Mikhail Y.’s Post

As I was looking around on the internet for reviews on venture capital firms (𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘬), and saw that 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 is still down (since Feb 2023 it seems), I dove into the rathole of Reddit and came across this thread which offers 𝟱𝟬 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗖 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱. Enjoy...   Oh and of course, here’s my top 3 of funny and insightful takeaways (we all love lists, don't we?):   1️⃣ “Selling to VCs is incredibly difficult. These people are some of the most selective people in the world, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙨𝙖𝙮 "𝙣𝙤" 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜.” 2️⃣ “The advice you get from most VCs today is based on something they read and not personal anecdotes. 𝘿𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙡.”   3️⃣ “If you want to 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀, you’re better off joining an actual startup. Your involvement with the founding team will peak during the diligence process, and then it will wane off from there.”     PS on The 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱, the interesting story can be found here on how this site drew the ire of some VCs that didn’t like their reviews: https://lnkd.in/eqUgW528 Still wondering why it’s not up anymore, Adeo Ressi - it was ... insightful 😂   PPS for the founders out there 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙑𝘾 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨, 𝙇𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙚.𝙫𝙘  now has a number of reviews up here: https://lnkd.in/eiaPdAte #startups #vc #venturecapital #reviews #vcreviews #thefunded #landscapevc

We're expanding across the oceans and we didn't even know! 🌐 Interesting to see especially a strong US growth in our "Build in Public" VC newsletter, where we share: - Our LP updates (redacted, of course, but as transparently as we can), and - Our research articles, like our series with our LPs over at Molten Ventures and more recently Multiple Capital and Aldea Ventures. - Or our European Deeptech market analysis powered by exclusive Dealroom.co data. We believe transparency, soloGPs, emerging fund managers NOT from a traditional career path are the KEY to unlock the next Venture wealth creation wave. And we want to champion it! Great to see people outside of our existing LP network, as well as founders and non-investor operators are now following the journey from across the globe :) Let's keep the hustle going: If you're also keen to start building more in public, Substack and beehiiv are still great tools to grow your publication. And I'd recommend reading up more from the founders of Hustle Fund, Carry, and Weekend Fund for VC stack insights, and Dr. Andre Retterath for Data Driven VC tips. 💪 #deeptech #familyoffices #limitedpartners #venturecapital #angelinvesting - - - I'm a soloVC building my fund & community in public. 📢 On a mission to build a new kind of tech-driven VC firm at the intersection of Venture, Science and Community 👩🔬 👨💻 👫 💹 ❤️ & Follow+ to keep up with the journey 🛣️

Rolling into another day of the Primary Summit. Hit me up if we should connect onsite. Kudos to the Primary Ventures team so far, as yesterday’s Pre-Seed Summit was on point. Mar Hershenson, Benjamin Sun, Chris Douvos, Zach Weinberg, and Graham Pingree all dropping helpful nuggets for fund managers. Some paraphrased highlights: - Chris Douvos (AHOY Capital) - Most fund decks are terrible. Start with your people (not your strategy) and know you have about 6 slides of his attention. - Zach Weinberg (Curie.Bio ) - beleives SF’s AI talent is a significant advantage over NY, wouldn’t build AI in NY. Also questions if VC exits can keep up with VC expansion (generally hilarious and smart Twitter follow) - Mar Hershenson (Pear VC) - VC is so much more competitive now. It’s not enough to be an ex-founder with a great network and domain expertise. Have a better “why you are different” or do something else! - Benjamin Sun (Primary Venture Partners)- still sees arbitrage in going long NY venture (vs. SF). Do the work to keep various influential networking nodes aware of what you’re doing and how you think.

🔍 Curious about the Q3 venture market? The season might’ve been quiet, but beneath the surface, there were exciting shifts! As global venture funding dipped by $200M, some surprising trends began to take shape, hinting at a potential bullish season ahead. 📈 If you’re gearing up for “money season” or just looking to understand where the market’s headed, don’t miss our list of Q3’s top 15 deals. Explore the big players and patterns that could shape your fundraising strategy moving forward! 👉 Read the full list here https://lnkd.in/e3AyAE7R Partior Allium Morpho Labs Sahara Labs Chaos Labs PIP Labs Space and Time Bridge Edge Matrix Chain

