Latest Insights From Venture Capitalists

The VC playbook is evolving. Fast. The traditional model of early-stage investing (spread bets, wait it out, hope for a unicorn) is giving way to something much more active, integrated, and operational. I’m seeing venture firms act less like passive check-writers and more like operators, builders, and transformation partners. The lines between VC, PE, and incubators are blurring: ✅ Andreessen Horowitz is already structured as an RIA and has played a direct role in privatizations, token economies, and governance-heavy bets. ✅ ⁠Sequoia Capital turned itself into an evergreen vehicle, not your classic 10-year fund. ✅ General Catalyst bought a hospital network. Not invested. Bought. ✅ Lightspeed becoming an RIA signals a shift toward public market access, buyouts, secondaries, and everything in between. At Aperiam, we realized this model is especially effective in AdTech, MarTech, and AI-driven software. Capital alone isn’t enough. What founders want (and what growth demands) is sleeves rolled up, strategic insights on the ecosystem, executional help on GTM and partnerships, and deep product intuition. This isn’t a tweak in tactics. It’s a structural shift in what it means to build and back the next generation of tech companies 🚀 #advertising #media #tech #VC

Over the past +3 months, we've been researching how great VCs spot supertrends before the rest of the market. We've interviewed over a dozen elite investors to understand their strategies. Today, we're releasing our latest "Investors Guide" packed with all of the lessons we've learned. Along with our own insights, you’ll find wisdom from exceptional investors who who were years early to the opportunities in AI, crypto, computational biology, digital commerce, emerging geographies like Latin America, and much more. Here's exactly what you'll get: 📈 A +12,000 word deeply researched guide. 🎯 15 specific strategies to help you generate and test investment ideas. 📚 20 books recommended by great VCs to expand your mind. 💾 8 data sources to help you spot and understand emerging trends. ☕ +15 investors’ insights + strategies from 1:1 interviews. (A month of coffees in a single guide.) 📲 6 new technologies you should play with to understand the future. 👩🚀4 “fringe” movements that might spawn the next supertrend. ...And tons more! 🔗 Jump in here: https://lnkd.in/etAYdSVM 🙏 A huge thank you to Danny Rimer, Kirsten Green, Tomasz Tunguz, Rebecca Kaden, Firat Ileri, Jesse Walden, Kyle Samani, Zoe Weinberg, Nathan Benaich, Sarah Guo, Rex Woodbury, Scott Sobel, and Zavain Dar for sharing their insights!

🔎 What actually sets standout LPs, VCs, and Private Equity managers apart in today’s market? The latest conversation with Patrick Miller from J.P. Morgan Asset Management offered some grounded insights—here’s what’s shaping investment strategy in 2025: 🤝 Long-Term Partnerships - Venture capital isn’t about trading in and out. The most effective LPs and GPs focus on stability and building relationships that last through market cycles. Founders like those behind Airbnb and Uber launched in volatile times—steady hands matter. 📈 Institutional Experience - Teams with decades of experience bring perspective and best practices, especially during downturns. Patrick’s team, for example, sits on over 215 boards and has invested across multiple cycles, helping GPs navigate transitions and growth. 🌐 Network & Introductions - It’s not just about capital. The right introductions—to LPs, founders, and industry leaders—can unlock unique opportunities and differentiated access. A strong network is often the edge in winning top deals. ⚖️ Fund Size & Ownership - There’s nuance in fund structure: smaller funds can deliver outsized returns through ownership concentration, while larger funds may rely on a higher hit rate. Both models have their place, but understanding the math behind them is crucial. 🤖 AI’s Impact - 71% of Q1 venture dollars went to AI. Early-stage AI startups are scaling faster and more efficiently, sometimes reaching profitability before raising later rounds. This shift has second-order effects on the entire capital stack—something every investor should watch. 👥 People Drive Performance - In private equity, sector specialists and proven operators are the key to value creation. The right person can take a company from $10M to $100M+. In both VC and PE, it’s about backing teams with differentiated expertise, networks, or strategies. 🧑💼 Mentorship & Initiative - The best advice for anyone in this space? Find a mentor, show initiative, and create value before you ask for anything in return. Building genuine relationships and returning value on someone’s time is what creates a lasting “viral loop” of opportunity. Curious how these trends will shape the next decade of VC & Private Equity? Share your comments below. #VentureCapital #LPs #Startups #AssetManagement #PrivateEquity #VCs #Investing Link to Podcast in Comments Below 👇

