JT

Janelle Teng

Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners

San Francisco, California

VC
Investor

Invests in

Stages:

Series B

  • Min Investment:

    $1,000,000.00

  • Max Investment:

    $250,000,000.00

  • Target Investment:

    $25,000,000.00

Skills

Strategy
Management Consulting
Analytics
Leadership
Social Media
Data Analysis
Business Strategy
Entrepreneurship
Market Research
Analysis
Economics
Microsoft Excel
Research
Microsoft Office
PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint

Education

Investments

TurbineOne

Series A

Total Funding: $18M

Work Experience

Bessemer Venture Partners

2020

  • Vice President

    2020

    Early-stage AI/ML apps, data infrastructure, defense tech, and developer tooling Board director or observer: Claroty, CoactiveAI, Databook, Netlify, Render, TurbineOne, Virtru

SalesforceIQ

2016 - 2018

  • Product Manager

    2016 - 2018

    07/16-06/17 Led product strategy and ops for SalesforceIQ 06/17-02/18 Led mobile development (iOS and Android apps) for Salesforce Inbox

McKinsey & Company

2014 - 2016

  • Senior Business Analyst

    2014 - 2016

McKinsey & Company

2013 - 2013

  • Business Analyst (Summer)

    2013 - 2013

Latest Articles

Substack•Aug. 2024

print(“Hello AI World”): Evolution of the developer economy in the age of AI

developer tools
data infrastructure
AI in coding
abstraction in software development
democratization of software development
Substack•Jul. 2024

Eschewing IPOs: What happens when SaaS companies stay private for longer

SaaS IPOs
Klaviyo IPO
Rubrik IPO
OneStream S-1 filing
maturity trend in IPOs
Substack•Jul. 2024

Navigating creative destruction and potential diminishing returns in AI infrastructure

AI investment landscape
AI fundraising trends
evaluation approaches for AI companies
AI snake oil
AI systems and infrastructure
Substack•Jun. 2024

SaaS: Have reports of my death been greatly exaggerated?

SaaS industry challenges
AI disruption in software
public SaaS companies performance
future of SaaS
AI-powered services
Substack•Jun. 2024

State of the Cloud 2024

AI Cloud
language models
venture capital
foundation models
cloud computing
Substack•Jun. 2024

Next Big Takeaways from Databricks Data + AI Summit and Apple WWDC 2024

Apple World Wide Developer Conference
Databricks Data + AI Summit
AI interoperability
Lakehouse architecture
Unity Catalog
Substack•Jun. 2024

Roadmap: AI Infrastructure

AI infrastructure
machine learning
data stack
AI-native startups
transformer models
Substack•May 2024

Seven product strategies to prevent churn for B2B AI app leaders

ChatGPT
AI adoption
B2C AI apps
User retention
Churn
Substack•Apr. 2024

Moving from AI Assistants to AI Agents

AI productivity gains
enterprise AI adoption
generative AI
AI assistants
AI agents
Substack•Mar. 2024

TurbineOne: On a mission to modernize the military’s processing and exploitation capabilities into a holistic and efficient system

national security
AI and ML in defense
TurbineOne
data processing in military
military intelligence
Substack•Mar. 2024

Did growth endurance endure?

software industry growth
SentinelOne
public software companies
cloud businesses
growth endurance
Substack•Mar. 2024

When free-cash-flow margins don't tell the full story

efficiency in 2023
venture capital
cloud computing
software company profitability
free cash flow (FCF)
Substack•Feb. 2024

Small models, big impact: SLMs vs. LLMs

small language models
SLMs vs LLMs
HuggingFace
Mistral MoE
Zephyr-7B
Substack•Feb. 2024

Cracking the consumer investing code: High-risk, high-reward 

VC investing trends
consumer vs. enterprise investing
B2B investments
consumer tech challenges
market dynamics
Substack•Jan. 2024

Roadmap: Defense Tech

defense technology
startups in defense
Department of Defense (DOD)
AI/ML in defense
cybersecurity
Substack•Jan. 2024

AI’s Linux Moment (Chapter 2): Recent highlights of the open-source vs. closed-source model debate

AI innovation
open-source AI models
closed-source AI models
AI performance gap
knowledge sharing
Substack•Jan. 2024

Five Software M&A Observations for 2024

software M&A
Airtable acquisition
SentinelOne acquisition
take-private deals
M&A multiples
Substack•Dec. 2023

SaaSy Predictions for 2024

cloud computing challenges in 2023
AI advancements in 2023
AI in venture capital
valuation reset in startups
AI regulations and governance
Substack•Dec. 2023

Unicorns are dead. Long live Unicorns!

startup shutdowns
VC-backed companies
unicorn companies
venture capital funding
AI unicorns
Substack•Nov. 2023

Seven SaaS resiliency lessons for doing business in a volatile market

software industry challenges
macroeconomic uncertainty
SaaS resilience
customer acquisition and expansion
pricing strategy
Substack•Nov. 2023

The recent waning of the founder-CEO premium… but why I’m still bullish in the long-run

founder-CEO premium
market capitalization
BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index (EMCLOUD)
public markets
founder-led businesses
Substack•Oct. 2023

