Chris Pisarski

10 years ago, if you had $100M in ARR, $1B public enterprise valuation and strong top-line growth, you were likely going to IPO. Companies went public with less maturity, and the market was hungry for growth stories. Today, the bar is closer to $500M+ ARR, $7.5B+ public enterprise valuation, and you need to be growing 30%+ YoY. In addition, public investors expect significant float when only ~10% of shares are sold at the IPO, which means raising $750M–$1B at the offering. And they want to see the potential for that company to grow toward $100B in enterprise value. With so much private capital available, companies like Stripe and Databricks have delayed going public (while in many ways, running like a publicly traded company). But these are outliers IMO. Going public is still the north star for any company. You gain stronger enterprise credibility, immediate market feedback, and a bigger brand presence by being a public company. And importantly, public companies must be more efficient and transparent, having to report performance numbers to the government, shareholders, and board members. If you have the right ingredients, including predictable revenues, operational discipline, and durable growth at scale, you should no doubt go public. That’s what separates companies that are simply big from those that are truly Companies of Consequence.

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2009: The financial crisis had crushed fundraising. Barely any new capital went into venture funds. Yet the vintages from those years went on to deliver some of the strongest returns in history. Fast forward to today (2024/2025): Venture capital fundraising is at its lowest point in more than a decade. What does that mean? - ⁠Less money will be available to startups over the next years - The bar for raising capital goes up again: quality matters - ⁠Entry valuations will reset to saner levels --> Funds raised now are likely to outperform, just as history shows The paradox of venture: the best time to commit capital is exactly when most people hesitate. Investors (Limited Partners) should lean in now, not when the next boom makes it easy.

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Product-market fit genuinely feels different...and it'll show up in the data Demo to close rates are the easiest thing to look at for product-market fit right now. Vertical AI startups in our portfolio are seeing 50%+ demo to close rates, even with brand new account executives selling the product. It's happening in every market from AI takeoffs to AI CSR/Voice software to AI procurement solutions. When you see a demo to close rate over 50% chances are you have a jaw dropping customer experience and you should put your foot on the gas. If you're seeing something dramatically lower in mid-market or SMB ACV categories, it's worth revisiting your product and/or your pitch.

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🚨 Another YC unicorn minted 🚨 Eight Sleep (YC S15) just raised $100M at a $1B valuation—but the real story isn’t funding. It’s how they escaped the “mattress trap” by creating a new category: Sleep Fitness. I break down: YC’s category creation playbook How data + execution built a moat Where Eight Sleep goes next (AI + healthcare) 🎥 Full episode here ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eh448arg

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This is Jack Altman (yes, brother of Sam Altman), the founder of Lattice, a multi-billion dollar company. Now, he manages Alt Capital, a $150M early-stage venture fund. He recently recently went to origins inc podcast and shared hands downs some of the most valuable lessons for founders. Heres my top 6 things to bookmark and repeat to myself: 1. Why you should stop playing games you don't want to win: https://lnkd.in/djP5E7Hh 2. How to find the PMF: https://lnkd.in/dudJ5Neb 3. Why you should be obsessed with knowing your users inside and out: https://lnkd.in/dq9CXHZE 4. You shouldn't seek external validation: https://lnkd.in/dP8s37vn 5. Why you should think of it as an infinite game: https://lnkd.in/dVFt9R2f 6. How to use a small team as a competitive advantage: https://lnkd.in/dXe8r6TY Save this to come back later to study 🔥📩 Join my newsletter read by +45k founders and VCs: https://lnkd.in/dczX2bya

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The best pitches I've funded never started with TAM. They started with pain. The best early-stage investors invest in insights not market size. Last quarter, I reviewed 250 pitch decks. Only 18 made it to a second meeting. Out of those, 4 got to partner meetings. Only 1 got funded. What killed 249 pitches: • $10B TAM slides with zero understanding of the actual problem • Beautiful decks that couldn't answer "why you?" • Technical founders who couldn't tell a story • Business founders who couldn't explain the tech The funded founder? Different breed entirely. She weaved her professional journey around a clear industry problem and provided unique insights on solving it based upon that background. Showed receipts. Named 5 other people with the same issue. Then explained exactly how she'd already started solving it. Market size came up once. Towards the end. What Actually Matters: Clarity of problem > Size of market Depth of insight > Breadth of vision Proof you can execute > Projections you can't Your story matters more than your slides. I've passed on perfect pitches from ex-McKinsey consultants or recently graduated MBA students from top schools. I've funded scrappy founders with terrible slides who lived the problem for years. Because at early stage, we're not betting on your PowerPoint skills. We're betting on your obsession. The founders who get funded don't sell us on markets. They teach us about problems we didn't know existed. Stop pitching the market. Start proving the insight. #VentureCapital #Startups #Fundraising #Founders #Storytelling

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I always hear founders at pre seed say 'we did this without any marketing'. That's really impressive. Truly...it is. But also...why? I understand that you aren't going to hire a head of growth yet. Or buy ads. That's good. Don't do these things. But even at early stage there is a punch list of things you should 1000% be doing. Here it is: - have a coherent positioning document. make sure that you are saying things clearly, coherently and consistently. Yeah, it will change. Update it. - have a GREAT, well designed 5-10 page website. It costs like $1000, and makes you look bigger / stronger than you are. Strong signal to customers, future employees (and VCs) - a whitepaper that explains clearly what your customer problem is, your unique approach, and why you should exist. IN CUSTOMER VOICE (please). - active social channels, most importantly, YOUR OWN. I get it, I don't really want to be doing this either. In the words of a wise friend 'the best time to do content marketing was ten years ago. the second best time is today.' In the age of Ai there is no excuse for not having the above. 'No marketing' isn't the flex you think it is.

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