Ben Taft

🌟Innovative VC Firm Overcomes Exits Drought with Secondary Sales🌟 ⛵Navigating a challenging landscape where exits are scarce, Santa Barbara Venture Partners (SBVP) has pioneered a novel approach to sustain its growth and attract investors for its second fund: secondary sales. Instead of waiting for traditional exits like IPOs or acquisitions, SBVP opted to sell shares of its portfolio companies, demonstrating its ability to generate returns for investors and stand out in a competitive market. 🎤According to Dan Engel, founder and managing partner of SBVP, these secondary transactions have been a game-changer, sparking investor interest and bolstering the firm's credibility. By leveraging its recent successes, including a lucrative stake in sports-betting company DraftKings Inc.' acquisition of digital lottery app Jackpocket, SBVP seized the opportunity to return profits to its limited partners (LPs) and pave the way for its second fund. 💡Engel highlighted the challenges faced by young VC firms in raising subsequent funds, particularly amid a downturn in exit activity and heightened investor scrutiny. With traditional exit routes becoming increasingly elusive, the pressure is on for firms to demonstrate tangible returns and establish a track record of success. ✨"For us, secondary sales have been a game-changer. They've helped us return profits to our LPs and attract investors for our second fund," said Dan Engel. 💰For SBVP, the decision to pursue secondary sales was driven by the need to provide liquidity to LPs and validate its investment thesis in the eyes of prospective investors. By strategically offloading portions of its holdings in high-performing portfolio companies like Bark Technologies and Rad AI, SBVP not only generated substantial returns but also bolstered investor confidence in its ability to deliver results. ⚠Despite the complexities and potential stigma associated with early share sales, Engel emphasized the importance of prioritizing investor returns and seizing opportunities to unlock value for stakeholders. With a focus on profitability and transparency, SBVP remains committed to its mission of delivering sustainable growth and maximizing returns for its LPs. 🔍 "Returning profits to our investors is our top priority. By strategically selling shares, we're proving our commitment to delivering results and driving value for our stakeholders," added Engel. As SBVP continues to explore secondary transactions and expand its investor base, the firm stands as a testament to innovation and resilience in the face of market challenges. 🚀 ✅ Looking to raise capital for your #fund and increase the international pool of your LP #investors?   🤝 Need warm #LP introductions?   📝 Selling #secondaries to increase liquidity?   🧐 Looking for co-investments?   ▶ G+QUANT's link for inquiries and fund decks: https://lnkd.in/gjC_EuTE #VCInnovation #SecondarySalesSuccess #InvestorReturns #ValueCreation 

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Another edition of VCs Doing Work: Slauson & Co. 🎉Congrats to raising $100M for your second fund continuing your mission to make a difference!🎉 Wait... What and who is Slauson and Co? Slauson & Co. is a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments, founded by Austin Clements and Ajay Relan. The firm's mission centers on economic inclusion and democratizing access to entrepreneurship for underrepresented founders. Slauson & Co. primarily invests in: Preseed and seed SMB Tech (tools supporting small and medium businesses) Consumer technology The firm typically writes checks between $500,000 and $2 million, aiming to lead most rounds. Since its launch in 2020, Slauson & Co. has made significant strides: Raised a $75 million Fund I, exceeding its initial $50 million target Backed 38 companies, with a majority led by people of color and at least half by women Recently closed a $100 million Fund II, demonstrating continued investor interest in their inclusive approach The firm has garnered support from prominent investors and organizations, including: PayPal Ron Conway (veteran technology investor) Ashton Kutcher will.i.am True Capital Management Alpaca VC Slauson & Co. is just getting started! If you think you have a startup that fits their thesis and stage, reach out! #diversity #inclusion #venturecapital #consumer #smb Brittany Crockett #longla #losangeles #celebration #vcsdoingwork

