC Insight
Fenton: Board Members Who Focus on Giving Answers Shouldn't Serve
“If you think your role is to provide the answers, then I think you probably shouldn't be in the boardroom.”
Peter Fenton Mar 29, 2021 ▶ 26:39 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on The Single Question That Defines The Art of Early Stage Venture, Marketing Timing Risk, Why The Oversupply of Capital Is Good & His Biggest Lessons from 12 Years On The New Relic Board
20VC Prediction Open · timeframe Mar 2096
Fenton: Benchmark Won't Exist in 50 to 75 Years
“Benchmark won't be around in 50 to 75 years, nor will most of the companies we work with”
Peter Fenton Mar 29, 2021 ▶ 29:33 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on The Single Question That Defines The Art of Early Stage Venture, Marketing Timing Risk, Why The Oversupply of Capital Is Good & His Biggest Lessons from 12 Years On The New Relic Board
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Fenton: Free and open consumer distribution channels evaporated by 2017
“One of the major oxygen supplies For consumers, especially, is free and open distribution, and I think we could say pretty emphatically that that has evaporated in the last five years”
Peter Fenton Jun 19, 2017 ▶ 7:36 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on How To Differentiate Between Good & Great VCs, Why Ownership Is A Bigger Determinant Of Returns Than Valuation & What Makes A Truly Exceptional Board Member
20VC Insight
Fenton: Ownership stake drives early-stage VC returns more than valuation
“The other variable on, you know, this topic specifically that you'll hear people focused on is ownership stake, and I think ultimately that is a bigger determinant of returns than anything related to the valuation going in, and I say it specifically for early …”
Peter Fenton Jun 19, 2017 ▶ 16:40 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on How To Differentiate Between Good & Great VCs, Why Ownership Is A Bigger Determinant Of Returns Than Valuation & What Makes A Truly Exceptional Board Member
20VC Insight
Fenton: The most successful startups launch in narrow or invisible markets
“In many ways, by definition, the startup companies that do the best invest and get going in very narrow, almost ill-defined, if not completely invisible markets”
Peter Fenton Jun 19, 2017 ▶ 19:29 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on How To Differentiate Between Good & Great VCs, Why Ownership Is A Bigger Determinant Of Returns Than Valuation & What Makes A Truly Exceptional Board Member
20VC Insight
Fenton: Great founders consistently choose reckless decisions over conservative ones
“The best founders make me feel like Number one, I can never control them, and I never want to control them. Number two, that given an opportunity to do the insane, reckless, non-conservative versus the rational, logical, they'll prefer the insane and the reckl…”
Peter Fenton Jun 19, 2017 ▶ 29:27 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on How To Differentiate Between Good & Great VCs, Why Ownership Is A Bigger Determinant Of Returns Than Valuation & What Makes A Truly Exceptional Board Member
MAD Insight
Safe and calm entrepreneurs rarely profoundly change the world
“Because if you're in that meeting, and the entrepreneur makes you feel safe and calm, and, ah, you know, kind of, ah, very much in the linear mindset, ah, they're not likely to, you know, profoundly change the world.”
Peter Fenton Mar 18, 2016 ▶ 5:54 A Fireside Chat with Benchmark General Partner Peter Fenton (Data Driven NYC / FirstMark)

Show 24statements(59 left)

The other half of the tape: Peter Fenton's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 375 times in 103 episodes across the shows. 30 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 211David Rosenthal 23Dan Siroker 16Eric Vishria 11Chetan Puttagunta 11Bret Taylor 10Scott Farquhar 9Keith Rabois 8

Statements about Peter Fenton, by other people (30)

