Andrew Peterson's First Pitch for Signal Sciences (web application security platform, $775M exit)

"If you really knew how hard it was going to be, how many people would actually start a company? It's masochistic." Andrew Peterson had no cybersecurity background when his former Etsy colleagues recruited him to run Signal Sciences. He took it from zero to $100M run rate and sold it to Fastly in 2020, after closing a seed round in about two weeks with no deck, and raising $9.8M while competitors raised $25M. Today he's a founding GP at Aviso Ventures, backing pre-seed and seed enterprise and infrastructure founders. He tells Patrick and Somrat what he now looks for, why "there's an opportunity in AI" isn't a reason to start a company, and what he'd have told himself at the beginning. Chapters: 0:00 Trailer 1:07 Welcome & intro 1:29 From Etsy to a $775M exit 4:37 The co-founder relationship that made it work 10:47 Four months of convincing — and quitting with no plan 14:54 Why CEO is a job nothing prepares you for 17:56 The first pitch: one lunch, one term sheet 25:44 What he'd tell founders about pitching investors now 32:10 Two years to launch - the mistake he'd undo 35:50 The meeting where they knew it could be big 42:35 Raising $9.8M when competitors raised $25M 46:21 Deciding to sell to Fastly 50:53 What Aviso Ventures backs in the AI era