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup highlights new funding, intriguing data, and major commercial & scientific milestones 🧬 💰 Funding Hello Patient, building Gen-AI phone agents for healthcare providers, came out of stealth with a $6.3M seed raise. Congrats Alex Cohen! And it’s Austin funding Austin, with 8VC a key part of the round. Aspira Women's Health, focused on non-invasive AI-powered diagnostics, was awarded a $10M grant from ARPA-H to advance their blood test for endometriosis. Well done, Nicole Sandford, Sandy Milligan, MD JD & team. Maxwell Biosciences, a synthetic small molecule drug platform, received ~$3M from the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) to find assets that will prevent wound infection on the battlefield. Fantastic work, Joshua McClure & team. Reminder: I don’t cover SEC filings. When the builders themselves announce, I’ll shout it from the rooftops! 📊 Data Clutch VC released its Texas Seed Funding Update (YTD Q3): YTD 387 seed rounds raised for a total $636M. Though deal counts are down QoQ, capital invested has trended upward, making this the highest quarter since Q1 2023. Health was the second largest sector with 27% of all capital raised so far this year, up from 16% during the same time frame last year. Great data & insights Rajiv Bala, Steve Coffey, and Caitlin McHugh. 🤝 M&A and Partnerships Lumos Pharma entered a merger agreement with Double Point Ventures, going private at a $38M valuation. 🚀 Launches, Expansions, Milestones, and Wins Oracle Health announced updates to its Data Intelligence platform, with enhancements to Clinical, Analytics, and Care Coordination products. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle Houston-based Coya Therapeutics, Inc. shared positive results from a double-blind study of low-dose interleukin-2 (LD-IL-2) in Alzheimer’s, showing the therapy is safe and well tolerated with promising trends toward cognitive improvement. Amazing Howard Berman, PhD, Arun Swaminathan, and the rest of the team. Dallas-based Stone Mountain Ventures closed a $5M Fund II focused on health & AI. Fund I included Austin Bio & Health startups Legion Health and MDisrupt. Congratulations, John Diaz and keep looking at Austin for new opportunities! Quick Note: Some items this week actually happened last week, apologies if I missed them! Please tag or message me for future announcements so I can make sure to include them. What’s Next?

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Congrats to Eniac Ventures seeded Nirvana on their big A! 🚀 "Nirvana, a startup aiming to give health care providers and consumers the price of treatment before an appointment, raised $24.2 million in Series A funding, it tells Axios exclusively. Why it matters: The raise comes amid a push for greater transparency in health care bills, with one new government rule put into effect in 2021 and more being considered today. What they're saying: "In some weird behavioral way, people were used to the fact that you would sit in a waiting room for six hours and get the bill six weeks later," says Nirvana CPO Kelvin K Chan. "Looking back, that's incredibly strange and archaic, but I think that mentality is starting to shift." How it works: Embedded into health care providers' websites, the software reduces the chances that an insurance claim will be denied after the fact. It does so by using the patient's name, date of birth, and ZIP code to verify a consumer's coverage, Nirvana says. Traditionally, providers required the insurance ID card, which the company's executives say is susceptible to human error. Combining that with information from the provider about the consumer's condition, Nirvana offers an estimate of the appointment cost at the time of booking. Northzone led this round, joined by Inspired Capital, Eniac Ventures and Surface Ventures." Akshay Venkitasubramanian https://lnkd.in/ewznnP3y https://lnkd.in/ey4DPNBE

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Let's discuss a topic that often stirs unease in the VC community: the "Down-Round." You know, when a startup's valuation decreases from one funding round to the next—a scenario generally less desirable than a "flat round," where the valuation remains stable. Founders and VCs usually avoid down-rounds like the plague. VCs are wary of justifying over-optimistic past valuations to investors, and founders fear dilution and potential funding roadblocks. However, current market trends across most sectors (excluding AI/ML) show a significant drop in valuations, making down-rounds hard to dodge. In response, some founders cut costs drastically or take on steep venture debts to maintain at least a flat round in their next funding attempt. But let’s shift perspective. A down-round need not spell disaster. Reflecting the natural ebb and flow of the public markets, a valuation drop in the private sector doesn't necessarily signal a deteriorating business. Consider this: a PitchBook study from 2008 to 2014 showed that 87% of companies that went through a down-round still managed to raise additional funds or sell their business. Even tech giant Facebook (now Meta) rebounded from a down-round in 2009! Lowering your startup's #valuation isn't an admission of failure but an adjustment to a realistic market view. Most #founders navigate through down rounds and emerge successful. If you’re facing one, why not view it as an opportunity to recalibrate and strengthen your #business strategy? Remember: it's not about the setback; it's about your comeback.

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What Dave McClure is building resonates well what we are doing with our Siena Secondary Fund. Although one focuses on fund stakes and the other company positions, the journey is the same - need to educate the market about what is #VC #secondary and how to benefit from it...

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Check out the latest issue of my investor-focused newsletter Not From Concentrate!

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4 unforgettable lessons after making 50+ VC investments over 10 years. 1. Not all funding is created equal. The right partner matters more than the dollar amount. 2. A Tier 1 investor's prestige comes with a price. Better deals probably exist elsewhere. 3. Long-term success comes down to culture-fit and compatibility 4. Vision and the ability to scale are THE paramount traits an investor needs Founders: don’t just take any deal you can find. It could cost you dearly down the line.