20VC What-if
Green: A Benchmark-backed Silicon Valley version of SafeSend would've fetched $500M
“Had that deal, been backed by Benchmark, like Vishra or Fett, Peter Fett, and one of those guys, backed a Benchmark, doing a minority deal based in Silicon Valley, it would have been five hundred million dollars.”
Mitchell Green Mar 26, 2025 ▶ 12:57 Mitchell Green, Founder @ Lead Edge Capital: Why Traditional VC is Broken · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Insight
Siroker: Founders should target VCs on the rising arc of their career
“I think the best investor you can have for your company is somebody who's on the rising arc of their career. You want a Peter Fenton when he's 35, not 45. You want, not, not going to be ageist, but you want somebody before they've had their first IPO, and you …”
Dan Siroker May 15, 2024 ▶ 48:50 Dan Siroker: Second-Time Founders Are More Investable & Why Not To Hire People Out of College |E1153 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gordon: No successful startup investor completely ignores valuation
“I don't know any successful investor in companies who invest that way.”
Bing Gordon Nov 27, 2017 ▶ 16:20 20VC: Kleiner Perkins' Bing Gordon on Lessons From Serving On Amazon & Zynga's Board, Why The Best Investors Are Good Listeners and Sceptical Optimists & The Most Important Value Add A VC Can Provide
20VC Assertion Contradicted
Only Peter Fenton and Jim Goetz achieved multi-billion consumer and enterprise wins
“That's a funny statement, because I think in the modern era, if you go back, call it the last 10 or 15 years of venture capitalists, there are only two that I can think of who have had multi-billion dollar consumer outcomes and multi-billion dollar enterprise …”
Eric Vishria Sep 25, 2017 ▶ 15:06 20VC: Benchmark's Eric Vishria on Why Career VCs Have Advantages Most Under Appreciate, Why We Are In An Infrastructure Renaissance & What Makes The Best VC Partnership
20VC Opinion
Kimball: GP advocacy is more valuable than VC platform support teams
“No matter how good the associate or the BV person or the BV team even, you know, in a much bigger VC, those guys are good, and they can do great work, and they can actually probably do more work in terms of volume, but I'd rather have Peter Fenton on the phone…”
Spencer Kimball Apr 14, 2017 ▶ 15:23 20VC: How Investors Can Get Into The Best Deals & Why Founders First Point Of Contact Should Be With The Investment Decision-Maker with Spencer Kimball, Founder & CEO @ Cockroach Labs
20VC Opinion
Jerry Murdock: Peter Fenton and John Doerr were astounding venture pickers
“Peter Fenton John Doerr early on those guys were astounding at picking deals.”
Jerry Murdock Feb 28, 2026 ▶ 53:21 The SaaS Apocalypse: Who Lives & Who Dies | Insight Partners Co-Founder, Jerry Murdock · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Insight
Peter Fenton: Investment price is the litmus test for conviction
“I remember he told me that price is a litmus test for your conviction.”
Harry Stebbings Nov 10, 2025 ▶ 1:35 Benchmark's GP, Everett Randle on Why Mega Funds Will Not Produce Good Returns · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Farquhar: Benchmark declined splitting Atlassian's initial round with Accel
“And actually like we went back to Peter Fenton at Benchmark was, I think the runner up bidder. And we went back to Excel and said, Hey, look, all things considered, maybe we should get two VCs or, you know, in there, even though there was a huge difference in …”
Scott Farquhar Oct 9, 2023 ▶ 14:25 Scott Farquhar: Founding Atlassian; How We Scaled to a $50B Valuation; The 4 Jobs of a CEO | E1070 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
ACQUIRED Assertion Not checkable as stated
Peter Fenton walked away from Accel's Facebook fund carry to join Benchmark
“He had GP economics, even if they were baby GP economics, in the Facebook fund. And he's walking away from that to join Benchmark.”
David Rosenthal Sep 28, 2022 ▶ 2:37:08 Benchmark Part I · Acquired
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Benchmark's Peter Fenton discloses a genuine personal weakness within five minutes
