Peter Fenton

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)

ACQUIRED Assertion Supported

Peter Fenton is Benchmark's only remaining active 'Fab Four' GP

“2018, they do fun nine. Matt and Mitch step back at that point. Bill sticks around for one more fun cycle. And then of course, you know, probably everybody knows at this point, certainly if you're still listening at this point, Bill has stepped back now at thi…”

David Rosenthal Sep 28, 2022 ▶ 3:10:06 Benchmark Part I · Acquired

20VC Opinion

Liu: Peter Fenton excels by combining systems thinking with human empathy

“Yeah, what makes Peter special as a investor, and more importantly, as a thought partner to, I think, the CEOs, the portfolio companies that he gets involved with as a helpful partner, is he's basically, on one hand, very much a systems thinker, right? There a…”

Howie Liu Apr 27, 2020 ▶ 21:17 20VC: Airtable's Howie Liu on Potential Consolidation In The Collaboration Tools Market, The Transition From Peacetime To Wartime CEO & How To Make The Move To Remote Work Successful; The Process Beyond The Tools

20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated

Puttagunta: Peter Fenton conducts pre-board calls with startup executives

“He spends an incredible amount of time ahead of every board meeting, diving deep into the materials, having the conversations with founders and executives about questions that arise. In his mind, as he's reviewing the materials, he comes in with this mode of l…”

Chetan Puttagunta Aug 5, 2019 ▶ 5:19 20VC: Benchmark's Chetan Puttagunta on The One Question To Ask When Analysing Market Size, How To Compete in Today's War for Talent & Why We Have Seen An Over-Rotation In Running Businesses Based on Metrics

20VC Opinion

Kaden: Peter Fenton and Jeremy Levine are top consumer investors

“Look, I think Peter Fenton and Jeremy Levine are probably two of the best consumer investors of all time, and I, you know, I take everything they say, I read up on and take to heart, and I don't think they're wrong.”

Rebecca Kaden Oct 1, 2018 ▶ 6:13 20VC: USV's Rebecca Kaden on Whether Venture Returns Can Be Made At Scale In Consumer Today & How To Navigate Consumer Investing In A World of Amazon

MAD Assertion Supported

Fenton invested in Twitter when it had only 25 employees

“You invested when the company was only 25 people strong.”

Matt Turck Mar 18, 2016 ▶ 0:17 A Fireside Chat with Benchmark General Partner Peter Fenton (Data Driven NYC / FirstMark)

20VC Assertion Supported

Matt Mochary's coaching client list includes partners at Benchmark, Sequoia, and Kleiner

“On the VC side, Matt has worked with the likes of Peter Fenton at Benchmark, Several Sequoia partners, Hemond at GC, and Mamoon at Kleiner, to name a few. As for founders, Matt's worked with the founders of Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Reddit, Flexport, and many mor…”

Harry Stebbings Mar 9, 2020 ▶ 0:24 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

Every mention by year

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.

Show	Role there	Eps	Statements	Record
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 →