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🚀 𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐔𝐫𝐢 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞’𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬! 🚀 Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze and Moovit, shares invaluable lessons in his book “𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮, 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.” Key takeaways include the importance of passionately embracing the problem you’re solving, the necessity of customer retention as a marker of product-market fit, and the strategic use of pitch deck slides. He also emphasises the significance of hiring and firing correctly and observing user behaviour to refine your product. These principles can transform your startup journey, ensuring resilience and growth. 🌟 #StartupSuccess #Entrepreneurship #ProductMarketFit #Innovation

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Funds are getting funded! Dry powder is growing...when do we expect VC investment to pick up?! 👀 Last week alone saw significant activity in announcements: SVC invested $30M into General Atlantic’s PE fund, Golden Gate Ventures launched a $100M MENA-focused fund, Investcorp closed a $570M fund, and Wadi Jeddah introduced a new VC fund. Just a few examples from the numerous announcements flooding in. This surge in fund announcements prompted us to look back at last year's data. Thanks to MAGNiTT’s directory, we identified a 74% year-on-year increase in MEA-based funds being funded in 2024! (as of 20th May 2024) Yup, 74%! Since Q4'23, we've observed a growing trend of regional funds raising financing along with international investors establishing regional funds. Though the trend indicates that we’re bound to see more such funds later in the year, it’ll be interesting to observe when and how they get deployed.  At MAGNiTT, we predicted that this won't translate into investments until Q4, after the historical summer lull. But I am curious to know your thoughts on this? Get insights on investment and LP activity in emerging markets through a subscription: https://lnkd.in/dJrCd3fm #InvestmentFunds #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #MENAInvestments #EmergingMarkets #InvestorTrends

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Shifting Fundraising Landscape: Should Founders Reassess the VC Path? For years, founders were advised to raise enough capital to last 18-24 months. But recent data from Carta suggests this is changing. Time between rounds is growing, and raising capital is becoming more difficult and costly. The VC Playbook: A One-Size-Fits-All? When capital was cheap and abundant, founders gravitated toward a model focused on rapid, top-line growth. The trade-off? (Significant) dilution in exchange for the potential of eventually owning a small slice of a large business. But as the economic landscape shifts, several critical challenges have emerged: Extended Fundraising Cycles: The growing gap between rounds means founders need to stretch capital longer, which can stall growth or lead to decisions around scaling back which in itself may impact the ability to raise again. Rising scarcity and higher Costs of Capital: Inflationary years and market corrections have made it more expensive to achieve the same milestones. The capital that seemed sufficient two years ago may now fall short. And capital is harder to access. These realities prompt an important question: have founders fully assessed the risks associated with the venture capital path? The truth is, not every business can—or should—scale at the aggressive rates that VC funding demands. Is There Another Way? A more sustainable approach is gaining traction—one that prioritises profitability earlier in the life cycle. For many founders, this could lead to a better risk-adjusted outcome. The Transition Challenge However, shifting from VC to a more private equity-style model isn’t easy. Many companies find themselves stuck—too slow for VC but not profitable enough for PE. At Resurge Growth Partners, we’ve noticed that more and more founders are asking these very questions and re-evaluating which path is best. We’re increasingly working with founders who are navigating this shift, helping them find the right balance between growth and profitability. It’s a conversation worth having. #ventureequity #privateequity #venturecapital

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Great time on the Embracing Erosion podcast w/Devon O'Rourke! We talked about: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups and much more!

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"Digital health is no longer the future; it is the present, reshaping our healthcare landscape in real-time." Excited to be part of the UCSF Digital Health Hub Foundation's Quarterfinalist Party! As a past board member, I'm honored to celebrate the outstanding quarterfinalists. As we reflect on the state of digital health in 2024, it's evident that the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally transformed healthcare delivery. The rapid adoption of telemedicine during the crisis has become a permanent fixture, with over 60% of physicians continuing to utilize this technology. The sprint towards smarter healthcare, catalyzed by necessity, has shattered preconceptions about digital-first health experiences. Virtual care is no longer a stopgap but an integral part of a seamless, anytime, anywhere health ecosystem. 🌍 We're witnessing the rise of B2B2C models in remote consultations, with companies like Teladoc Health and Amwell partnering with insurance providers to integrate their services into health plans. Public sector collaborations, like eConsult Health 's partnership with the NHS in the #UK, underscore the potential for remote consultations to enhance efficiency and accessibility at a national level. The digital health landscape is evolving rapidly, with advancements in remote consultations, mental health support, at-home diagnostics, and patient monitoring. AI and generative AI transform care delivery, making it more efficient, personalized, and patient-centric. 🤖 Yet, challenges remain. While venture capital funding for digital health has stabilized after the pandemic boom, it remains below its 2021 peak. Sectors like digital therapeutics face reimbursement hurdles, and we've seen major players like Walmart and Optum close telehealth businesses. Looking ahead, we anticipate further consolidation in digital health, driven by acquisitions to create broader ecosystems encompass telemedicine, mental health, and other specialized services. As healthcare leaders, we must leverage these digital advancements to improve access, enhance patient outcomes, and drive efficiency in our healthcare systems. The future of healthcare is digital, and the time to embrace this transformation is now. Congratulations to all the finalists! 🎉 Looking forward to the grand finale at #HLTH2024 in #LasVegas! 🙌 By the way, the pink drink that we were holding was delicious—and nonalcoholic! The Digital Health Hub Foundation - Digital Health Awards #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth #UCSFHealthHub #Networking #HealthTech #Entrepreneurship #LasVegasFinale Walter Greenleaf, PhD Daniel Kraft, MD Unity Stoakes StartUp Health University of California, San Francisco UCSF Innovation Ventures American Association for Precision Medicine (AAPM) WISE World Investors & Entrepreneurs Society #AAPMhealth #aapm_health