“The master of this is Peter Fenton at Benchmark. He, within five minutes of any conversation, he will tell you a weakness that he has, and it's not, he's not joking about it. He tells you a real weakness, and my God, it makes me love him, but I'm not unique in…”
Matt Mochary Mar 9, 2020 ▶ 11:33 20VC: Matt Mochary, Coach To Silicon Valley's Leading VCs & Founders on How To Deal with Imposter Syndrome and Self-Doubt, How To Manage Fear and Anger & Why Board Seats Are The Death of Investors
20VC Insight
Successful M&A deals never look expensive in hindsight
“I completely agree with Peter. If you do a good M&A deal, no one's ever looked back and said, how much do we pay? It's just smiles and congratulations.”
Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 7:32 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android
20VC Opinion
New Relic's Lou Cirne prioritized trusted partners over maximizing round valuation
“Lucerne, a new relic is a great example. You know, a multi-billion dollar public software company today But if you ask Lou, he took money from people that he knew and trusted in Peter Fenton and Dan Skolnick, and he did evaluations that worked for him, but als…”
Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 21:42 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
20VC Insight
VCs must maintain price discipline in categories with bounded upside
“That said, I think there are other companies that the category or the nature of the competitive set, you have to have some amount of price discipline in order to achieve true good returns. And I think those are in categories that you, there's just simply not a…”
Rich Wong Dec 4, 2017 ▶ 9:15 20VC: Accel GP, Rich Wong on When Is The Right Time To Scale A Startup, Optimising Initial vs Follow-On Investment Decision-Making & The Globalisation of VC In Recent Years
20VC Opinion
Tony Conrad disagrees with Peter Fenton on founder unease
“No, not at all. In fact you know, that might work for Peter, and I think each investor, as I've learned even within our firm, has a different approach, and it's really important that you empower somebody to kind of adhere to their kind of instincts, if you wan…”
Tony Conrad Jun 14, 2017 ▶ 7:32 20VC: Tony Conrad on Straddling The Role Of Founder & Investor, What True Founder/Product Fit Looks Like & The Dangers of Party Rounds
20VC Insight
Peter Fenton: Great board members are Socratic and focus on fundamental questions
“I remember he stated to me the importance lying in being Socratic, not didactic, knowing when's the right time to interject, and having 15 questions in your head, but having the ability to narrow them down to the two that are fundamental.”
Harry Stebbings May 8, 2017 ▶ 9:21 20VC: Harry Stebbings on The Biggest Takeaways From Interviewing The World's Best Investors, What Makes A Truly Great Interview & Some Big News... with Mattias Ljungman, Co-Founder & General Partner @ Atomico
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Peter Fenton Used FOMO's App Throughout Benchmark's Pitch Meeting
“I remember Peter Fenton was actually on his phone most of it. And I was like, kind of bummed out because I was like, damn, he's not interested. He's focusing on other things. He's doing emails. And I remember as soon as we finished the pitch, the first thing h…”
Paul Erlang Jun 27, 2026 ▶ 17:58 How We Got Fred Wilson, Benchmark and Index to Invest $94M | Why Robinhood's Strategy is Wrong · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Assertion Supported
Bret Taylor only pitched Benchmark's Peter Fenton when fundraising for Sierra
“So when we started the company, I just called Peter Fenton, who I've worked with twice before. He's the only person I talked to.”
Bret Taylor Oct 2, 2024 ▶ 1:07:59 Bret Taylor: Why Pre-Training is for Morons & Companies Will Build Their Own Software | E1209 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Tavel: Peter Fenton is the single best VC at developing founders
“I've learned from Peter because his, EQ around people, what motivates us, what drives us what the, what holds people back, and how important that is in the, you know, the arc of any company that we end up investing in, this watching, helping those founders bec…”
