Victor Lazarte

Who they are

Victor Lazarte is a General Partner at Benchmark — he co-founded Wildlife Studios in 2011, scaling it to over 3 billion downloads and a $3 billion valuation before crossing to venture.

Person

Victor Lazarte joined Benchmark in 2023, stepping into one of venture's most partner-constrained firms — roughly 5-6 GPs investing around $500M per fund, with a portfolio spanning Uber, Twitter, eBay, and Snap. He trained as an engineer simultaneously at CentraleSupélec and Universidade de São Paulo (USP), graduating in 2009, then went into European credit derivatives at Goldman Sachs and later credit trading at JPMorgan — an unusual detour that wired him for capital markets before he pivoted to building. In 2011 he co-founded Wildlife Studios, a mobile gaming company out of Brazil that grew into one of the world's largest in the category, with hits including Tennis Clash, Zooba, Sniper 3D, and Colorfy, over 3 billion downloads, and a valuation reaching $3 billion. The through-line is betting on emerging platforms before consensus: mobile gaming in Brazil before Western VCs were watching, and now early-stage AI infrastructure and talent-market companies. His board seats tell the story — HeyGen (AI video, on board since April 2024), Decart (on board since November 2024), Mercor (lead Series A, board through August 2025), Applied Compute (on board since September 2025), and an early board seat at Brex. He posts on LinkedIn about founder traits and the operator-to-VC transition, spoke at The Twenty Minute VC in 2025 on the three traits the best founders share, and has contributed at TechCrunch; Fortune interviewed him in 2024 specifically on what changes when you cross from operating to investing.

Network

No direct edges were returned in the network probe. His board relationships surface the relevant constellation — he sits alongside founders and co-investors at HeyGen, Decart, Mercor, Applied Compute, and Brex, and operates within Benchmark's small GP partnership of roughly 5-6 partners. His Benchmark colleagues and portfolio founders are the most likely warm-introduction paths, though no named individuals from those relationships appear in the available claims.

How they likely show up

Co-founded Wildlife Studios and scaled it to 3 billion downloads over more than a decade → he thinks in very long time horizons and is comfortable with the grind of company-building, not just the early sprint.
Moved from Goldman Sachs credit derivatives to founder to GP → each transition was a deliberate platform shift, suggesting he reads structural inflection points well and acts before they're obvious.
Active LinkedIn poster on founder traits, AI, and the operator-to-VC transition → comfortable being publicly opinionated; he likely engages substantively with ideas, not just deal flow.
Board seats across HeyGen, Decart, Mercor, Applied Compute, and Brex simultaneously → high context-switching capacity, probably prefers density of signal over depth of single-company involvement at any one moment.
Possibly — engineering dual-degree from CentraleSupélec and USP combined with a credit trading background → likely stress-tests founder assumptions with both technical and financial rigor rather than pure narrative.
Fortune interview in 2024 specifically on operator-to-VC transition → he's processed that identity shift publicly and deliberately, suggesting he's reflective about what he knows versus what he's still learning in the GP role.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific Wildlife Studios title — Tennis Clash or Zooba — and ask about the distribution insight behind it; that's a decade of hard-won operator knowledge he rarely gets asked about in VC rooms.
→ Bring a concrete view on what separates the best early-stage AI founders from the pack — his Twenty Minute VC episode was titled 'The 3 Traits All the Best Founders Have,' so he has a formed thesis and will engage if you push back with specifics.
→ Ask about the Mercor investment specifically — he was lead Series A and on the board through August 2025, so he has a full arc view on AI-native hiring and likely has sharp opinions on where that market goes next.
→ Don't treat him as a generalist VC — he came in as an operator with a specific mobile gaming and consumer scale background, and he notices when people engage with that versus when they're just pattern-matching him as 'Benchmark GP.'

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the Applied Compute board seat (September 2025) — it's his most recent disclosed investment and signals where he's placing bets at the compute infrastructure layer of AI; asking what drew him there will surface his current thesis.
Reference his Twenty Minute VC appearance in 2025 — he laid out the three traits he looks for in the best founders, which is a rare, concrete framework; engaging with whether those traits have shifted as AI changes founding dynamics is a live question for him.
Mention the Brex founding-era bet — he was the first investor and a board member at a time when corporate cards for startups was a contrarian thesis; connecting that to his current AI infrastructure bets shows you understand his pattern, not just his resume.

Discovery questions

You led Mercor's Series A when AI-native hiring was still early — how has your view on what that market becomes evolved now that you're off the board?
Wildlife Studios was built in Brazil before the Western mobile gaming establishment paid attention — are you seeing a similar geographic arbitrage opening up anywhere in AI right now?
The Fortune interview framed your move to Benchmark as a transition in identity, not just role — eighteen months in, what's the part of operating that you find yourself missing most when you're sitting across the table from founders?

Avoid

Don't treat his operator background as a credential to compliment in the abstract — he engages with specifics about Wildlife Studios, the gaming market, and founder craft, and generic praise for 'building a $3 billion company' will read as surface prep.

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