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Could Ali Rowghani's $250 Million Seed-focused Venture be the Game Changer Your Startup Needs?" Ali Rowghani, known for his influential roles at YC and Twitter, is setting his sights on seed-stage start-ups with a ambitious new venture fund raising a whopping $250 million. Ready to bankroll innovative start-ups that promise to shake up their respective industries, Rowghani’s debut fund is set to be a gamechanger. His reputation as an astute business leader coupled with his experience in fostering high growth companies make him perfectly poised to identify and nurture potential unicorns right from inception. Originating from seasoned experience at Y Combinator's Continuity Fund and spearheading exponential growth at Twitter, he brings forth unrivaled expertise in paving the way for start-ups aiming for market disruption. How does this shift of one of the most notable figures in Silicon Valley investing affect your outlook on seed funding? Share your thoughts! Discover more about it here: https://lnkd.in/gQTt_Bjy #AliRowghani #VentureCapital #StartUpFunding #SeedStage #YCContinuityFund #SiliconValleyInvesting #GameChangerFund #InnovationFunding #-TechCrunchNews #BusinessLeadership

Could Ali Rowghani's $250 Million Seed-focused Venture be the Game Changer Your Startup Needs?" Ali Rowghani, known for his influential roles at YC and Twitter, is setting his sights on seed-stage start-ups with a ambitious new venture fund raising a whopping $250 million. Ready to bankroll innovative start-ups that promise to shake up their respective industries, Rowghani’s debut fund is set to be a gamechanger. His reputation as an astute business leader coupled with his experience in fostering high growth companies make him perfectly poised to identify and nurture potential unicorns right from inception. Originating from seasoned experience at Y Combinator's Continuity Fund and spearheading exponential growth at Twitter, he brings forth unrivaled expertise in paving the way for start-ups aiming for market disruption. How does this shift of one of the most notable figures in Silicon Valley investing affect your outlook on seed funding? Share your thoughts! Discover more about it here: https://lnkd.in/ddSuSzcC #AliRowghani #VentureCapital #StartUpFunding #SeedStage #YCContinuityFund #SiliconValleyInvesting #GameChangerFund #InnovationFunding #-TechCrunchNews #BusinessLeadership

Could Ali Rowghani's $250 Million Seed-focused Venture be the Game Changer Your Startup Needs?" Ali Rowghani, known for his influential roles at YC and Twitter, is setting his sights on seed-stage start-ups with a ambitious new venture fund raising a whopping $250 million. Ready to bankroll innovative start-ups that promise to shake up their respective industries, Rowghani’s debut fund is set to be a gamechanger. His reputation as an astute business leader coupled with his experience in fostering high growth companies make him perfectly poised to identify and nurture potential unicorns right from inception. Originating from seasoned experience at Y Combinator's Continuity Fund and spearheading exponential growth at Twitter, he brings forth unrivaled expertise in paving the way for start-ups aiming for market disruption. How does this shift of one of the most notable figures in Silicon Valley investing affect your outlook on seed funding? Share your thoughts! Discover more about it here: https://lnkd.in/gQTt_Bjy #AliRowghani #VentureCapital #StartUpFunding #SeedStage #YCContinuityFund #SiliconValleyInvesting #GameChangerFund #InnovationFunding #-TechCrunchNews #BusinessLeadership

Summary: Benchmark Partners, one of Silicon Valley's leading VC firms, has stuck with raising around $425 million in capital every few years, but is also in the process of raising an additional $170 million exclusively from its partners for a separate fund called Benchmark Partners Founders' Fund I. Key takeaways: Benchmark Partners is an equal partnership firm with a successful track record of investing in companies like eBay, Snap, Uber, and Twitter. The firm's partners are doubling down on their investments by raising a separate fund composed mainly of their own money. Other VC firms, such as Homebrew and Sequoia, also have separate funds for partners' personal investments. Counter arguments: Some may argue that a separate fund exclusively for partners' personal investments could potentially create conflicts of interest. Relying solely on their own money for investments may limit Benchmark's ability to invest in larger deals. #venturecapital #vc #venture

Exclusive: The stars are aligning for Dick Costolo, the one-time chief executive of Twitter. His venture capital firm 01 Advisors, which he founded alongside Adam Bain, Twitter's former president and chief operating officer, recently closed on $395 million in capital commitments for a third fund. Flush with cash, the partners are seeing a flood of hyper-growth startups come to market for funding after a two-year dry spell. "We were on Zooms with each other and with founders and CEOs through the holidays," Costolo told Business Insider. "You try to be picky and patient and only do the deals where you think like, wow, everything is lined up beautifully here, but we're super, super busy right now and looking at tons of stuff." Dick and I discussed the startup funding frenzy in artificial intelligence, valuations coming back to earth, and a healthier crop of startups coming to market for funding ... https://lnkd.in/eT6EEM-C

Storied venture firm Benchmark Capital Partners announced it is raising $425 million for its 11th, AI-focused fund. Dubbed Benchmark I to represent a “new technological era,” the firm noted it plans to maintain the new fund name sequencing until the “odometer resets.” As early backers of Silicon Valley giants like eBay, Uber, and Twitter, Benchmark has maintained a consistent fund size and a low-volume dealmaking pace, even during the ZIRP era. This approach has sharply contrasted with the broader venture landscape over the past decade, characterized by ever-increasing fund sizes that challenge VC’s return calculus. Raising Benchmark I to the same size as its many predecessors demonstrates the firm's continued adherence to its hyper-successful strategy. In a letter to LPs, Benchmark noted that it believes this approach will “enforce accountability and discipline” in a landscape where mega funding rounds in AI startups continue to grab headlines.

I've raised over $5M from Venture Capitalists, here is my 1 biggest hack. There are 2 types of VC's: Group 1: Those who get it. They are open minded, listen, ask thoughtful questions and genuinely try to understand the vision you see. Group 2: Those who don't get it. They are closed minded, don't listen, make bold (false) statements and try to convince you why they know you will fail. As soon as you realize someone is in Group 2, end the call or conversation immediately. They are losers. They are toxic. They suck. Run from them. Only focus on Group 1. They are winners, they are cool, they will succeed with you.

The biggest missed deals of Bessemer Venture Partners: As one of the time-honored venture capital firms, Bessemer's investment portfolio includes glitters like Twitch, Pinterest, Shopify, LinkedIn, Skype, DocuSign, and many others. Each shining brighter than the last. What sets them apart? Their Anti-Portfolio - a candid showcase of 'the ones that got away.' This includes those golden opportunities they could've seized, but didn’t. In retrospect, those prospects blossomed into titans of industry. Bessemer’s audacious transparency is not just a lesson, but a revolution in the venture capital hemisphere. They display their 'misses' with as much pride as their 'hits'. PS. check out 🔔 for a winning pitch deck the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel https://lnkd.in/eDkT27Kt

A smart venture investor (Jon Soberg) once told me that venture capital is just recruitment with a better business model. The story Justin Pryor weaves on a16z's logic for backing Instagram, Okta and Slack underline the wisdom of that perspective: in the early stage, it's all about the founders, so when an investor sees conviction and superpowers, the checks come out. And one more thing: it is often said that other founders are a superior source of dealflow, as they are on the field sharing a vision of the future and the builders creating it...that's a key piece of validation. https://lnkd.in/gZXC58vP

Venture capitalists and their limited partners are not looking for fast exits. While some might think this is a good thing, a small fast exit doesn't really help with returns. We might congratulate and celebrate with the founders, but that's not how the business model works. Large companies who dominate their markets are always what we look for. In my opinion, everyone who seeks venture funding should aim for that as well.