Sarah Tavel May 6, 2024 ▶ 4:32 Sarah Tavel: Will Foundation Models Be Commoditised? | E1149 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Insight
Fenton: Accounting startups win just by making the product somewhat enjoyable
“When Uber was going against the taxi industry, the NPS scores on taxis was so bad, right? Like even if Uber was mediocre, it would still be way better. And he said accounting gave him the exact same vibes. Like the status quo is just so bad that if you can mak…”
Jeff Seibert Nov 22, 2023 ▶ 18:54 Jeff Seibert: Why OpenAI Will Become an Infrastructure Play | E1085 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
20VC Opinion
Weil: Peter Fenton, David Rosenblatt, and Carl Bass are top board members
“I'll give you three, actually. Peter Fenton, David Rosenblatt, and Carl Bass. Peter and David are on our board at Twitter. Carl's on the board at Planet. Because every single one of them, they are available whenever you need them. They're dedicated. They're ju…”
Kevin Weil Oct 7, 2022 ▶ 53:48 Kevin Weil: Lessons from Leading Product at Instagram & Twitter | 20VC #934 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
MAD Opinion
Katz names Mike Volpe and Peter Fenton top open-source VCs
“And I believe, and there's a lot of very smart people that are deploying capital in this category, specifically open source and infrastructure, but my belief, and I'm biased obviously, is that they are the top two or, you know, two of the top five, let's say.”
Aaron Katz Nov 16, 2021 ▶ 9:50 Fireside Chat: Aaron Katz (Co-Founder & CEO, ClickHouse) with Matt Turck (Partner, FirstMark)
20VC Disclosure
Peter Fenton gave Ben Rubin a Benchmark credit card to explore ideas
“Basically, Peter Fenton was, hire who you need to hire, start hacking around, there is Benchmark credit card, and I trust you, and like, obviously, this sounds a little bit unfair, because it sounds super casual, but we had a plan of This is the space we're go…”
Ben Rubin Aug 21, 2020 ▶ 37:01 20VC: Biggest Lessons From Scaling Houseparty To Millions of Users, Why Today's Metrics Are Insufficient To Determine Product Success & What Breaks with Scale From Team To Product with Ben Rubin, Co-Founder @ /talk & Houseparty
20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated
Siroker: Peter Fenton gave direct contact info for 12 portfolio founders
“Peter Fenton, when I asked for references on him at the time, he was this amazing luminary. I asked him for references. He gave me 12 founders and CEOs, their phone number, their email. He didn't even introduce me, just to just reach out. And then I got this g…”
Dan Siroker May 15, 2024 ▶ 44:28 Dan Siroker: Second-Time Founders Are More Investable & Why Not To Hire People Out of College |E1153 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
ACQUIRED Assertion Supported
Peter Fenton rapidly backed Twitter, Docker, and New Relic at Benchmark
“In short order, Peter goes on to do Twitter, Docker, Zora, Hortonworks, New Relic, Elastic.”
David Rosenthal Sep 28, 2022 ▶ 2:37:50 Benchmark Part I · Acquired

Show 6statements(6 left)

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
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01020201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
00410820201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode

20VC 338Acquired 33the MAD Podcast 4

2026 20 mentions in 6 episodes 3 per episode
2025 37 mentions in 9 episodes 4 per episode
2024 98 mentions in 13 episodes 8 per episode
2023 23 mentions in 5 episodes 5 per episode
2022 37 mentions in 5 episodes 7 per episode
2021 9 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2020 44 mentions in 12 episodes 4 per episode
2019 36 mentions in 13 episodes 3 per episode
2018 34 mentions in 17 episodes 2 per episode
2017 35 mentions in 16 episodes 2 per episode
2015 2 mentions in 1 episode

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Peter's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

ShowRole thereEpsStatementsRecord
20VCLEDGER General Partner, Benchmark 2 37 33% 1/3 full record on 20VC →
MADLEDGER General Partner, Benchmark 1 25 60% 3/5 full record on the MAD Podcast →
ACQUIREDLEDGER General Partner, Benchmark 1 21 0% 0/1 full record on Acquired →
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