Byron Deeter

Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners

Byron Deeter, a partner in Bessemer’s Menlo Park, Calif. office, joined the firm in 2005. At Bessemer, he focuses on investments in the cloud-computing and Internet sectors. His investments at Bessemer include leading companies in online B2B marketing (Bizo); social-marketing platforms (Involver); enterprise talent management (Cornerstone OnDemand, IPO); online personalized retargeting (Criteo); marketing automation (Eloqua); financial-management and accounting applications (Intacct Corp.); social gaming (Playdom, acquired by Disney); cloud communications (Twilio); electronic signatures (DocuSign); content management (Box); and retail business intelligence (Retail Solutions). Prior to joining Bessemer, Byron was a successful entrepreneur, investor and consultant. He most recently worked as an executive at IBM after the company’s 2004 acquisition of Trigo Technologies, the cloud-computing company he co-founded in 1999. At Trigo, Byron served as founding president & CEO, then became vice-president of business development as the company grew to profitability, amassed 150 employees and logged a $40+ million revenue run-rate. Bessemer worked closely with Byron and the executive team after Trigo’s founding and invested in all institutional financing rounds. Prior to Trigo, Byron worked in private equity with TA Associates, where he focused on the software sector and invested in companies such as Kintana (acquired by Mercury Interactive). He came to TA from McKinsey & Co., where he was involved with Fortune 500 clients in the media and technology industries, and was active in McKinsey’s innovation and technology-management practice. Byron holds a B.A. degree with honors from U.C. Berkeley in political economy. He was named a California Emerging Leader Scholar and an Alumni Scholar, and was a varsity member of Cal’s national championship rugby team. Byron is the co-author of “Bessemer’s 10 Laws of Cloud Computing and SaaS”, the BVP cloud index, BVP’s cloudscape and BVP’s next cloud unicorns. Byron was named to the Forbes Midas List in 2012, 2013, and 2014 and was also named one of the “power players” of venture capital by AlwaysOn in 2013 and 2014 to the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s 40 under 40.

Articles by Byron Deeter

How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...

7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself

Learn the 7 steps to product-led growth (PLG) to build a product that sells itself. Drive activation, boost conversions, and scale efficiently with Wes Bush from ProductLed....
Balancing self-care and startup pressure as a founder

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Startup Guide to AI Visibility Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI Automation for Startup Operations

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...

Scroll to Top