The hard-hitting back row man joined Warriors last summer from the Sharks in his native South African and was already well known to head coach Franco Smith. Venter played under Smith at the Free State Cheetahs and Super Rugby side, the Cheetahs, back in Bloemfontein. Venter says his time playing under Smith convinced him that success with Glasgow was just a case of when and not if.
"It would sound cocky if I say I thought we were going to win," said Venter in The Scotsman. "But knowing Franco and winning with him beforehand, everywhere I played with him we won. So I knew it was in the pipeline, just a matter of time."
Venter believes the seeds for the URC win were sown in Dublin a year earlier, before he joined the club. He points to Glasgow's heavy defeat by Toulon in the European Challenge Cup final at the Aviva as a painful, but important, step on their path to URC success.
"In the first year [under Smith] we were playing in the final and losing against Toulon. The guys, they felt that, the final. And I think losing primed everyone and everyone knew the feeling and what to expect."
Warriors begin the defence of their URC title against Ulster in Belfast on September 21 and they're determined to make an impression on this season's Champions Cup. Venter believes the way the squad won the URC semi-final and final, against Munster and Bulls, away from home has shown they have what it takes to win tough European ties on the road.
"There are two trophies and we only won one," he said. "So I think that whole dream - guys start believing more in it. And you believe you can achieve anything. I think if you want to be the best, you want to win both competitions. So definitely that's the big goal and what we work for.
"You have to win away from home in the European Cup. So for us to grind out those games and see how to do it - I think Jack Dempsey said it, we went to hell and back.
"I think he summed it up. And I think we must be able and prepared to go there again. I think that's what Leinster, in their prime years of winning everything, that's what they could have, year after year after year.
"So he summed it up perfectly actually for me. As we go forward in this year, there's some games, especially with how the games are structured and there's no breaks in between, we must just be prepared to go there [to hell] every week."