Logan Bartlett is a General Partner at Redpoint Ventures and host of The Logan Bartlett Show (formerly Cartoon Avatars). He is known for his candid, sometimes contrarian views on the venture ecosystem, his focus on "unsexy" enterprise software, and his ability to extract tactical advice from world-class founders.
On Venture Capital Strategy
- "Consensus is the enemy of returns."
Great investments often look like bad ideas at the time. If everyone agrees a deal is hot, the price is likely bid up, removing the potential for outsized returns.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - The "Barbell Theory" of VC Firms
"There’s a barbell approach to venture... you must be very small or very large. Anything in the middle is going to die." Mid-sized firms struggle to compete with the resources of the giants (like Andreessen Horowitz) or the agility of boutique funds.
Source: Interview with Turner Novak - "The VC Nightmare Scenario"
"There’s a whole world of firms with generational returns in the rear view mirror, but are dead looking forward." Past returns from a different era (e.g., pre-2022) can mask the fact that a firm has been disrupted by new players and changing market dynamics.
Source: Newcomer Newsletter - Bubbles Lay Infrastructure
"Bubbles generally lay the infrastructure for enabling technologies." Just as the dot-com bubble laid the fiber optic cables for the modern internet, the AI or crypto bubbles often fund the hardware and protocols for the next wave of utility.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - Market Cycles - Market > Product > Team
While many VCs say "team first," Bartlett often argues that a great market pulls product out of a startup. A great team in a bad market will almost always fail, but a mediocre team in a great market can sometimes succeed.
Source: Redpoint Ventures Investment Philosophy - "Unsexy" is Profitable
Bartlett has a thesis around investing in "unsexy" industries like law enforcement (Flock Safety) or corporate spend (Ramp) where technology is severely outdated but budgets are massive.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - VCs as "Information Routers"
The primary value of a VC isn't operating your company; it's routing information. They see thousands of data points across their portfolio and can tell you "what normal looks like."
Source: SaaStr Interview - The "At Sign" Identity
There is "Logan" and there is "@Redpoint."[1][2][3] Founders need to distinguish between the individual partner's brand and the firm's brand. The best investors leverage the firm to get in the room but win the deal on their own merit.
Source: Turpentine VC Interview
On Hiring & Team Building
- "Interviewing is orthogonal to execution."
Being good at interviewing does not mean someone is good at doing the job.[4] In fact, professional interviewers are often poor executors.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - The "Champion/Veto" System
In hiring, you need at least one person who is a "Hell Yes" (Champion) to hire someone. If everyone is just "lukewarm positive," don't hire. Conversely, anyone on the interview loop should have "Veto" power if they see a red flag.
Source: WSJ Startup of the Year Interview - Reference Checks are 80% of the Process
You learn far more from back-channel references than from the interview itself. Ask peers, "How do they show up in meetings?" and "How do they handle conflict?"
Source: Discussion with Andy Price - "Soak Time"
You cannot close a senior executive in a 30-minute Zoom. You need "soak time"—dinners, long walks, and unstructured time to understand their psychology and fit.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - Don't Hire for the "Badge"
Founders often get excited about hiring someone from a "brand name" company (e.g., "The VP of Sales from Google"). But big company executives often fail at startups because they are used to having infrastructure, not building it.
Source: Redpoint Ventures Blog - Hire "Spiky" Candidates
Look for people who are exceptional at one specific thing relevant to the role, even if they have weaknesses elsewhere. "Well-rounded" candidates are often average at everything.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - The 90-Day Impact Rule
If an executive hasn't made a meaningful impact in their first 90 days, they likely never will. The "ramp up" period is often an excuse for poor fit.[4]
Source: Flock Safety Episode Takeaways
On Fundraising & Finance
- "Control Your Own Destiny"
The most important thing for a founder is to never run out of cash. Fundraising is not a milestone to celebrate; it's a necessary evil to buy time to build.
Source: Vintage Investment Partners Interview - Purchase-Ready vs. Investment-Ready Metrics
Founders often optimize metrics for investors (e.g., "top-line growth"). But you should optimize for "purchase-ready" metrics—cash flow, burn rate, and unit economics that prove the business works.
Source: SaaS Metrics Discussion - The "Rule of 40" is Real
For software companies, Growth Rate + Profit Margin should equal 40% or more. If you are below this, you are burning too much for too little growth.
Source: SaaS Metrics Interview - "Name Your Price"
The top 0.01% of companies (high growth + high efficiency) can effectively name their price in private markets. Everyone else is subject to market gravity.
Source: Cooley VC Update - Dilution is Permanent
"You can never undo equity splits once you start." The cap table you set at the beginning defines the incentives for the life of the company.
Source: Turpentine VC Interview - Understanding "Burn Multiples"
It's not just about how much you burn, but how much ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) you generate for every dollar burned. A burn multiple under 1.5x is good; over 3x is dangerous.
Source: Redpoint Ventures Blog - Valuation Lag
"Private markets are a lagging indicator." Public markets price instantly; private markets can take 6-12 months to reflect reality. Founders raising in a downturn need to accept the new reality before their cash runs out.
Source: SaaStr Interview
On Startup Operations & Execution
- "Storytelling is a Superpower"
The ability to tell a compelling story is what attracts capital, talent, and customers. It is the single highest-leverage skill a CEO can have.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - "Don't Bring the Whole Ship"
When pivoting, you often need to change the team. The people who built the first failed product are rarely the right people to build the second one. "Sometimes you have to reset the company, not just pivot the product."
