Or Tamir

💡Benchmarks in the investment industry serve as a standard for measuring the performance of securities, mutual funds, or investment managers. They provide a reference point for analyzing allocation, risk, and return of a portfolio, enabling investors to make informed decisions. Thanks Peter Walker for keeping us all informed!! Can’t wait for this!! Follow and get on the waitlist for this one! #benchmarks #fundraising #Capitalraise #founders #womenshealth #femhealth #medtech #wellness

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Insightful look into bioplatform strategy, and what it takes to raise a Series A from my partner, Omri Amirav-Drory: https://lnkd.in/dFv7GbF6

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Startup decks vs Business plans. It's accepted that a startup needs a deck. Dax Dasilva of Lightspeed Commerce made an important point on 20VC. Writing a business plan - including financial projections - is an important step. It requires discipline. It provides a rigorous framework for thinking deeply about the problem you're trying to solve. Harry Stebbings countered that he doesn't even want to see a deck since it's all dreams. We spent a lot of time and energy on our business plan with the expectation that we would show it to no one ever. The business plan was part of our roadmap for the company. We researched customers - including having 50+ conversations. We wanted to understand them: their background, their interests, their presence on social media. We also wanted to understand how they were evaluated by leadership and how integrated they were with the business of the company they were protecting. We researched pricing both with potential customers and other products in our industry to find out if OpEx or CapEx was a better fit. How did they buy today? How would they like to buy? We did market research to understand the verticals and map the right entry point - we were wrong but that doesn't reduce the value of the research. We looked at competitors in depth to understand what they were seeing that we weren't. Dax is right. This is an invaluable document that should be updated every year - the company is changing, the market is changing, there's more feedback about price and ICP. It's not for sharing with the outside world. It's a map for driving forward. Decks won't get you investment - VCs invest in people. We make decks but we know they don't tell our story. The deck is a calling card. Dax and Harry are both right. https://lnkd.in/e25M82xY

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How do investors price pre-seed rounds?  This is perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspects of fundraising.  Oftentimes, founders want some framework to better understand what market value is when raising capital into their business.  Public equities and later stage privates have a well defined matrix of revenue/margin profiles that dictate valuation, surely there must be some framework for arriving at a pre-seed valuation. So how do investors price startups that are pre-revenue, or have maybe one of two early customers? In reality, pricing is more a byproduct of a VC fund’s portfolio construction model than any metric of the underlying business.  VCs model out portfolios to include a certain number of companies with an ownership target in each startup.  There are variations to portfolio construction, and the chosen strategy will have a direct impact on the types of rounds a fund will participate in. For example, an early stage fund might raise a $60M fund to lead investments in 30 companies and target 12.5% ownership.   After management fees, there is ~$48M in investable capital.  Assuming a fund holds back ~30% for reserves(this number varies across funds) that leaves ~$30M to invest in initial checks.   In this case a fund must average $1M checks at $8M valuations to reach their intended ownership target of 12.5%.   When you are in diligence with a fund, they are first and foremost trying to get to a yes on the investment opportunity.  When arriving at a valuation though, the math outlined above is the determining factor, more so than any multiple of revenue on the business, or the stated desires of where a founder wants to raise capital.  At the end of the day, a VC is trying to arrive at a valuation that works within their portfolio strategy. This means they are very unlikely to price a deal at $15M cap given the aforementioned portfolio construction, as they would either not own enough($1M = 6.67% ownership) or have to cut too large a check( $1.875M = 12.5%). The thing that is most likely to move an investor off their target valuation is another investor in the picture that is driving the price higher, but even then there are upward bound limits of how high an investor is willing to price a deal. I always advise our port cos to ask an investor early in conversations what their ideal check size/valuation is to make sure there is alignment with the founder's objectives.    

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"You can have a great product, but a compelling story puts the company into motion" - This quote from well-known VC Ben Horowitz hits hard.... Crafting a compelling narrative is pivotal for both written and verbal communication with investors, and here’s why: Connection and Engagement: A well-told story creates an emotional connection with investors, making your pitch memorable. Facts and figures are essential, but it is the narrative that stays with the audience and lands your message with impact. Be authentic and make sure to connect and understand your audience rather than bombard with facts straight off the bat. Clarity of Vision: Storytelling helps articulate the vision and mission of your startup in a clear and relatable manner. It allows investors to see the bigger picture and understand the long-term goals and potential impact of your venture. This is SO useful in highly scientific fields that the generalist will struggle to grasp. They must understand the size and scale of this opportunity which then adds context to the detail on "the how" Simplifying Complexity: High-growth startups most likely deal with complex technologies and markets. A good story breaks down these complexities into digestible and engaging elements, making it easier for investors to grasp your concept and its viability. Simon Sinek's famous 'Start With Why' Ted talk sums this up expertly. Explain your secret sauce as if you are giving a talk to a primary school audience and start with your Why! Building Trust: A compelling narrative builds credibility and trust. It demonstrates your passion, commitment, and depth of understanding - crucial for gaining investor confidence who are often too busy to understand detailed complexities. A calm narrative told in a structured fashion gives a feeling of control and knowledge. As founders and technical operators, mastering the art of storytelling is a highly underrated skill. It is the story that breathes life into your numbers and strategies, making your pitch not just a presentation, but an invitation to join a journey to scale!! #vcfundraising #fundraising #venturecapital #startup #scaleup #venturecapital #investors #seed #seriesa #funding

