Benchmark GP, Victor Lazarte: The 3 Traits All the Best Founders Have

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

April 14, 2025

Duration

1h 12m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Victor Lazarte is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the mot renowned venture firms in the world. At Benchmark, Victor has led deals into the likes of HeyGen and Mercor. As an angel, he was the first investor and board member of Brex, and as a Founder he scaled Wildlife Studios, bootstrapping into the largest gaming company in LatAm, with about 4 billion downloads. ---------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 01:03 Lessons Scaling Wildlife Studios to 4BN Downloads 04:14 Why Predicting the Future is Wrong When Starting a Company 08:30 Three Different Categories of Company in an AI World: Who Wins & Loses? 18:38 Two Traits That All the Best Founders Have? 19:27 Why You Should Always Ask What a Founder Does in Their Free Time? 23:22 Why If You Start a Company in SF You are 1,000x More Likely to be Successful? 28:02 Why Spreadsheet SaaS Investing is Dead 30:14 Why Knowledge Work Will Be Destroyed and What Happens Then? 39:41 Why Replacing Humans is the Most Exciting Opportunity in AI 43:44 China vs. US: The AI Race 49:44 Why All Students Today Should Study Computer Science 01:05:22 Why Portfolio Construction is BS 01:07:48 Quick-Fire Round 01:08:15 What Makes Peter Fenton One of the Best Ever 01:09:48 Why Duolingo Will Be One of the Most Valuable Companies in the World ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on X: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Victor Lazarte on X: https://twitter.com/victoralazarte Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #victorlazarte #gp #benchmark #founder #lessons #peterfenton #ai #futureofai #computerscience

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Victor Lazarte

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Victor Lazarte and Harry Stebbings, Benchmark GP, Victor Lazarte: The 3 Traits All the Best Founders Have explores benchmark’s Vitor Lazarte Reveals AI’s Future and Founder Superpowers Vitor Lazarte, ex-bootstrapped gaming founder and now Benchmark GP, discusses how market timing, AI, and founder traits shape outlier companies and investments. He argues the best startup ideas come from deeply understanding what’s already working (e.g., LLMs) and building powerful adjacencies, especially around AI agents and companions.

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