Source: The Worst Advice to Give Founders - Focus on "Non-Payroll Spend"
One of his biggest wins, Ramp, succeeded by targeting the massive market of corporate spend that isn't payroll. Finding these massive, boring line items on a P&L is a goldmine.
Source: Ramp Investment Memo - The "One-Way Door" Decision Framework
Differentiate between reversible decisions (two-way doors) and irreversible ones (one-way doors). Make reversible decisions fast; agonize over the irreversible ones.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show (General Theme) - "Founder Mode" vs. Manager Mode
Founders need to know when to dive into the details ("Founder Mode") and when to delegate. The best founders toggle between the two constantly.
Source: Episode with Parker Conrad - "Pain Killer vs. Vitamin"
In a downturn, CFOs cut "vitamins" (nice-to-haves). You must be a "pain killer" (mission-critical) to survive budget cuts.
Source: SaaStr Interview - Customer Success is Sales
"Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is the new growth." Keeping and expanding existing customers is far more efficient than acquiring new ones.
Source: SaaS Metrics Discussion - Board Meetings are Theatrics
Often, board meetings are "pageantry." The real work happens in the 1:1 calls before and after the meeting. Don't expect the board meeting itself to solve operational problems.
Source: Episode with Jeremy Levine
On Psychology & Leadership
- "The World Happens to You" (Investor) vs. "You Happen to the World" (Founder)
Investors are passive; they wait for opportunities to appear. Founders are active; they will things into existence. To succeed as a founder, you must believe you can bend reality.
Source: Turpentine VC Interview - "Uninformed Optimism"
"A fine line exists between uninformed confidence and recklessness." You need enough ego to believe you can win, but enough humility to listen to data.
Source: Episode with Marcus Ryu - The "Grind" Fallacy
"Silicon Valley lore says if you grind eternally, it will work. That's false." Most great companies work surprisingly early. If you are 4 years in and still grinding for Product-Market Fit, you might be dead.
Source: The Worst Advice to Give Founders - Loneliness of Leadership
"The highs are higher and the lows are lower for founders." VCs have a portfolio to dampen the volatility; founders feel every bump.
Source: Vintage Investment Partners Interview - Empathy for Founders
Having tried to run a media business (the podcast), Bartlett notes he is "far more empathetic to the elements of starting a company" and the pressure of needing to keep plowing ahead when lost.
Source: Fast Company Profile - "Twitter is a Video Game"
Social media is a game of engagement. You can play a character (like his "troll" persona) to build distribution, but don't confuse the game with reality.
Source: Fast Company Profile
Key "Learnings" from Specific Podcast Guests (Curated by Logan)
- From Parker Conrad (Rippling):
Build a "compound startup." Instead of focusing on one niche product, build multiple integrated products at once to own the underlying data platform.
Link: Ep 117 with Parker Conrad - From Todd McKinnon (Okta):
"Cloud is not just a delivery model; it’s a business model." You have to re-architect your entire sales and support org, not just your code.
Link: Ep 122 with Todd McKinnon - From Garrett Langley (Flock Safety):
"Most criminals are opportunistic, not evil." Understanding the psychology of your "adversary" (or customer) is key to product design.
Link: Ep 99 with Garrett Langley - From Josh Reeves (Gusto):
"Do unscalable things." Gusto hand-delivered payroll checks and donuts to early customers to build trust in a low-trust industry.
Link: Ep 111 with Josh Reeves - From Marc Benioff (Salesforce):
"AI agents will handle 50% of conversations." The future of SaaS is agentic—software that does the work, not just software that helps you do the work.
Link: Ep 149 with Marc Benioff - From Ali Ghodsi (Databricks):
"Open source is the ultimate distribution hack." You give away the code to get the market standard, then monetize the enterprise features.
Link: Ep 124 with Ali Ghodsi - From Drew Houston (Dropbox):
"The 30, 300, 3000 rule." The company breaks and needs to be rebuilt at 30 employees, 300 employees, and 3000 employees. What worked at one stage will kill you at the next.
Link: Ep 119 with Drew Houston
Miscellaneous Wisdom
- "It’s better to be Donald Trump than Jeb Bush."
In the context of VC branding: Being polarizing and loud (Trump) is better than being boring and "safe" (Bush). You need to stand out to win deals in a crowded market.
Source: Newcomer Newsletter - The Podcast Advantage
"If the market stayed the way it was in 2021, I wouldn’t have had the time to dedicate to [the podcast]." A downturn is the best time to build brand and relationships because the noise is lower.
Source: Fast Company Profile - "Gossip is Utility"
In the tech world, knowing who is raising, who is hiring, and who is struggling is not just gossip—it's market intelligence.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - On Work-Life Balance
"You can't take life too seriously, you won't make it out alive." A reminder to maintain perspective amidst the high pressure of startups.
Source: Turpentine VC Interview - The "Zero Sum" Nature of VC
"Venture capital is a zero-sum game." Only one firm can lead the Series A of the next Facebook. This necessitates sharp elbows and competitive differentiation.
Source: Turpentine VC Interview - Avoid "Tourism" Investing
Don't invest in sectors you don't understand just because they are hot (e.g., Crypto in 2021). Stick to where you have an "earned secret."
Source: Redpoint Ventures Blog - "History Doesn't Repeat, But It Rhymes"
Studying the railroad boom or the dot-com bubble provides the best roadmap for understanding the current AI boom. Human nature and market psychology remain constant.
Source: The Logan Bartlett Show - Market Cycles
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