Edward Yee

Friday rant time. Investors don't take risks. Everyone wants Tier-1 background.  Nobody is out there for the little guy. Sharing a brief breakdown of VC economics (deep dive link in comments). VC is NOT charity, it's pure financial services. The NUMBER ONE metric we're measured by (for older funds) is DPI, fancy term for how much money you've given back. 1x, shut shop and go home. 2x, better, but still bad. 3x, now you have a reason to live. (for folks wondering how young funds are measured, it's typically MOIC + IRR, basically, how are companies you've invested in performing at present). Assume a ₹200 crore seed stage fund. Needs to give back ₹600 crore at least. Ignoring fees and expenses, you can invest ₹10 crore in 20 companies, for 10% each. Since it's quite clear (Fractal, Zomato, BlueStone, Nykaa) that it takes 12-14 years to IPO a startup in India, you can't wait that long (fund life is 10 years). So you have to exit to Series C/D investors who WILL want a discount. Assume 3 rounds of dilution, leaves you with ~5%, 20% discount, so 4% held. Seed has ~75% mortality rate, so 5 companies left. These 5 have to get you ₹600 crore. At 4% held: 1 company needs to raise at ₹15000 - Just NOT happening 2 companies raise at ₹7500 - Still VERY unlikely 3 companies raise at ₹5000 - Closer 4 companies raise at ₹3750 - Possible 5 companies raise at ₹3000 - More possible ^This is also the price Minimalist was acquired by HUL, which was an OUTLIER outcome and first of it's kind for consumer startups. The above should illustrate how hard the business is. Hence when funds insist on backing folks with successful exits, strong corporate careers, or absent both, just a great educational background, is maximizing luck. At Seed, there are two things that swing it for you. I call it Numbers & Story. If you have a GREAT story (I sold my last company for ₹500 crores), you can have ~no numbers. If you have a good story (I was VP Google India), once again, numbers are lower priority. If you're 22, from a small town college, breaking it down harshly, you NEED numbers. As an investor, we just DON'T ignore amazing growth. That being said, since this is a (very hard) financial business, we're looking at any and every indicator of possible success. Experience here helps in two ways: - Have already made dumb mistakes on OTHER peoples money - Have a network who will pick up the phone and help you/become first customer #venturecapital #startups #funding

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99% of VC funds don’t really invest at inception. 🚫💸 Here are 50 that actually do ↓ 1) Rose Street Capital 2) Outside VC 3) VU Venture Partners 4) Marketplace Capital 5) Gacsym Ventures 6) Treeo VC 7) Baukunst 8) XRC Ventures 9) Underscore VC 10) Outlander VC 11) Forum Ventures 12) Hustle Fund 13) Everywhere Ventures 14) FOVC 15) Geek Ventures 16) Baobab Network  17) Panache Ventures 18) Riceberg Ventures 19) Don't Quit Ventures 20) Pear VC 21) Wonder Ventures 22) Precursor Ventures 23) Wischoff Ventures 24) Nido Ventures 25) Plug and Play Tech Center 26) Gaingels 27) Ethos Fund 28) Dorm Room Fund 29) MBA Ventures 30) Unshackled Ventures 31) Torch Capital 32) Rally Cap VC 33) Cortado Ventures 34) LvlUp Ventures 35) Ganas Ventures 36) Symphonic Capital 37) Alpaca VC 38) Deciens Capital 39) Afore Capital 40) The Council 41) GoAhead Ventures  42) Barrel Ventures 43) Enzo Ventures 44) Redbud VC 45) Next Wave NYC 46) f7 Ventures  47) Recall Capital 48) Launch Factory 49) Boost VC 50) Better Tomorrow Ventures The fastest way to learn what investors want? Ask them. On Hubble, 300+ VCs & Angels are available for 1:1 calls today → www.hubble.social

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🌟 Harlem Capital VC Syllabus 🌟 If you are looking to go 0-100 on Venture Capital, then this guide would be super useful to you. Since its inception, the Harlem Capital Syllabus has been the cornerstone of their Internship program. For the first time, they have decided to release the Syllabus to the community. This beautiful guide includes excellent notes on - Sourcing & Due Diligence - Product Market Fit - KPIs and Unit Economics - Market Sizing - Valuation - Term Sheets & Financial - VC Exits - Fund Operations - The Rise of VC Platform - Additional HCP Resources I also found the Resources Page that includes some articles, videos, podcasts, etc, related to Venture Capital super useful. ~~~~~ ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost it so your network can learn from it, too. And follow me, Fazlur Shah, for more content like this. #startups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #investing

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Distribution, product and fundraising tips from Vital (GP @ Flyer One Ventures) and Ilya (Ex-CEO & Co-founder @ VOCHI (acq by Pinterest)) at fireside with founders at TRMNL4 #Distribution ▪️ Repeatability > luck: Scalable distribution depends on repeatable and predictable channels. Organic can work, but most companies need paid to break out. ▪️ Influencer leverage: Micro and nano influencers drive the most loyal users. Founders should build long-term relationships with them. ▪️ Social by design: Add a social layer to your product early. Aim for distribution outside, virality inside. ▪️ Friction kills loops: Every extra click or step increases churn — optimize for seamless growth loops. #Product ▪️ Prototype before you build: Validate hypotheses with scrappy tools (landing pages, videos, lightweight campaigns) before committing engineering resources. ▪️ User loops + personalization: Empower personalization and emotional hooks. Example: Spotify Wrapped boosted conversion and retention. ▪️ UI/UX as advantage: Strong design and user experience can be a lasting competitive edge. #Fundraising ▪️ Authenticity matters: Don’t suppress your personality — the business is a reflection of you as a founder. ▪️ Question to founder: “What mistake did you make in a previous company?” reveals responsibility, ego management, speed of learning, and honesty. ▪️ VC selection: At early stages, the expertise and network of the VC firm is same important as capital. #B2C #Startup #VC #ConsumerTech #AI #Growth #TRMNL4 #Accelerator

