A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 18, 2022

Those values, on a schedule of investments we publish to our investors every quarter, flow through to our financial statements and capital accounts and establish how much an interest in our partnerships are worth at that time. Every quarter our firm goes through a process to value our entire portfolio.

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The Seraf Compass

MAY 10, 2023

One of the biggest trends we witnessed over the past few years is the rapid pace of new early stage venture fund formation combined with significant growth in the amount of capital invested. A decade or two ago, most of the new funds were traditional VC funds located in technology hubs in the US and a few other countries around the globe.

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The Seraf Compass

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Have you ever been in a situation where you are negotiating an investment with an entrepreneur and you can’t agree on the pre-money valuation? Any early stage investor who makes more than one or two investments will certainly run into this issue.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

AUGUST 4, 2023

As an entrepreneur or founder starting a business, you may think of capital as purely monetary. Capital is often viewed only as an opportunity for an infusion of money into a business to get it started or grow and scale your company. Many entrepreneurs leverage a uniquely laser-focused mindset to bring their vision into reality.

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The Seraf Compass

JANUARY 1, 2020

Most startup companies have a continuous need for funds to help grow the business. You will hear the term “Follow-on” as a frequent catchphrase for this type of investing. For example, it’s common to hear one investor say to another, are you planning on “following-on” in this round?

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MARCH 14, 2022

There is a lot of criticism of venture capital in web3. Bitcoin did not have or need venture capital. Ethereum did not have or need venture capital. So why would any web3 project need venture capital? That’s why you might want to take venture capital for your web3 project. It is a good question.

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The Seraf Compass

JUNE 9, 2021

When you combine great leadership with a strong board of directors, the likelihood of a successful outcome for a business increases by an order of magnitude. Legally, directors are required to provide governance and oversight.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 15, 2020

There have been a lot of calls for VC firms to make more hires from the Black and Brown community, as well as to hire more women. Not all hires, however, are made equally. In venture, it’s all about getting an opportunity to make partner and being included in the carry—the economic upside of a fund.

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The Seraf Compass

MAY 11, 2022

In the sport of Major League Baseball, the greatest hitters are those who get a hit just one out of every three times at bat and a home run 5 or 6 times out of 100 at bats. In the world of startup company investing, the best-known investors are those who invest in the tiny percentage of companies that make it big. Think Facebook, Google or Amazon.

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The Seraf Compass

OCTOBER 25, 2023

If you make a simple mistake while driving, like hitting some black ice you didn’t see, and you skid off the road into a ravine and total your car, assuming no injuries, that’s a bummer and a major inconvenience for you. But if you borrow your friend’s car and do the same thing, sorting out the legalities can be significantly more complicated.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? Capital is a lot less patient at scale. Of course we can’t. dot-com bonanza.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

A founder who has a handful of venture-backed friends—successful ones who have raised multiple rounds of capital and who have grown their companies through different stages—has a huge advantage over one that doesn’t. It also provides a built-in set of advisors that can be called upon along the way.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Or that venture capital is a meritocracy? This doesn’t take into consideration, however, that venture capital is a financial product—a product that works for some people and doesn’t work for others. We know what the racial and gender wealth disparity looks like: This is a lesson taught to be by Jewel from Collab Capital.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

It will also be my last venture capital deal. Venture capital is a pretty opaque industry and if I can shed some light on what it’s like to do this, or to decide to stop doing it, I’m happy to help. I’ve decided that this is long enough for me—especially given the fact that when you’re in venture capital, you don’t just stop.

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Dream It

JULY 31, 2019

The product should be live if we hope to raise capital. A program to get your company 'accelerated'- selling faster, moving faster, which does not necessarily translate to capital. 4- Any startup can raise venture capital I've also seen a misconception on business types, versus their ability to raise venture capital.

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Revolution

MAY 23, 2023

Part of the antidote for startups: employing a more prudent approach to raising capital and curating a diverse investor base. To shed additional light on this issue and its ultimate impact on startups, I partnered with the Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation to ask proptech founders about their capital and strategic partners.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

We believe this consistency in leadership and intuition for where the markets were going in the heady days of 2019–2021 helped us to stay sane in a world that momentarily seemed to have lost its mind and since we have new capital to deploy in the years ahead perhaps I can offer some insights into where we think value will be derived.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? They were a way to gather cheap capital.