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👀 HOW DO WE GET DIGITAL HEALTH TO REFOCUS ON PREVENTATIVE CARE?👀 Enter Inbal Tirosh co-founder and CEO of the incredible Livez on this week's episode!! My favorite question to ask founders is what is your founding story? Tune in to hear Inbal explain her founding story, and how they are impacting patients lives and futures! Livez is built to make preventative care easy, convenient, and reduce claims. The Livez screening solution detect 85% of preventable diseases!! Reduces a whopping 75% of healthcare claims. How do they do this? Inbal jumps into it all with me, explaining, "All together if you take every person and they get a plan of what they need to get screened for, based on their individual profile, and their specific data, you can do that with fusion of big data, and you take them on a journey to prevent their predicted risks, based on family history and their own history and so on..." Then you automatically book them with follow up appointments. This is backed by health authorities, and by large insurers! Key Points 🗝 🌐 Livez screening solution covers more than 50 clinical domains and 120 screenings and vaccines, impacting 75% of healthcare claims. Livez is a preventive health platform that focuses on holistic screening and interventions to prevent chronic diseases. 🏥 The platform helps employers and health plans prioritize the health of their population by identifying health risks and guiding individuals towards appropriate interventions. This is an absolutely fascinating conversation about the new frontier of preventative care. Get on board, and tune in to this week's episode of the Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast Also- major teaser that their pricing is FULLY at risk. Why NOT? Learn more about preventative care, and how Digital Health is continuing to evolve!

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📝 FOUNDER fundraising hack = write an investment memo for VCs (template linked below). Raising VC is a multi-step sales process. First you need to convince a single partner to invest, and then that partner needs to bring your deal to Investment Committee (IC) to convince the other partners. The initial VC partner (aka deal champion) will write an investment memo to convince the other partners to vote for your deal during IC. If a VC will write their own memo, why write one for them? Three reasons: 1. Control the frame = dictate how your story is told 2. Signal insider status = show you understand how VCs think 3. Reduce friction to $$$ = VCs will copy/paste from your memo to theirs 😂 🪟 Control the frame There are good ways and bad ways to frame your startup. It's possible that a well-meaning VC will write a memo that frames your startup in sub-optimal ways. The less experience and domain knowledge a VC has, the higher the risk. You want to arm your deal champion with ammo to tell a bullet-proof investment story. Don't leave this up to chance. Write a memo and share it with the VC to make sure they hit the right talking points in their own memo. 🥼 Signal insider status I love when founders provide a written memo alongside the usual pitch deck and financial model. It shows they're clued in to the game. They understand how VC firms work. They're an insider. VCs want to invest in insiders, because insiders are more likely to raise subsequent financing and get to an exit. Outsiders are learning how the game works for the first time and will make rookie mistakes on the VC's dollar. Don't be an outsider. 💵 Reduce friction to $$$ You know how great product companies obsessively reduce the # of clicks a customer needs to make before paying for the product? Speed matters. A 2006 Amazon study found that every 100ms in added page load time cost them 1% in sales. VC is no different. The faster you can make the diligence process, the more likely you'll be able to raise capital. Your fundraising collateral is your product, and a memo is a key way to reduce time to funding (TTF). Every VC will have a set of questions during diligence. Answer them up front in a memo, and watch your prospective investors eyes light up. Deals can be a grueling process involving several late/all-nighters, so the deal team will be thankful if you save them work and make their lives easier. Here is a link to the investment memo template I use. Feel free to repurpose for your own needs: https://lnkd.in/ekGBjGWs

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Impactful Biz, Ops & Investment Roles at Early Startups & VCs: • Chief of Staff to Ex. Head of Product at Google • Founding GTM at the most YC product used by other YC companies in the past four years • Chief of Staff to a Partner at a Top-Tier VC Fund • Head of Platform of a NY State Backed Accelerator • Investment Associate at a Seed Stage Fund Investing in Category-Defining Companies • Partner at a Defense-Focused VC Fund • Chief Revenue Officer of a New Space Company in El Segundo • Venture Capital Analyst at a fund investing in overlooked geographies • Investment Associate at a Spirit-Focused Fund • Strategy & Ops Lead at a Company Focused on Helping Improve Autism • Senior Product Manager at a Company Focused on Building Shopify for Content Creators • Program Manager for a Space Security Company • Open-ended Investment Position at a Top-Tier Accelerator • Biz & Ops Lead for One of the Most Loved Digital Consumer Products 💸 All companies are well-funded and backed by top-tier investors. ⬇ You can find links to the roles above, plus many more, in the comments.