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Turns Out… My Fund LP Portfolio Beat My Direct Portfolio 😅 Maybe I’m not a bad investor — maybe FoFs aren’t the fallacy we think they are. I’ve been reading several great pieces lately and reflecting on a touchy subject: venture funds of funds (FoFs). Hamilton Lane has hammered this home for years: venture isn’t really an “asset class” — it’s an access class 🚪. • 📊 VC has the widest dispersion in private markets. • ⏳ That dispersion hasn’t narrowed, even as VC scaled — the power law still rules. • 📉 Drawdowns cut deeper here than anywhere else. Translation: pick the right managers and you look like a genius; miss them and you look… well, like me on some of my direct deals 🙃. That’s why the Pattern Ventures benchmarking caught my eye: across 2005–2019 vintages, FoFs (yes, even with “double fees”) actually: ✨ Beat direct VC in the median quartile in 14/15 vintages (+0.68x TVPI). ✨ Outperformed the bottom quartile every single time (+0.89x) — and never fell below 1x. ✨ Smoothed returns, with dispersion nearly halved (0.58x vs. 1.21x). Confession time: even in my own portfolio, my LP fund investments have outperformed my direct ones. Not sure if that makes me a bad direct investor 😅 … or just a better FoF LP. Either way, it taught me something about where my real portfolio chops lie. In hedge funds, double fees kill. In venture, access math beats fee math. So the real question for LPs isn’t: “Do we avoid FoFs?” It’s: Do we build selection capability — or buy it? Because in venture, average is the most dangerous place to hide.🚫 🔖 David Dug Skylar Anurag John Samir #VentureCapital #PrivateMarkets #FundofFunds #LPInsights #VCInvesting #PowerLaw #Dispersion #InstitutionalInvesting Asilica | Redshift Capital | Allocate

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I spoke to 22x unicorn investors with more than $ $1.3B+ AUM. Here are the 3 most underrated, hidden levers in Venture Capital   (and it's not capital). The current venture capital landscape makes you think that the most important things you need to succeed are capital and network. → What people don't understand is that capital and network follow foundational principles. They are the RESULT of knowledge, skills, and strategic positioning.  NOT a starting point! From conversations with Saul Klein, Sam Tidswell-Norrish, Salomon Aiach, and Ophelia Brown, I observed 3 hidden levers that they all mastered: 𝟭. 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲 If you want to attract founders, you need a clear profile they can identify with.  People need to know what values and ideas you stand for. Ask yourself: What do you want to be known for? To show the power of a clear profile, here are a few examples:  • Saul Klein, LocalGlobe: Europe's unicorn factory at seed stage + coined "New Palo Alto"  • Harry Stebbings, 20VC: Intersection of media × investing, investment comes with built-in distribution  • Ophelia Brown, Blossom Capital: High conviction European Series A with relentless commitment to help founders succeed If you don't know what you want to stand for, start with point 2. 𝟮. 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 "𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨." - Naval Ravikant Developing a broad understanding across philosophy, history, science, psychology, and human nature will help you position yourself and articulate your worldview. Focus on building judgment and understanding human psychology Two books suggested by top investors:  • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Naval Ravikant)  • A Social History of Knowledge by Peter Burke (Marc Andreessen) 𝟯. 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 Play long-term games with long-term people. I see many people trying to expand their networks with absurdly generic and mundane outreach messages.   When it comes to your network and relationships, don't go for width, go for depth. A few very strong relationships where trust is compounding have much higher value than 100 loose contacts. Imagine how much value you can bring to a few people in your network when your focus is entirely on supporting them. ------ Building something at the intersection of media and investing? Let's connect. I document Europe's venture evolution through conversations with founders and VCs who are reshaping the ecosystem. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/evgxT5bJ

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𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘇𝘇𝗮'𝘀 $𝟭.𝟰 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱! • Plazza raised $1.4 million in a seed funding round from All In Capital along with Better Capital, some angel VCs like Abhishek Goyal, Vivekananda Hallekere, and the Singhania Family Office. •Plazza operates on an omnichannel quick commerce model where Plazza delivers medicines in 15–60 minutes, and you can visit their outlet with nearly 15,000–20,000 SKUs. • Plazza will use these funds to expand 2 more outlets and increase its product range and plans to open more than 20 outlets in the next 12 months. • Though, competition in quick commerce medicine delivery is increasing where Zepto started recently, Instamart partnered with PharmEasy, Blinkit started their own, Flipkart SastaSundar, PhonePe's Pincode, and players like Tata 1mg through bigbasket and others. 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗱... Entrackr Inc42 Media The Economic Times The Times Of India Indian Startup News Reuters The Arc Amazon StartupNews.fyi #QuickCommerce #Zepto #Blinkit #Plazza #Flipkart #Amazon

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