“There’s far more flexibility than people realize.” Many people in venture have heard of DAFs. Fewer understand what you can actually do with one. That was the premise behind our latest virtual event, and after an hour with Daniel Blake (CEO of UI Charitable and a former founder who sold his company to Scotts Miracle-Gro) … Read more
“Hey, I’m a Venture Partner at XYZ Capital…” Ah, those words. I bet you’ve heard them before. But here’s the thing nobody talks about: That title? It could mean about 5 different things. And if you’re raising money… You NEED to know the difference. Trust me on this one – I’ve been on both sides … Read more
Let’s be honest – when we talk about VC performance, the conversation almost always boils down to one thing: “Can this GP pick winners?” It’s the sexy part of the business. Finding the next unicorn. Backing visionary founders. Nailing the perfect thesis. But here’s what most people miss. Behind the scenes, savvy GPs use specific … Read more
Most emerging managers think about IR as something that happens after you’ve raised. The firms getting to yes faster have figured out it starts much earlier, and the person running the finance function is often the one making it happen. We brought together four people who live at that intersection for a conversation on what … Read more
I worked at a VC fund that raised ~$50 million from LPs, but was able to put ~3X that amount (~$150 million) to work. How is that possible?It’s due to the SBIC program run by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Have you heard of it? If you’re raising a VC fund, PE fund, or FoF, you … Read more
“You become known for the things that hit.” Adrian Aoun is an investor in OpenAI, Anduril, Pinterest, Stripe, Airbnb, and Uber, among hundreds of other companies. He’s backed roughly 300 startups, about 40 of which are now unicorns or decacorns. He’s also an LP in around 100 venture funds. Ask him about his investment thesis, … Read more
I use Senja to collect testimonials. Like any early-stage company … … their software has bugs. In the process of hitting those bugs: I picked up a simple technique you can use for product-market fit detection. Confession time. I’m lazy. I DO NOT like visiting websites to file bugs with SaaS products. I just want … Read more
Sometimes you get a masterclass about VC – and about life – in the most unexpected places. Like I did this past fall. The scene? A yearly startup + VC event in NYC—an event with a lot of hamburgers and milkshakes involved. But first, we should rewind just a bit to earlier that day. I … Read more
“Subject to board approval” “As determined in good faith by the board” Have you ever seen one of those quotes? 👆 I’m sure your lawyer has… so you should ask them for legal advice, not me! #disclaimer But I do want to share some personal experience around this topic. So you know why it’s important … Read more
“Claude told me to sign up; I don’t know what your service does.” Google is sending less traffic than it did a year ago. Your potential customers are finding and evaluating products inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. And most founders are still running the 2021 playbook. This week, we ran a working session on what’s … Read more