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🌟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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VC funding in healthcare has been more resilient than in other industries. Here are some key takeaways from recent Carta data: 👉 At the priced seed, Series A, and Series B stages, dilution for health startups has noticeably decreased, while dilution for SaaS startups has stayed flat or increased slightly. 👉 In priced seed rounds, median dilution for healthcare companies dipped to 14.2%, compared to 20% for SaaS.  👉 The frequency of bridge rounds surged in the health sector in Q1, jumping to 44.3% from 36.9% in Q4 2023. This is the first significant increase in bridge rounds in healthcare over SaaS since early 2022. 👉 More founder-friendly terms for health startups may result from enduring VC interest since COVID. Healthcare has remained strong through economic turmoil, enabling higher valuations with smaller round sizes. What are the implications? The healthcare sector might see a rise in new ventures due to favorable investment conditions and lower dilution rates. The surge in bridge rounds suggests that certain sectors within healthcare face unique challenges that require interim financing solutions. Founders and investors in the healthcare space- what are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear from you. If you know a founder innovating in healthcare, tag them in the comments! The Artemis Fund is especially interested in groundbreaking care tech companies. You can check out Carta’s full blog linked in the comments. If you haven’t read our latest blog on care tech, you’ll find that there too. #healthcare #caretech #fundraising

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Key takeaways from VC Goat - Vinod Khosla podcast. - The firm cares more about working on interesting problems with large technical solutions rather than just maximizing IRR. The team is there because they believe in the mission. - Khosla assumes they've lost the money the day they invest, and then maximizes for the upside opportunity. He calls it "option value investing" rather than IRR investing. - Khosla has contrarian bets in AI (neuro-symbolic computing, probabilistic approaches), biotech, robotics, crypto, and more. - He believes aviation fuels, fusion energy, new transit systems, and other contrarian areas ignored by most investors will be huge opportunities. - Most large innovations come from outsiders, not industry insiders. Khosla looks for founders who can learn a business rapidly rather than have deep domain expertise. The Future Impact of AI - AI will be deflationary and increase productivity growth to 4% annually vs the typical 2% forecast. This will cause great abundance but also increasing income inequality. - Bipedal robots will take over most manufacturing and manual labor jobs within 20-25 years. This will free humans to be more creative and pursue their passions. - Education will shift from job training to creativity. Uniquely human elements like taste and curation will be most valued in an AI-enabled world. https://lnkd.in/gqBsmbks

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This is a solid basic primer. Over the years, I've observed a growing overlap between Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) mandates. Today, some VCs are ready to invest hundreds of millions, particularly in companies with the potential for significant growth or hyper-growth (10X+ over 10 years) and irrespective of typical Stage A, B, C classification. Meanwhile, some PEs are shifting their focus to companies in the later stages of VC funding, targeting more moderate growth (3X-5X over 5 years). The expectations and approaches of PEs and VCs are overlapping and in some cases converging, as both feel they might be missing out on value capture opportunities.

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10 Harvard-Founded, YC-Backed Unicorns Worth $141B 🦄 According to YC's website, the combined valuation of YC-backed startups is $600B. This means that ~1/4 of YC's value has been created by Harvard founders--Incredible! Stripe, Airbnb, & Rippling drive the power law (93% of value) Btw, who's in Boston this week?! Let's catch up -- Phoenix Fund invests in pre-seed and seed stage startups founded by students and alumni of Harvard/HBS

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Looking beyond #VC funding for your #startup? Aakash Shah of Wyndly (YC W21) reveals how he built a multi-million dollar #healthtech company using creative capital strategies. Learn how he leveraged Y Combinator's network and alternative funding methods to revolutionize allergy treatment. In case you missed it, you can watch the #FundraisingDemystified #podcast here: https://lnkd.in/eZT63YS4

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Want to know what metrics venture capitalists really care about? Aumni's latest analysis dives into 10,000+ data points from portfolio companies at all stages. Here's what we uncovered: 1️⃣ Revenue, net burn rate, FT headcount, and gross margin are the hottest metrics. 2️⃣ Most VCs request 6-9 specific metrics per quarter from each portfolio company. 3️⃣ Cash is king in the early stages but loses its throne as companies grow. 4️⃣ Operational metrics dominate at Series D+, taking up half of the top ten. Key insights: - Cash-on-hand and cash runway plummet in importance from a combined ranking of 3.5 in the seed stage to barely making the top ten by Series D+. - Metrics spotlighting operational efficiency, like gross margin, total OpEx, EBIT, bookings, and debt balance, become crucial as startups scale. PS. check out 🔔 for a winning pitch deck the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel https://lnkd.in/ejp-Bhnu

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"If we’re measuring velocity in days or weeks, it might seem obvious to directly tie a startup’s velocity to the number of hours you work each day. But startup velocity is far more than just hours worked (a nuance that many adherents to startup “hustle” culture get wrong). Velocity is not only about how hard you work, it’s about how you work. At a fundamental level, startup velocity is a measure of a company’s sense of urgency." https://lnkd.in/gV9Z_ift

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The secret—if it ever was one—is out on private equity fondness for vertical software. While PE-backed acquisitions were down 50%+ from a peak in 2021, vertical buyouts have continued to grow, and the fervor seems to be gaining steam. In today’s essay, we will pose an answer to one question: is PE a viable path to exit for a venture-backed startup?

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