The venture capital landscape is changing fast. In this week's edition of 99%tech, I deep dive on reflections from Super Return Miami and Carta's VC Fund Performance Report. 📊 Return dispersion is growing. Smaller funds still dominate the top decile—but average performance is falling. Meanwhile, more emerging managers are launching than ever before. What does this mean? Picking the right fund is harder—and more important—than ever. 📉 Liquidity is top of mind. SuperReturn made one thing clear: LPs want real returns, not just paper gains. Secondaries, continuation funds, and IPOs as transitions—not exits—are reshaping the liquidity conversation. 💸 Why early DPI isn’t necessarily good. Yes, DPI matters. But in early-stage VC, fast DPI often signals small, premature exits—not long-term value creation. 💼 LP bases are growing. New SEC rules, tighter check sizes, and powerful new platforms (like AngelList and Sydecar) are reshaping how managers build their LP communities. 🚀 AI is reshaping the capital stack. We’re entering the age of the “camel seed-strapper”: lean, capital-efficient startups that are going farther, faster—with less. But that also creates tension: traditional VCs are under pressure to deploy, while the best companies may not need the same capital velocity. Curious what you're seeing? #VC #EmergingManagers #LPs #DPI #AI #SeedStrapping #FluentVentures #CamelStartups #VentureCapital #SuperReturn #Forbes

Every six months, we poll 50+ venture firms investing in real estate tech. Our latest survey just closed, and the data might surprise you. Here are 5 insights you should know: 1/ Early Stage is Back • Pre-seed to Series A interest ticked up • Growth-stage investing fell significantly • Demand for early deals isn't going anywhere The late-stage party might be over, but seed money is still flowing. 2/ Clean Tech is Dead (For Now) • Hostile US administration cutting subsidies • Zero meaningful exits to point to • "Climate" firms rebranding to "energy" and "infrastructure" Even dedicated climate investors are quietly backing away. 3/ The Big Three Still Dominate • Data & AI remains king • Construction tech holds strong • SaaS drives the most investor demand If you're building in these categories, you're in the right place to catch investor interest. 4/ Services Plays Are Having a Moment • Narrow majority now backing services businesses • Previously overlooked by most tech investors • Real estate operators are finally getting VC attention The "we don't invest in services" rule is breaking down. 5/ Investment Activity May Have Peaked • Investors expecting higher deal volume dropped from 81% to 56% • 15% now believe we'll see fewer deals in the coming year • Strong 12-month velocity run may have hit natural headroom Sentiment stepped back, but investors remain generally optimistic about the future. The bottom line: We're seeing a market correction, not a collapse. Quality early-stage deals in the right categories are still getting done. Which of these trends surprises you most? Full report linked in the comments.

Just got out of a partner meeting with 3 top-tier VCs. Here’s what they’re really thinking about AI startups right now. Short version? The gold rush is over. Now they want picks, shovels, and cash flow. Here’s what came out of the room—unfiltered: 1. “We’re drowning in wrappers.” Everyone’s pitching an LLM layer with a sexy UI. But most have zero retention, no moats, and fragile margins. If OpenAI ships your roadmap in their next release, you're done. 2. “We’re looking for real workflow ownership.” Founders who deeply understand a specific, painful, expensive use case— and wedge into it with AI as a 10x unlock, not just a buzzword. Think: — AI that shortens sales cycles — AI that cuts payroll costs — AI that eliminates compliance risk Not “AI that writes tweets.” 3. “Infra fatigue is setting in.” Infra plays are sexy—until they’re commoditized. If you’re building infra, you need deep tech defensibility and a built-in GTM wedge (dev comms, plugin ecosystems, etc.). 4. “We want revenue, not just razzle.” No one cares about your demo anymore. They want paying customers, usage growth, and retention curves that don’t nosedive after day 3. 5. “Boring is the new hot.” The loudest decks are getting ignored. The quiet ones—solving dusty problems in healthcare, logistics, procurement, etc.—are getting partner-level attention. VCs aren’t anti-AI. They’re anti-hype. They’ve seen too many founders chase the model, not the market. So if you’re building in AI in 2025—don’t lead with the tech. Lead with the pain, the wedge, and the money flow. That’s what gets funded now. ♻ Repost to update the ecosystem. 🔔 Follow Anshuman Sinha for more Startup insights. #Startups #AI #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #LeanStartups