"VC shots fired." Kerfuffles are rare in Venture Capital, a traditionally quiet industry. This evolving #Reddit story makes it all the more intriguing. The company went public yesterday, and as usual, anyone involved with it since 2005 posted on X in (self?)-congratulatory messages. One post stood out. Initialized Capital, one of Reddit's VCs, congratulated only one of the two co-Founders, Steve Huffman. The other co-Founder, Alexis Ohanian Sr., who's acted as the face of the company and is credited with building its community, shared his surprise in an X post that's gathered over one million views so far (see image below). It felt like a knife in the back: Ohanian co-founded Initialized Capital and brought the Reddit opportunity to the fund. Most of the press has downplayed Ohanian's role in the company's development, which led to a $6 billion valuation. Reddit's story is complicated. The more I look into it, the more fascinating it is from an entrepreneurship and VC standpoint. ▶️ I started writing an article about it. If you have more info on the co-Founder and VC relationship, please share. More context and follow-ups below. 👇

We are rolling out the first version of our new Investor Matching feature on the Gilion growth platform. It is a data driven way to let founders get warm introductions to more top VCs and investors. It’s pretty simple. 1. We work with a significant amount of top investors across Europe, who have defined their screening criteria for their investment sweet spot 2. Founders sign up to the growth platform www.gilion.com and request a warm introduction to new investors 3. If there is a match vs the predefined criteria, the founders choose which investor they want to get a warm introduction to and when  4. Founders get introduced via personalised email to the right person at this investor when they choose to use the option (no data is shared from the platform, and no investor gets notified, the founders control exactly who knows what when) Last week we worked with one of the fastest growing startups at the moment and helped them to get meetings with several of the top investors in the world. Thanks to the data on the Gilion platform and our investor network, it was a great meeting for both sides. Fundraising is an art and involves a lot of psychology, strategy and relationship tactics. That’s why this feature is built entirely with a founders-first mindset. No data leaves the platform. The founders choose exactly who they share what with and when. So that founders can be in full control of their fundraising. Founders who are looking to meet with more investors, give it a spin today! And investors who want to meet with more high quality founders matching your sweet spot, please DM to be included in the network! Let’s fly! 🚀

Based on the latest data the early-stage software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups are on track to be remarkably strong performers for their investors. And prime candidates for successful exits. PitchBook, the global gold standard for information on startups and venture capital dug deep into the data for tech startups in its recently-published "2023 VC Emerging Opportunities" report. [You have to download the preview, at no charge, to see the best data.] PitchBook is predicting that early-stage SaaS startups will outperform the cross-vertical average, for tech verticals, by a net 5.5% on an annualized basis. Their prediction for exits is just as dramatic. 🌏 🌎 🌍 #pitchbook #saas #startup 🌏 🌎 🌍 REG CROWDER - Freelance financial writer - www.RegCrowder.com https://lnkd.in/eJy_T3wT

🔍 Curious about the Q3 venture market? The season might’ve been quiet, but beneath the surface, there were exciting shifts! As global venture funding dipped by $200M, some surprising trends began to take shape, hinting at a potential bullish season ahead. 📈 If you’re gearing up for “money season” or just looking to understand where the market’s headed, don’t miss our list of Q3’s top 15 deals. Explore the big players and patterns that could shape your fundraising strategy moving forward! 👉 Read the full list here https://lnkd.in/eknB9S3N https://lnkd.in/eknB9S3N 

💬"Yaroslav became one of the 20 participants of the first cohort of the venture builder program Mission Possible, which gave a powerful boost to the project. «‎Because the development and testing of the service was taking place in parallel, including at design thinking workshops, consultations with founders and managers of well-known Ukrainian IT companies, creating a pitch and further presentation of the product on pitch day, searching for product market fit, and, in fact, the launch itself», Yaroslav tells us." 📝Find out how the idea came about and how the FlexiPay service works. Yaroslav Kaplan talked about investments, monetization, and future plans. 📌Read the full article via the link: https://lnkd.in/dipJWRJe

🦄 My 10 favorite VC firms Last week a friend asked me, “Who are your favorite investors?” Surprisingly, no one had ever asked me that before! Here's my top 10 list, in no particular order. I have no inside info on their returns, I just like their style! Thrive Capital - generalist, lifecycle capital (OpenAI), minimalist website Founders Fund - opinionated, definite optimism, libertarian Bedrock - narrative violations, quadruple down on winners (OpenAI) Terrain - "call your shot", website has a photo from The Sandlot ⚾ Benchmark - equal partnership, consistent $425m fund sizes Sequoia Capital - the Lebron James of VC, Stripe secondary tx Goodwater - mission and values, data driven, recycles profits Trust Fund - monetizing an audience with VC, ironic "old money" branding Atomic - my favorite incubator (Sauron, Exowatt) Forecast Labs - a CVC with a unique edge (TV ads) for consumer companies Who’s on your list? Shout out to Trae Stephens, Eric Stromberg, Chi-Hua Chien, Jack Abraham, and Arjun Kapur for showing folks how it's done! /DALL-E: "create an image of cool looking VCs" 🤣