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Some VC investors believe that brick and mortar - referring to a physical presence of some kind - should be avoided at all costs. Yet, the track record of clinic and hybrid care businesses in health care indicates otherwise. ==> One Medical (sold for $3.9 billion to Amazon), Oak Street (bought by CVS for $10.6 billion), Lifestance (IPO at $7.5 billion market cap), and PE-backed Premise Health (acquired by OMERS Private Equity for $1.1 billion) If a clinic is indicated as the optimal way to deliver care for that patient population, there are creative ways to build and operate them. Full article below with advice and strategies on how to build and operate hybrid clinics from my teammate Anarghya Vardhana from Maveron, Amir Dan Rubin from OneMedical Group, Steven Eidelman from Modern Animal and more!

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So, how do you do “Indexing”? For the right indexing, you need a quality filter. You shouldn’t just be investing at random since the bottom 90% of startups will return nothing substantial. Deal Flow Evaluation ● Random Deals: 500 Deals, 50 Meetings and 5 Investments ● Validated Deals: 100 Deals, 50 Meetings and 10 Investments ● Referred Deals: 50 Deals, 50 Meetings and 20 Investments

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The ‘help’ VCs offer that founders wish they’d skip : From unsolicited intros to random conference invites 😐! -Making random introductions that weren’t requested -Inviting founders to conferences where the VC is speaking -Providing strategic advice without understanding the startup’s specific context -Conducting frequent check-ins without offering meaningful support -Forwarding articles about competitors -Recommending broad networking connections that aren’t relevant -Offering unsolicited product UX suggestions -Imposing rigid meeting schedules at inconvenient times -Sharing generic industry trends without actionable insights -Sending irrelevant templates or tools that don’t fit the startup’s stage or needs -Offering feedback that feels more critical than constructive -Making broad claims about experience without engaging with the startup’s unique situation For VCs, adding real value means aligning support with the founder’s specific needs and goals. Any other pointers you like to add? Cc. Ed suh #startups #venturecapital #frustrations

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Two weeks ago I spent 3 days with brilliant human beings discussing the state of AI investment with other angel syndicate leads, angel investors and VCs at Hustle Fund's #camphustle in Los Gatos. It was brilliant. Truly awesome to learn so much from insanely accomplished investors. But was so clear to me again is that the US and the UK are two countries divided by separate languages of ambition. Aspiration and ambition underlined by the cluster effect of successful exits, incredible talent and venture capital driven by operators and founders rather than accountants. But one reason why the US often trumps (pun not intended) the UK is they learn from failure. Run a startup that didn't reach the dizzying heights of venture-scale returns? Learn, reset and go again. What they certainly do not do is look at failure with glee and an "I told you so" attitude. Which is what I sense when I read most of the narrative around the failure of Cazoo. Alex Chesterman swung and missed. The business was flawed, unit economics didn't add up and in reality - there was very little innovation outside the vertical alignment of a well-understood business. But when we look down upon what he tried to do and 💩 💩 it all we're doing is making it harder for someone else to be equally as ambitious. Focus on what went wrong. Focus on the fundamental underlying business models that drive efficient use of capital and the push for profitability. But let's celebrate people shooting their shot and not celebrate the failures.

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Ben Freeberg is a venture capitalist in the oncology sector. I asked him what it takes to be a successful VC. He narrowed it down to 3 things: 1. Ability to raise capital. 2. Deep understanding of a specific niche - in his case it’s cancer data companies. 3. A personal network that will help your portfolio companies advance. I love when smart people simplify things and I’m fascinated by Ben’s background: VC, cancer survivor, stand up comedian. The power of 3!

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