Byron Deeter
Partner, Bessemer Venture PartnersBytes · 6 appearances on the record.
computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →
82statements → 69claims → 45claims resolved → 89%fully supported → 3.9/5average certainty → 1.61/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 15said about them ↓
40 supported 4 partly supported 1 contradicted 24 not checkable as stated how the 69 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
26 predictions · 43 assertions · 3 opinions · 3 insights · 7 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 69 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 45 are resolved, and 24 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Byron argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Expressed certainty vs assessment result
weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Byron Deeter on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Byron Deeter said on the Official SaaStr Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
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,…”
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.”
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: Canva and other private cloud companies will cross $1B ARR
“There are private cloud companies that now have line of sight, or in Canva's case and a few others, will be crossing the billion dollar ARR mark while still private.”
Deeter: Cloud will become dominant delivery model for all software in 3 years
“And we do believe that within the next three years, cloud will become the dominant delivery model for all of software in this enabled cloud first world.”
Deeter: Startups with fundraising momentum should prioritize speed over greed
“If you've got discussions underway and enough momentum to complete it, hit it hard and try to like finish immediately. And don't worry about optimizing price or valuation or terms bluntly, just get it done and think of that as speed over greed.”
Deeter: Investors will treat downturn quarters as a wash for funded startups
“The other thing though, for those of you operating businesses that are already funded and are thinking through plans is that you're going to get a hall pass on the next few quarters in, in terms of the numbers. Now that doesn't help you if you're in a fundrais…”
Deeter: The 2020 market crash is the fastest 30% decline in history
“This by contrast is the fastest 30% plus decline by the broad market in history. I mean, this beats the great depression, the oh, wait, the dot com, et cetera.”
Deeter: Bessemer takes zero courtesy meetings during downturn
“So we are taking no courtesy meetings right now or over the next several weeks. Any meeting we take, we legitimately think is interesting and could be an investment full stop.”
Deeter: Tech M&A will be extremely active and outpace IPOs in 2020
“I think the M&A market is going to be extremely active later this year and open much more aggressively than the IPO market will.”
Deeter: Public cloud industry will cross $1T market cap in a few years
“And if you extrapolate this, take 10, take a third off the growth rate, 10 full points of CAGR, we still have a line of sight to crossing that trillion dollar milestone in the next few years as an industry.”
Deeter: Stripe and Adyen will be multi-billion dollar successors
“Companies like Stripe and Adyen will certainly be multi-billion dollar successors.”
Deeter: SaaS applications will embed payments to expand TAM
“And so we absolutely believe That applications more and more are going to layer in payment capabilities and find that as an upsell driver that's a hidden gem and massively expand your market size as a result.”
Deeter: Screenless Interfaces Will Increasingly Drive Enterprise SaaS Success
“In enterprise applications, we absolutely believe that screen lists will increasingly lead to success.”
Deeter: The next wave of SaaS businesses will define the 2020s
“What you see is this next mountain of SaaS businesses being created that we believe will be the story of the next decade.”
Deeter: Cloud unicorns grew 74% year-over-year at over one per week
“And so, in just a one year time period, there was a 74% increase in cloud unicorns, and almost, ah, a new unicorn in the industry is being created per day right now, and in the cloud industry, it was at a rate of more than one per week.”
The other half of the tape: Byron Deeter's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 14 times in 10 episodes on the Official SaaStr Podcast. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Jason Lemkin 12Elisa Steele 1Christina Shen 1
Statements about Byron Deeter, by other people (1)
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 …”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2025 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
- What Happens When AI Kills Your SaaS Growth? Live Q&A with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
- 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 3 mentions in 1 episode
2023 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
- What SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin Really Thinks About AI, Sales & Lead Gen In 2024
- Is AI the Only Thing in SaaS that Anyone Cares About Anymore? AMA Part 1 w/ SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin
- What the Future of SaaS Holds with David Sacks, Founder & General Partner, Craft Ventures
- every mention in 2023, scene by scene →
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
Appearances (6)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| State of the Cloud 2021 with Bessemer Venture Partners | SaaStr Software Community | Oct 14, 2021 | 15m |
| The State of the Cloud: 2021 with Bessemer Venture Partners | SaaStr Software Community | Mar 14, 2021 | 19m |
| The Current State of Venture Capital and Cloud | SaaStr Software Community | Mar 27, 2020 | 41m |
| State of the Cloud 2019 from Bessemer Venture Partners | May 20, 2019 | 16m |
| State of the Cloud: 2018 Edition | May 3, 2018 | 19m |
| Bessemer Venture Partners: The State of the Cloud, 2017-2018 Edition | May 13, 2017 | 15m |