Schrödinger’s Startup Paradox: Locked inside the last round valuation box

Schrödinger’s paradox
quantum superposition
venture capital
SaaSacre 2022
private valuations
Substack•Sep. 2023

When the valuation hangover finally hits

Tech IPOs
ARM
Instacart
Klaviyo
public market valuation
Substack•Aug. 2023

SaaS IPO window inflection

IPO window
venture-backed tech companies
ARM
Instacart
Klaviyo
Substack•Aug. 2023

The Cloud 100 Benchmarks Report 2023

2023 Cloud 100 List
AI in cloud computing
Cloud company valuations
Generative AI
Design
Substack•Jul. 2023

Land vs. Expand: Growth formula shifts during downturns

cloud companies
software spend
net new ARR (NNARR)
new logo acquisition
existing customer expansion
Substack•Jun. 2023

Render ushers in a modern age of application development in the cloud

modern data stack
developer platform ecosystem
microservices
cloud application development
Render cloud platform
Substack•Jun. 2023

Growth-stage startup valuations: Guiding principles for comps selection

early-stage startup valuation
growth stage valuation
absolute value models
relative value methods
comparable company analysis
Substack•Jun. 2023

AI’s Linux Moment: Open LLM 'Davids' vs. Closed-Source 'Goliaths'

AI model layer
GenAI startups
closed-model companies
open-source AI
AI funding
Substack•May 2023

Consumption vs. subscription business models during downturns

cloud delivery
economic models for software businesses
subscription models
consumption-based models
metered usage
Substack•May 2023

AI Model Layer: The New Frontline of the Cloud Wars

cloud wars
Amazon AWS
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
artificial intelligence (AI)
Substack•Apr. 2023

The B2C2B osmosis fueling AI's Cambrian moment

AI ecosystem
Hugging Face
HuggingChat
OpenAI
ChatGPT Business
Substack•Apr. 2023

Contextualizing the growth vs. profitability trade-off for cloud companies

cloud valuations
Rule of 40
ARR growth rate
Free-Cash-Flow margin
profitability in cloud companies
Substack•Apr. 2023

State of the Cloud 2023

multiverse
technological changes
cloud economy
SaaS challenges
AI advancements
Substack•Apr. 2023

Unraveling stock-based compensation overhang in the SaaS industry (Part 2)

Stock-based compensation (SBC)
Valuation implications of SBC
Managing SBC impact
Software industry
Investment strategies
Substack•Mar. 2023

A CEO’s tactical guide to driving profitable growth

profitable growth
software profit and loss statement
gross margin
cloud hosting costs
customer success and support
Substack•Mar. 2023

Unleashing the full potential of unstructured visual content with Coactive AI

visual content
machine learning
unstructured data
Coactive AI
data-centric AI
Substack•Mar. 2023

Retroactive predictability of 2023’s Black Swan: SVB’s risk mismatch in 10 graphs

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) meltdown
startup ecosystem
Black Swan event
SVB balance sheet risks
tech industry concentration
Substack•Feb. 2023

Unraveling stock-based compensation overhang in the SaaS industry (Part 1)

Stock-based compensation (SBC)
Incentive tool
Financials flattering
Cloud companies
SaaS companies
Substack•Jan. 2023

Taking a "dirty" term sheet to preserve headline valuation: short-term gain for long-term pain?

SaaS predictions 2023
flat rounds
down rounds
structured financing
dirty term sheets
Substack•Dec. 2022

SaaSy Predictions for 2023

cloud economy
public cloud market
SaaS market trends
interest rate hikes
SaaS IPOs
Substack•Dec. 2022

Product metrics that matter the most: A flywheel framework for cloud business leaders

product metrics
financial data
early-stage start-ups
commercialization outlook
leading indicators
Substack•Dec. 2022

Scaling GTM from $25 to $50 million ARR

go-to-market strategy
scaling businesses
annual recurring revenue (ARR)
ideal customer profile (ICP)
sales processes
Substack•Nov. 2022

SaaSacre 2nd wave: Macro double squeeze

cloud market downturn
Federal Reserve interest rate hikes
BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index
cloud company layoffs
investment multiples
Substack•Oct. 2022

Roadmap: The rise of synthetic media

Bessemer's Generative AI roadmap
Jasper AI Content Platform
synthetic media
AI-generated content
user-generated content (UGC)
Substack•Sep. 2022

2Q22 Cloud Earnings Recap

BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index (EMCLOUD)
FYQ2 earnings
Federal Reserve rate hike
forward revenue multiple
cloud fundamentals
Substack•Sep. 2022

Software powering the PLG era

product-led growth (PLG) business model
software categories
hybrid PLG/sales strategy
product-led sales (PLS)
PLG go-to-market (GTM) toolkits
Substack•Aug. 2022

Rule of 40 valuation premium: The relative impact of each efficiency score component

capital efficiency
cloud markets
efficiency score
Rule of 40
ARR growth
Substack•Aug. 2022

The Centaur Report

cloud businesses
annual recurring revenue (ARR)
Centaur milestone
Cloud 100
market conditions
Substack•Aug. 2022

The 2022 Cloud 100 Benchmarks

Cloud 100 List
private cloud companies
valuations
Centaur milestone
ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)