Category: VC
April 24, 2025 The Value VC : The Least Obvious Winners Often Pay Off: Miami and the Marlins…
I tend to do deals across a spectrum of scores (on my scoresheet) - the most obviously good ones score higher than the more questionable (though still good) deals. While the highest scoring deals should theoretically have a higher probability of outsized returns, the opposite has been true. (read more…)
CATEGORY: resilience, valuation, VC
March 19, 2025 SaaStr : 34% of All Startup Acquisitions Are By Other Start-Ups. A New Record.
First, it’s not new. 20% of deals even in 2018 were start-ups buying start-ups. And the dollar value has gone up, it’s doubled since 2018, although down from a 2023 peak. But a lot of these deals may be sort of “better than nothing” deals. Better than shutting down. Better than running out of money. And they often are better than that. (read more…)
March 11, 2025 TechCrunch : Y Combinator founders raising less money signals a ‘vibe shift’
“People used to climb Everest and they needed oxygen. Today, people climb it without oxygen. I want to summit Everest and use as little oxygen (VC) as possible.” (read more…)
CATEGORY: leadership, VC
February 24, 2025 Kyle Westway via Forbes : The New Venture Playbook: The Data Every Founder Needs To Know
About 20% of all venture capital rounds in 2024 were down rounds, double the historical average of 10%. This high percentage reflects the ongoing correction from 2021's elevated startup valuations. The time between funding rounds has also shifted significantly, with the median now extending beyond the traditional 18-24 month window. 2024 saw the highest absolute number of startup shutdowns in Carta's history. However, the failure rate remains consistent at around 90% for seed-stage companies. The bar for startup funding has risen significantly since 2021. Where once $1 million in ARR might have been sufficient to raise a Series A, founders now often need $3 million or higher growth rates to attract venture capital interest. "If you take venture capital and don't grow at venture capital paces, you could kill your company," he warns. "It is incumbent on the founder to understand their own business and choose the right type of capital for their growth trajectory." (read more…)
CATEGORY: capital, leadership, VC
February 18, 2025 Pitchbook : Venture debt hits all-time high as startups diverge from VC expectations
Later-stage startups are increasingly turning to venture debt as they struggle to keep up with growth expectations from VCs, and as a way to avoid raising equity financing at lower valuations. (read more…)
February 15, 2025 Pitchbook : Record highs for down rounds
In 2024, one-quarter of Series D+ venture financings in the US were completed at a lower valuation—and that's actually a lower percentage than the year prior. Down rounds have been spiking for the past few years, unsurprisingly. Those same Series D+ rounds were being completed at lower valuations at a 7% occurrence in 2021. Receiving equity interest from investors, even in a down round, is a step in the right direction away from shutting down. (read more…)
January 9, 2025 VC Lab : The State of Venture 2.0 in 2024
Our analysis of over 850 new fund managers in 2024 – representing approximately half of all VC firms launched worldwide – reveals a striking transformation in who gets to write the checks. Today’s emerging managers are younger (46% under 40), more diverse (27% women and non-binary), and increasingly likely to come from outside the industry (48.8% transitioning from other sectors). (read more…)
CATEGORY: VC
May 13, 2024 The VC Factory : The 3 Investment Criteria Venture Capitalists Use to Screen Deal Flow
#1. Fit With The Fund's Investment Strategy #2. Team Fit With The Execution Challenges #3. Exceptional VC Returns Demand Large Markets (read more…)
April 29, 2024 Pitchbook : PitchBook Analyst Note: Establishing a Case for Emerging Managers
“It is reasonable to expect a higher proportion of the top-performing funds to come from the emerging manager cohort, primarily due to their smaller fund size and earlier-stage focus.” “Specialists outperform their generalist peers. Specialists often have an advantage from a sourcing perspective, as founders operating in a highly specialized space likely prefer working with a sector-dedicated fund.” (read more…)
March 4, 2024 Business Insider : ‘2024 will be the year of the zombie VC reckoning.’
PitchBook says the number of VCs in US deals peaked at 18,504 in 2021 and fell to 9,966 last year. The term "zombie VC" first came into vogue after the Great Recession when a wave of firms slowly met their demise. But the destruction happening now will likely be much uglier considering the abundance of new VC funds started during the height of the tech boom from 2018 to 2022 — more than 1,100, according to PitchBook data. (read more…)