The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified Investor Stories 474: Trusting Your Own Point of View, Why Conventional Wisdom Leads to Mediocrity, and Building a Personal Conviction Engine (Byunn, Levine, Dillon)
May 7, 2026
Seth Levine, venture partner at Foundry Group who champions calm, long-term thinking, and Eric Byunn, growth investor at Centana Growth who pushes for a differentiated point of view. They discuss trusting contrarian perspectives. They urge relaxing amid hype and building a personal conviction engine by seeing lots of companies and spotting repeat patterns.
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Trust Your Contrarian Point Of View
- Trusting conventional wisdom leads to mediocre outcomes in investing.
- Eric Byunn argues alpha comes from taking a different point of view while still weighing colleagues' feedback.
Relax And Control What You Can
- Relax and avoid reacting to hype; make the best decision with the information you have in the moment.
- Seth Levine advises new investors to breathe, accept control limits, and remember venture is largely influence and opinion.
Early Investment Returned Half The Fund
- Seth Levine recounts an early investment that returned over half the fund after years of fits and starts.
- That outcome taught him resilience and that not every company path is linear yet can still be a big winner.