October was a record month that almost nobody in it actually experienced. Global venture funding totaled $59 billion in October, up 45% from a year earlier, according to Crunchbase. But seven companies raising billion-dollar rounds took just over 40% of it, and AI-driven companies took 66%. DeepSeek’s $15.9 billion round was the largest venture deal ever for a Chinese company.
Two rounds announced yesterday show what the rest of the market looks like. Marble raised an $11 million seed, led by Polychain Capital, to build private credit rails for the AI compute buildout. Toutix raised a $3 million seed from Evolution Equity Partners to give teams and venues ownership of their fan data — after signing its first clients, including a Rhode Island soccer club. Neither chased the headline. They focused on the few who were already listening.
The lesson is one I wrote about in The Impact Factor, in a chapter called “The Pareto Principle”: “The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” And Ronda Del Boccio’s practical version: “Just like any other area of life, zooming in on one or two areas – focusing on that 20 per cent of your efforts – will bring about 80 per cent of your results.”
Founders: start with a 21-day free trial of Founder Pro at connectlab.live/founders. Funds: connectlab.live/join/funds.
Sources: Crunchbase News, October 2026 report (published Nov 3, 2026; data as of Nov 2, 2026); PR Newswire company releases for Marble and Toutix (both Nov 10, 2026). Not legal or investment advice.