Peterson Ventures

Ben Capell runs day-to-day investment decisions as Managing Director. He has been with the firm since inception, raising all three funds and leading investments into six unicorns. Partners Ilana Stern and Taylor Jones share investment committee duties, with Stern focused on consumer brands and Jones bringing startup operator experience to enterprise software deals.

The firm sources from non-coastal founder networks and relationships tied to the broader Peterson Partners private equity platform. Partner Ilana Stern's Stanford GSB lectureship and the team's concentration of Brigham Young University and Harvard Business School alumni create pipeline access to both West Coast and Intermountain West founders. Peterson Ventures does not publicly disclose a dedicated sourcing team beyond its general partners.

Peterson Ventures is the seed-stage venture arm of Peterson Partners, a Salt Lake City private equity firm founded by Clint Peterson. It raises discretionary capital from institutional and family office limited partners rather than managing a single-family balance sheet. The firm's SEC registration as an asset manager and its partnership structure align it with traditional venture funds, not single-family office models.

The firm's public portfolio and strategy descriptions reference only direct seed-stage checks, with follow-on capital for existing portfolio companies. There is no disclosed fund-of-funds program or co-investment vehicle for backing external GPs. The strategy stays concentrated on first institutional money into company founding rounds.

The firm targets seed stage, explicitly positioning as the first institutional capital into startups. The portfolio shows follow-on participation in later rounds for select companies, but the primary check size and entry point remain at the seed round. There is no disclosed Series A-only or growth-stage vehicle.

The firm's public materials do not list sector exclusions beyond what is absent from its portfolio, which shows no investments in hard tech, space, defense, or biotech. Observed positions concentrate in digital-first businesses — enterprise SaaS, AI/ML, fintech, insurtech, and consumer brands — suggesting deliberate avoidance of capital-intensive hardware, therapeutic R&D, and infrastructure plays.

Peterson Ventures is the dedicated venture capital arm within Peterson Partners, a private equity firm based in Salt Lake City. The two teams share offices, back-office functions, and a CFO/CCO, but operate distinct investment strategies: Peterson Ventures writes seed-stage technology and consumer checks, while Peterson Partners pursues control-oriented middle-market buyouts. Clint Peterson, founder of the parent platform, holds a Managing Partner role but does not appear on the Ventures investment team page, suggesting operational separation between the two strategies.