I wear many hats. @NotreDame 2012. @KauffmanFellows Class 24.
Austin, TX
Joined June 2011
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My latest, where I discuss:
- My first podcast appearance, as a shameless plug
- Investment diligence being a mosaic, and not overweighting the quantitative
- Working through creative blocks
open.substack.com/pub/petert…
Where did “legible to capital” come from, and how did it become the catchphrase for VC in 2026?
"Man, this market is crazy consensus oriented. You better be hot or just not raise money I guess?"
"It's about being legible to capital. It's this new thing."
"For sure, VCs still invest in crazy frontier stuff. Everyone we know is on the frontier. AI, Robotics, you know. Infrastructure, apparently."
"Basically, if it's not clear that you can raise a 4-5x Series A from a tier 1, we can't underwrite your Seed. That's just our responsibility to LPs."
"No, no. It's about YOUR downstream funding risk, not OUR markups. We can't invest in companies that can't raise money."
"Yeah, you'll need a platform firm on your cap table because exits are super hard right now."
"I don't know,valuations keep crashing when companies go public. Nobody really understands it but it's not our problem, haha."
"Yeah, we'll take secondaries in big uprounds but it's not that we've got any less conviction in you. It's just about derisking, for us."
"Yeah it sucks man but there's really nothing we can do about it. Gotta play the game on the field."
Backing people you like, and who also understand portfolio construction math, can take you far.
When that gut feeling hits though—it’s more valuable than any rubric or scorecard. All my investing regrets have come from going against that grain.
We've tried to build checklists and rubrics to identify exceptional GPs and it just doesn't work. The managers I've backed have almost nothing in common on paper...different backgrounds, different paths, different levels of prior experience, different playbooks.
But the one thing they all share is I walked out of the first meeting feeling a strong pull towards them, like I'm compelled to spend more time with them. It's a gut feeling we then stress-test with some desktop work and a ton of references. But the feeling comes first, and no rubric could capture it. If a manager pulls me in like that, they probably have a similar effect on founders.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
lots of chatter recently regarding vc ecosystem shakeup. here is how i see the current playing field, there are 3 buckets of companies:
1) fragile formation. where typical seed & trad A strategies play but now nearly every firm has a formation strategy. here capital buys option value while a company searches for PMF, a repeatable growth engine, and the evidence required for institutional sponsorship. nonetheless, S-tier vibes can certainly supersede S-tier traction at this stage which most certainly will vault you to #2. in software & services (i cant speak credibly on hard tech), cumulative primary capital below roughly $15–20M is a conservative proxy but a company should only need <$5-10M to reach bucket #2.
2) sponsored scale. a small set of designated winners that can access much larger $$$ checks (healthy 8-9 figures, some now reaching 10-figs), raise repeatedly, dilute less per round, and use capital itself as a competitive weapon. *you are officially in the t1 vc vortex*. big firms buy up while seed firms that had formation access now need to be as shrewd at selling as they were at buying.
3) unsponsored middle. companies may have real products and revenue but no deep pocketed sponsor. they are not a stable third market; they are inventory seeking a bridge, profitability, recapitalization, M&A, or renewed sponsorship. but the biggest concern here is not that they get a subpar follow-on round outcome, or a flat round even, where price/terms are an issue, it is the reality that they get no round at all. i've also seen many pre-A founders proudly 'get off the vc train' but much to the chagrin of their formation stage investors who prefer they swing for the fences.. its arguably worse than going to zero in many cases.
perhaps these have always been the vc market dynamics but currently it does feel more exaggerated & binary than anything i've witnessed in the last 10 years. personally i don't agree that the current dynamics reflect a 'more efficient' ecosystem, esp as the sponsored scale class is being anointed earlier and earlier into a company timeline at the cost of competitive field whose journeys to scale may not be as 'legible' in the first 24-36 months. companies will die faster, be sold faster and scale faster than ever before. i'd suspect higher loss rates for the vc class, offset by greater grand slams, but majority will only experience the former as proactive portfolio construction will lag present-day market conditions & will need to be recalibrated over coming years. the founders who take their company capitalization as seriously as product dev, GTM, team building, etc., will be better positioned to navigate what is likely to be a continued topsy-turvy market over the coming years.
nobody can tell you what is temporary or what is permanent, let's see, but this is what it looks like today.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
We continue to expand our investment team across deep/frontier tech investing @CompoundVC .
I am biased but think it's an n of 1 opportunity to help build and grow a firm with the right amount of capital to be top 5% in the world, a unique investing mandate across early-stage venture + public equities, a high amount of autonomy, and an obsession with the craft of investing and life.
DM me if you're curious.
Happy 250th, to the aerospace republic. Greatest country in the universe.
Happy 250th, America! 🇺🇸
Red (Mars), white (Moon), and blue (Earth) brought to you by the solar system.
