For Most Active Lead Investors, 2023 Has Delivered Few Exits

For the highest-spending startup backers, big exits tend to come in clusters. Investors rack up huge tallies in boom years, like 2021. In quiet years, like this one, few portfolio companies sell or go public at high valuations.

Just how quiet is exit activity in 2023? To get a sense, we looked at acquisitions and IPOs for companies backed by the most active and highest-spending lead investors of the past few years. We focused on five firms: Tiger Global Management, Andreessen Horowitz, SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital and Insight Partners. READ MORE

Growth Marketing Metrics That Matter For Private Equity Firms

In the dynamic midmarket, decisions can significantly shape an investment's trajectory. As digital channels continue to expand, growth marketing has become an essential strategy that provides endless possibilities for companies. But which metrics truly matter?

To gain a greater understanding, let's dive further into the indicators and metrics that private equity firms must consistently track to effectively align with their objectives and key results (OKRs). READ MORE

VCs chow down more equity in recent financing rounds

There are many gloomy aspects to the venture downturn, but one of the positives for investors is that they can acquire larger stakes in companies.

When prices skyrocketed during the pandemic boom, VCs were so eager to invest in companies that those investors had no choice but to agree to a smaller ownership percentage. But valuations have decreased substantially since then, and the same check size can now buy VCs a larger portion. READ MORE

10 Myths About Venture Capital, Debunked

If you're trying to secure investment funding for your startup, it pays to have a better understanding of VCs. Whether it's thinking that investors can only offer financial support to your startup or that a strong business plan is all that's necessary to get funding, 10 startup founders share common misconceptions and myths about venture capital and how those misconceptions can be harmful to startups seeking funding. READ MORE

6 Strategies VC-Backed Startups Should Know To Win Awards And Get On Stage

Only some of my firm’s VC-backed startup clients take the time to submit themselves for awards or speaking engagements (or pay us to submit them). It’s understandable as many award and panel submissions require robust data, thoughtful and detailed responses, the time to travel to a speaking engagement, submission fees and so on. The upside of investing the time and attention for award and panel submissions, however, is that it contributes to what every founder we work with wants: top-tier media coverage for their venture-backed startup. READ MORE

Showing signs of a resurgence, pre-seed investment market defies broader downturn

A new report released today by early-stage venture capital fund Forum Ventures LLC has found a slight resurgence in the pre-seed investment market even as late-stage venture capital investments continue to grapple with a broader downturn.

The Forum Ventures’ second annual State of VC Market report was compiled by surveying 70 U.S. venture capital funds, including Outsiders Fund Management LLC, High Alpha Capital Management LLC, Outbound Capital Management LLC, Female Founders Fund LLC and Right Side Capital Management LLC. The survey was conducted over two weeks in early November and also collected data on 158 pre-seed rounds that closed in 2023. READ MORE

How private equity strategies are changing amid higher-for-longer rates

As changes in everything from technology and interest rates to sustainability concerns ripple through the corporate world, private equity will have advantages compared to public market investing when it comes to large-scale company transformation for the modern economy. However private equity’s playbook will likely be quite different than the past, according to Goldman Sachs Asset Management. READ MORE

Venture capital’s 2023 bloodbath, by the numbers

After a shockingly successful 2021 and a mixed 2022, the party seems to have truly come to an end for startups and venture capitalists in 2023.

And while the doomsday economic scenarios many expected at the start of the year failed to materialize, the continued sense of malaise after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year and a less-than-rosy IPO market isn’t painting an optimistic picture for the months to come. READ MORE

VCs have a jargon problem and this is how to fix it

Over the eight years I’ve spent in VC, I’ve witnessed the consistently challenging vocabulary the industry creates. Venture capital is an industry full of big words, from technical acronyms to lofty descriptions. This often means we need to make more sense to founders, and that’s on us to use less jargon.

Historically, VCs are viewed as exclusive and cliquey, opposite from the “founder friendliness” that all VCs strive to have. While diversity and inclusion (D&I) has rightly become more of a focus across the ecosystem in recent years, the language we use needs to be noticed and still serves as a barrier to entry for founders. READ MORE

Fate of US venture capital in China teeters on uncertainty

On a weekday afternoon at Red Rock Coffee, the cafe known for spotting venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, one is likely to overhear a few conversations in Mandarin. With China reopening its borders this spring following three years of COVID-19 restrictions, managers of U.S. funds in the country have been flocking to the Bay Area. While these trips were routine before the pandemic, they have now taken on a fresh purpose of discovering deals beyond China.

USD-denominated funds in China have long been drawing inspiration from Silicon Valley startups, using them as benchmarks for investment targets back home. They would seek out the equivalents of Facebook, Amazon and Uber on the other side of the Pacific Ocean and hope they become winners in the country’s largely untapped internet market. READ MORE

Quantitative Benchmarking: A Competitive Edge For Entrepreneurs

You may find yourself doing this before writing an investor deck: Saying to yourself “here we go again” as you dig your old competitive analysis chart out of the archives, throw some new logos in there, put your new logo on the top right corner of your made-up axis, and move on.

It’s time to break away from this flawed approach, which does you no favors as an entrepreneur, and embrace the power of quantitative benchmarking to gain a true competitive advantage. READ MORE

How To Approach An Investor If You’re Doing It For The First Time

There are plenty of events where startup founders can pitch their projects. However, if you’re fundraising for the first time, the competition is so high that the likelihood of getting investments is minimal.

At our fund, we receive around 10,000 pitches a year; at every event we attend, there are at least 30 startups approaching us, and most of your competitors are very well-prepared. READ MORE

Digging into the Future of Funding in Agtech

Once viewed as a hot new space for disruption, the agriculture technology sector is now weeding out the venture capital investors who entered it with hopes of quick wins.

Panelists at ACG Raleigh Durham’s second-annual AgTech Investor Symposium on Oct. 12 discussed the adjustments in expectations for both investors and businesses raising capital in a sector that they argue still holds plenty of promise—just not in the way early VC entrants envisioned. READ MORE

WeWork bankruptcy: One of the biggest startup failures of all time, and venture capitalists haven't learned a thing.

WeWork just isn't working anymore, and the venture capitalists who backed the company when it was a high-flying startup haven't learned a thing from its disaster.

WeWork could file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors as early as next week, The Wall Street Journal reported. "We do not comment on speculation," a spokesperson for the company told Insider. READ MORE

The Untold Private Equity Compensation Story in 2023

Private equity executives were right to be worried early this year about the impact rising interest rates would have on their firms. Since then, deal volume has slumped and fund raising has slowed. Nevertheless, their employees are expecting raises this year — if they didn’t get one already.

The median total cash compensation for all levels of private equity employees — analysts through managing directors and partners — rose 13 percent in 2023, according to a survey of 1,179 workers across the U.S. by Odyssey Search Partners, a recruiting firm focused on alternative investment professionals. Analysts, the most junior employees, got the biggest bump this year, with a 21 percent increase in total cash compensation. All others expect raises in 2023, except for managing directors and partners, who said theirs would be flat. READ MORE

Biden’s AI Order May Have Wide Impact For Startups

The Biden administration on Monday released an executive order laying out a broad range of  safety and security requirements around the use of artificial intelligence technology.

The standards, which range from setting requirements for red-team testing to affixing labels on AI-generated content, could have a wide impact on how AI-focused companies, and startups in particular, develop and release new iterations of their products. READ MORE