What Will Next Year Look Like For VCs And Startups?

The recent slowdown in venture funding has shifted the way founders are approaching VCs and vice versa. Deal flow has slowed dramatically and VCs are being especially mindful around what investments they choose to make and why.

Only a few months ago, founders were raising at a frantic pace (and spending that way too). Now, the focus has shifted from growth to preservation, and funding is being used to shore up balance sheets and extend runways for at least two years. For startups that happened to time this cycle poorly, their founders are faced with difficult propositions and challenges. READ MORE

The one slide 99% of founders get wrong when fundraising

There’s one slide that almost every founder gets wrong when they are putting together a pitch deck to raise money from venture capitalists. The slide is usually known as “the ask,” and it typically lives toward the end of the pitch deck.

It is meant to do something pretty straightforward: Explain how much money a startup is raising and for what. It shouldn’t be rocket science, but it’s almost universally a struggle to get right. READ MORE

PE firms may slow down hiring in 2023, but layoffs are unlikely

Executive recruiters and compensation consultants are anticipating a slowdown in private equity hiring in 2023, but mass layoffs aren't in the cards.

Amid declining fundraising figures and a difficult dealmaking environment, PE hiring will likely wind down moving into the new year, but the asset class's strategic insulation from market turmoil means it won't grind to a halt. With ample dry powder, longer-term investment horizons and income from management fees, PE firms may slow down growth, but they won't stop it. READ MORE

The Rise Of The Solo VC

Up until recently, business headlines covering venture capital have focused on mega funds raised by large institutional players such as Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Sequoia, Tiger Global and SoftBank. These massive funds engage in a rapid flurry of dealmaking to put their large sums of capital to work. Yet, effectively investing such large sums in the private market to achieve a compelling return on investment is a daunting task. READ MORE

Meet the Gen Z investor who is making the VC world take young people seriously

Meagan Loyst has always been career oriented. In high school, she was a self-described “mega-mega-overachiever.” She volunteered at a hospital. She worked at a law firm, did a stint at Citibank, and decided that she enjoyed business strategy. As a student majoring in finance and information systems at Boston College, she fell into the investing world. (She has a picture of herself meeting Warren Buffett.) After college, she worked for the growth equity firm General Atlantic, and then moved to Lerer Hippeau, an early-stage venture capital company. READ MORE

Early-stage founders still have currency: Fundraising in times of greater VC scrutiny

There’s no question about it: The market going into 2023 isn’t going to be what it was when 2021 ended, when growth at all costs sometimes trumped common sense.

But the market isn’t as “down” as it may seem. There’s plenty of money to be invested, and founders who have the right mix of purpose, business model and traction need to remember that opportunities for funding can still be found. READ MORE

VCs and red flags

Earlier today, renowned VC Bill Gurley put together a list of the many “red flags” that VCs should have paid closer attention to when funding FTX, suggesting in a tweet that this summary of warning signs might help keep VCs “out of the investor hurt locker” going forward. Gurley includes such no-nos as “unique financial data presentations,” “aversion to audits,” “large secondary transactions” and “lack of a legitimate board.” READ MORE

Move over, operators — consultants are the new nontraditional VC

Operating experience has become a buzzword over the last few years as venture capitalists pump up their resumes in a quest to set themselves apart from other sources of startup capital. Now, it seems that we are seeing the next evolution of that trend.

This year has seen a wave of startup consultant firms looking to raise venture funds of their own to take stakes in companies they are already working with or that align with their practice. In theory, this makes total sense because both consultants and venture capitalists have the same goal at the end of the day: helping companies grow. READ MORE

These Investors Are Backing The Gen Z Founders Building A Better Tomorrow

For David Brillembourg Jr, investing is all fun and games. The 24-year-old founder of Dune Ventures dropped out of New York University years ago to help gaming startups receive crucial venture capital funding to make their visions a reality. In 2020, he launched his own firm, raising over $100 million and investing $50 million so far across companies like game clipping service Medal.tv and virtual reality games studio Ramen VR. READ MORE

Series C is the new venture-startup bottleneck

If you are building a startup today, it’s likely harder for you to raise money than it was a year ago. New data makes it clear, however, that not every startup stage is feeling the same headwinds.

A lack of uniformity in the startup fundraising climate is not novel. We have seen, variously, a Series A crunch at one point, and a Series B crunch at another. Today, however, we’re seeing something different altogether: A Series C crunch. READ MORE