ALT A crisp photo of Mars against black space. The Red Planet appears rust-colored with dark texturing along its middle and a light patch on its lower right side. Credit: USGS Astrogeology Science Center
ALT A newly-released photo of our Moon taken by the crew of Artemis II. The top portion is shadowed by black space. This angle captures a mostly uniform, light gray portion of the lunar surface, with darker patches in the lower third. Craters of various sizes are visible all over the Moon’s surface—most easily visible at the edge of the upper shadow. Credit: NASA
ALT A newly-released photo of Earth's horizon taken during the Artemis II mission from the window of the Orion spacecraft. This view shows the hazy, blue atmosphere on top of faded, textured clouds. The Moon appears as a tiny, white dot in the distance. Credit: NASA
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Peter Teneriello retweeted
Rock on USA. Rock on NYC. 250 years of pulling many of the world’s brightest under one roof and letting them push the frontier forward. Long may it continue. 🇺🇸
Peter Teneriello retweeted
“…here people spend as if there were no tomorrow. The implicit trust in the future is infinite.”
A positively Tocquevillian observation by this Argentine visiting the US during the World Cup. The implicit trust in the future is infinite 🇺🇸
Estamos explorando un pueblito costero en Delaware del que nunca habríamos escuchado si no nos hubieran invitado y la sensación que tengo es que la riqueza que hay en cualquier parte en Estados Unidos es realmente increíble, muy difícil de procesar para cualquier extranjero. Los suburbios nunca se terminan, la infraestructura está en otro nivel, hay mucho espacio para todos, la comodidad reina en la vida cotidiana (sí, el urbanismo local es terrible, pero ese es otro tema). Al mismo tiempo todo se siente nuevo, muy poco se siente heredado. No es casual que estén llenos todos los estadios aún con precios astronómicos en partidos aleatorios; si los extranjeros no compran, los locales copan todo. Un tamaño enorme, una economía relativamente libre y una sociedad amiga del riesgo configuran un mundo en sí mismo. Porque además de tener con qué, hay que querer gastar; y acá la gente gasta como si no hubiera un mañana. La confianza implícita en el futuro es infinita.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
Work hard on things you think are interesting with people that you like.
There will always be lottery winners. Optimising your life around buying tickets is a pretty guaranteed way to end up unfulfilled.
The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen.
Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope AI estimation).
Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there.
Worse yet, layoffs are in full swing. Many software engineers feel like their life's skill is no longer useful. The day to day role of most jobs has changed overnight with AI.
As a result,
1. The corporate ladder looks like the wrong building to climb.
Everyone's trying to align with a new set of career "paths": should I be a founder? Is it too late to join Anthropic / OpenAI? should I get into AI? what company stock will 10x next? People are demanding higher salaries and switching jobs more and more.
2. There’s a deep malaise about work (and its future).
Why even work at all for “peanuts”? Will my job even exist in a few years? Many feel helpless. You hear the “permanent underclass” conversation a lot, esp from young people. It's hard to focus on doing good work when you think "man, if I joined Anthropic 2yrs ago, I could retire"
3. The mid to late middle managers feel paralyzed.
Many have families and don't feel like they have the energy or network to just "start a company". They don't particularly have any AI skills. They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies.
4. The rich aren’t particularly happy either.
No one is shedding tears for them (and rightfully so). But those who have "made it" experience a profound lack of purpose too. Some have gone from <$150k to >$50M in a few years with no ramp. It flips your life plans upside down. For some, comparison is the thief of joy. For some, they escape to NYC to "live life". For others still, they start companies "just cuz", often to win status points. They never imagined that by age 30, they'd be set. I once asked a post-economic founder friend why they didn't just sell the co and they said "and do what? right now, everyone wants to talk to me. if i sell, I will only have money."
I understand that many reading this scoff at the champagne problems of the valley. Society is warped in this tech bubble. What is often well-off anywhere else in the world is bang average here.
Unlike many other places, tenure, intelligence and hard work can be loosely correlated with outcomes in the Bay. Living through a societally transformative gold rush in that environment can be paralyzing. "Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?" It psychologically torments many who have moved here in search of "success".
Ironically, a frequent side effect of this torment is to spin up the very products making everyone rich in hopes that you too can vibecode your path to economic enlightenment.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
Have been saying this for so long that I’ve been feeling like a broken record-
Shrinking and consolidating
The VC board is being completely reset. Better know which game you’re playing…
I’m really excited to share that I’m joining Benchmark.
The past two years as a full time investor have been the most rewarding of my career. I really love venture capital, which is not something I ever imagined I’d say when I was kid, but here we are.
I love new ideas and being part of a team with a mission. I love getting to be there for people who are struggling towards goals they really care about. I love learning from people who are better CEOs than I ever was. I love the texture of the work, the competition, and the way the job lets you invest in relationships.