Even though I run a Venture Capital fund, I was super surprised to learn that VC funds are now holding more dry powder than at any point since the 2008 financial crisis. What? I knew this to be the case post tech bubble of 2020-2021, where limited partners poured capital into funds, but I thought that by 2025, those reserves had been depleted. If you talk to founders, it definitely feels that way! But I was wrong, according to PitchBook (see chart below) here's what's behind the VC cash glut: ✔️ Record Highs: 53% of the $677B in global VC dry powder is held by funds aged three to five years. ✔️ Market Downturn Impact: The prolonged tech market downturn has left VCs with excess cash and limited deployment opportunities to make fund math work. ✔️ Alternative Liquidity Options: Many VCs have explored options like selling extensions, continuation funds, or flipping equity stakes. ✔️ Strategic Rationing: VCs are rationing capital due to fewer chances to deploy reserves, with increased time between funding rounds for startups. ✔️ Cautious Approach: The perception that there just aren’t tons of large scale, quality deals out there, VCs are now considering options like allocating more funds for follow-on investments or even returning capital commitments, but I doubt many will do that. We extended our fund deployment timeline to deal with this issue. Anyway, good news for founders if they can unlock some of this cash...

Fintech investors are deploying $7B per quarter, with U.S. fintech startups capturing nearly half of global funding. But who’s leading the charge in early-stage investing? I spoke with three of the most active players for Forbes (link in the comment), highlights below: 🔹 Mike Collins CEO at Alumni Ventures – Backed by 11,000+ investors and $1.5B raised, they focus on co-investments with top-tier firms. Their thesis? Big problems, strong teams, and market signals matter more than timing. 🔹 Scott Hartley Co-Founder at Everywhere Ventures – A global network of founders and operators investing in fintech infrastructure, digital identity, and risk mitigation. Their secret? Founder referrals and backing startups solving fundamental problems. 🔹 Ed Roman Managing Partner at Hack VC – One of the top Web3 and crypto investors, betting big on DeFi, security-focused blockchain protocols, and AI-driven crypto solutions. They see the post-FTX landscape as filtering out short-term opportunists, leaving room for true innovators. ♻️ Find this valuable? Repost to share with others. If you are curious about the future of finance and technology, follow me to read about the latest insights, innovations and interviews with the people that will get us there! #Fintech #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #Innovation #Crypto #DeFi #Investing

So it took me a while, but I finally went down the rabbit hole on this “Venture Capital is dead/broken” narrative. As I suspected (see newsletter #183), those who spread this message after Lightspeed’s recent announcement that it was changing its status away from a classical Venture Capital fund didn’t really know what they were talking about. A closer look also helped debunk a few myths that one commonly hears about the current state of VC. I’ll dive more into some of these trends in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.  🦄 Myth 1: “Venture Capital firms are embracing the Private Equity model” Fewer than two dozen VC firms have taken the RIA status since 2019 out of 4,000 VC firms in total. It’s expensive and cumbersome. You need size to justify moving out of the classical VC fund model. 🦄 Myth 2: “The IPO markets are closed” The period from 2019 to 2021 was an exceptional time in terms of IPO exits. Long-term analysis reveals that (a) M&A has historically been an equally viable exit route and (b) exit values are at the same level as those observed during 2014-2018. 🦄 Myth 3: "Nobody wants to invest in VC anymore" VC fundraising is at or above pre-pandemic levels. However, there’s a “flight to quality:” large established players capture the overwhelming majority of LP money. Times are tough for Emerging Managers. So what’s really happening? Startups stay private longer; a lot of their value accrues post-IPO; and billion-dollar VC funds can’t rely on the power law to make the math work. Large VC firms that can afford it have become “multi-stage capital machines” more apt to trade in and around traditional Venture Capital territories. For everyone else, it’s business as usual. Thankfully, the “tourists” are being flushed away and craftsmen and -women in VC can make their voices heard again. It’s not easy, but now’s the best time to launch a VC fund. Hone your investment thesis and be prepared for a long, bumpy ride. Full analysis here: https://lnkd.in/egkCE75C #venturecapital #notdead #privateequity #IPO #exits #RIA #fundraising