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Revolution

MAY 11, 2023

Despite 2022’s heel turn, the ten-year funding trend line still points to VCs concentrating less capital in the major coastal hubs and more in the rest of the country, a collective area of focus for attendees. Consequently, the Bay Area experienced a surge, capturing over one-third of all early-stage venture funding in the U.S.,

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

Only a small minority of people are born into the kinds of connections and life paths to provide them instant access to capital. Mimi Aboubaker writes more about this in Techcrunch: In 2021, $330 billion in venture capital was deployed, and only 2% of that number went to companies founded only by women and 15.6%

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Dream It

APRIL 12, 2020

Paul Martino, General Partner at Bullpen Capital. During our recent Dreamit Kickoff week, Bullpen Capital Founder and General Partner Paul Martino ( @ahpah ) spoke with our Spring 2020 cohort about the state of the VC ecosystem in the current economic crisis. Will a financial crisis affect how venture funds deploy capital?

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 14, 2020

The massive expansion of later-stage private capital continues unabated. The massive expansion of later-stage private capital continues unabated. The NVCA and Pitch Book are out with their Q3 report on the VC industry and what they report is that the VC industry continues to be very active throughout the pandemic.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

OCTOBER 12, 2021

Now a decade and a half later, we see NYC startups raising capital almost as much as Silicon Valley startups. It wasn’t that long ago that a NYC-based startup had to agree to move to Silicon Valley to get money from the VCs out there. I think that was still a thing into the latter part of the 2000s. USV TEAM POSTS:

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

What I will say is that if you’ve lowered growth to preserve capital, and you haven’t cut it down to the point where you’re on a path to breakeven without needing new capital, you need to think hard as to whether or not a having a little bit of growth is worth not being “default alive”.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2024

As we enter 2024, the capital markets have found their footing and are moving higher. That is good news for the innovation economy because healthy capital markets are a necessary support system. However, optimistic capital markets are necessary but not sufficient for a healthy innovation economy.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JUNE 19, 2024

Instead, it began with 15 years of hands-on learning in capital markets, working closely with entrepreneurs, investors, and bankers. This experience allowed me to identify a critical void in financing companies: building healthy capital stacks and navigating the public offering process. and more articles from the EO blog.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2023

While many have gotten their burn rates way down, most startups still are losing money and will eventually need to raise capital in 2023. Good businesses with product market fit, positive unit economics, and strong leadership teams will raise capital although it will be at the new normal in terms of valuation.

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Revolution

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

Louis, Missouri stands as a major hub for the agricultural sector, shaped by its advantageous location, academic institutions, industrial presence, and capital availability. Steve Lekas, CEO of Branch , and former Allstate/Esurance veteran, chose Columbus as the home base for his company to capitalize on this robust insurance ecosystem.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 19, 2021

Over the last 18 months, the early-stage financing market has seen dramatic changes characterized by these three things: A shift from in-person fundraising to virtual fundraising A reduction in financing process timelines from months to weeks A continued increase in the amount of capital available for early stage companies.

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The Seraf Compass

JANUARY 11, 2023

Now let's take a closer look at capital allocation strategy and the life cycle of a venture fund. In Part I of this article we discussed several key concepts of fund investment strategy and how funds are categorized, whether it be by industry, geography, stage, specialty (e.g. social impact, corporate, etc.) or some other criteria.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 1, 2021

It will require countries and institutions to re-allocate capital from other endeavors to fight against a warming planet. At USV, we have begun that reallocation of capital and we will be investing heavily in companies and technologies that can help the world address this existential threat.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Venture capital is about backing the leaders of tomorrow who imagine the world as it should be and aren’t constrained by what it is today. As an industry we’re not always as good as we could be about our own “creative destruction” to create the tomorrow of venture capital.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 8, 2022

An alternative to a bridge is an “insider round” where the existing investors provide sufficient capital to fund the business for eighteen to twenty-four months. While that can sometimes be the right answer for a startup, I strongly prefer bringing new investors/new capital into a company in every financing round.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MAY 11, 2021

For certain things, like raising capital and investing capital, on-screen works pretty well. Founders have figured out that they can raise capital from their kitchens, bedrooms, and offices in weeks vs roadshows that lasted months. And founders in Singapore can access capital markets in NYC with ease.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

What we did: Rise of the Rest Managing Partner, David Hall , joined Cofounders Capital Managing Partner, Tim McLoughlin, onstage at the Network for Entrepreneurs, Wilmington’s community event. Where we went: Wilmington, NC? He then joined Wilmington founders at Live Oak’s Channel for office hours. Where we went: Detroit, MI?

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. No blog post about how Tiger is crushing everybody because it’s deploying all its capital in 1-year while “suckers” are investing over 3-years can change this reality.

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