I love it so much that I’ve even turned into a little venture nerd with a podcast who goes around harassing great investors and founders, trying to learn as much as I can as fast as possible. I’ve certainly learned what I care most about, and what kind of investor I want to be.
What I’ve realized is that I love investing at the Series A, when there’s enough going on that an investor can be useful but not so much that you can’t have an impact. I think there are many amazing ways to practice venture, it’s just the way that most speaks to me. And as I came to realize that, I started to think about how to best set myself up to do that craft as well as possible. It became clear to me there is nowhere better for this than Benchmark; the way they’re structured, their principles, their overall approach to investing, and their track record all create an environment that I believe will let me do my best work as an investor and help founders the most I possibly can.
As I’ve gotten to know the team at Benchmark I’ve come to admire so much about each of them. Peter is truly playing his own game. A lot of what he says sounds like poetry at first, but as the ideas roll around in your head for a while you realize how much depth they have. I first heard about Eric many years ago from my friend Saji at Benchling while I was building Lattice, who described him as the most amazing board member and attributed him with a lot of the company’s success. That’s the kind of partner I want to be one day. Chetan is brilliant and truly thinks for himself; I’ve realized over time what a courageous guy he is. And then there’s my friend Ev, whose skills complement mine and who I just love to be around. I can’t wait to have him as a partner in crime.
When given the chance to work with this group I just knew I had to go.
One of my motivating north stars with Alt Capital was to build a firm and be a partner that I most would have wanted as an entrepreneur. Although I haven’t gotten everywhere I want to be yet, I’m proud of the work so far. And now I’m excited to build on that work at Benchmark, where I hope to increase my rate of learning and get armed with the power of a partnership so I can help founders reach their dreams even more.
Thank you to the companies who’ve let me invest with them at Alt Cap. I’m keeping all my board seats and supporting everyone just the same as before.
Thank you to the LPs who’ve backed me as well. I am so excited about the portfolio we have and am grateful I can stick with all those companies.
And finally thank you to my teammates, Bala, Vivek, and Nate. Bala took a bet on me and started investing with me before it was remotely obvious, and we’ve been able to grow so much figuring it out together as investors. I credit Nate with helping Alt start feeling like a firm. He joined us from First Round over a year ago and made everything run smoothly. And while Vivek joined just a little while ago, even in the short time we’ve worked together he’s had a meaningful impact on how we think and invest. They’re all joining Benchmark with me.
So pumped for this chapter.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
(New Essay) VC-Backed Startups are Low Status
The traditional VC-backed startup path is becoming low status in the same way investment banking did. An aesthetic collapse across institutions, ideas, and founders paired with the world's tiring of tech has recently accelerated this shift.
Some thoughts on the cascade, the generational divide, Anthropic vs. OpenAI, what comes next, and more.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
The older I get, the more I think outstanding taste in people is the only real alpha.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
I had some time to think recently about plans for the future and found myself working on woefully short term horizons. We've reprogrammed the world to think barely 5 feet in front of our face and i think there is increasingly a huge edge in taking the long term view.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
something worth noticing about every great investor, every great founder, is that they end up inventing an entirely new set of vocabulary to describe their work.
they are all incredible verbal map makers across fields and contexts. really unique skill.
Peter Teneriello retweeted
The first and only in-depth profile of Greenoaks founder Neil Mehta, including interviews with Neil, Benny Peretz, Bom Kim, Henry Kravis, @parkerconrad, @zoink , and more
So much to learn from Neil. Available now @joincolossus
Peter Teneriello retweeted
Today’s conversation with @GrahamDuncanNYC is going to make you think about your life in a variety of new ways:
- starting an investing platform
- source, compulsion, grip
- levels of the investing game
- evaluating people
One of, if not THE, best I’ve recorded
Enjoy!
I’ve joined Pomifer Capital as their first hire.
I’ll be helping build a new investing platform from the ground-up, with a focus on partnering with private equity and venture capital managers.
As I’ve written in the past, I’ll still be looking for artists: the people who invest with creativity and conviction, helping clear paths for the companies they back.
If you’re interested in learning more, please reach out.
pomifercapital.com/
Peter Teneriello retweeted
“Be guided by beauty. Just as a great theorem can be very beautiful, a company that’s really working very well, very efficiently, that can be beautiful.”
Attractors are everywhere. They can sometimes make you rich.
Jim Simons's five principles (RIP):
“Be guided by beauty. Just as a great theorem can be very beautiful, a company that’s really working very well, very efficiently, that can be beautiful.
Surround yourself with the smartest and best people you possibly can. Let them do their thing. Don’t sit on top of them. If they’re smarter than you, all the better.
Do something original. Don’t run with the pack. If everyone is trying to solve the same problem ... don’t do that.
Don’t give up easily. Stick with it. Stick with it not forever, but really give it a chance to get where you’re going.
The final principle is hope for good luck.
That’s the most important principle"