Three separate sources have put numbers on the first minutes of a raise: an angel survey, a dataset of 24,541 pitch decks, and one fund’s first-call data. They measure different things, and I’ll keep them apart. Here’s what each says, two seed announcements from this past week, and what founders […]
The earliest stage of venture is more crowded than it has ever been on PitchBook’s count, and some investors are responding by meeting founders before the deck, sometimes before the company exists. Here’s what the numbers show, one investor’s own account of backing a founder before the idea, and what […]
Web Summit opens in Lisbon on November 9. Slush opens in Helsinki on November 18. Between them, they’ll put thousands of founders and investors in two cities in the last weeks before the holiday slowdown. Here’s what the organizers report about those crowds, what one VC’s records say about where […]
Every round and every fund has a first committed investor. After that yes, each new investor asks who else is in, and the answer becomes part of the pitch. Here’s what one week of round data shows, a Series B led by an investor from the Series A, a debut […]
Special purpose vehicles, or SPVs, have become a common way for capital to reach startups. They pool many investors into one entity and one line on the cap table. This week, a firm that built its business on SPVs moved to a traditional fund, and its founder explained why in […]
Venture’s top-line numbers look strong this year. The exit side tells a different story. With the IPO pipeline slipping, acquisitions are carrying the load, and acquisitions are relationship deals. Here’s what the latest data shows, two October deals where the buyer already knew the team or the product, and what […]
Every Q3 venture report this month leads with the same story: AI is taking most of the money. That’s true. But it’s only half the picture. Look at deal count instead of dollars and a different market appears, one where most rounds still go to companies outside AI. Here’s what […]
When investors decide whether to trust a founder, the deck is only the start. The real check often happens off the slides, in calls to people who know the founder, the company or the deal. A run of fraud headlines this fall has put that check in the spotlight. Here’s […]
Every year, founders discover the same thing in December: the fundraising year ended earlier than they thought. This year the calendar is tighter than usual, with an election and a very large IPO landing right in the middle of it. Here’s what’s on the calendar, what two recent raises show […]
Pro-rata rights let an investor keep its ownership by buying into later rounds. For seed investors, they can be the difference between a good fund and a great one. For founders, they can decide how much room is left for a new lead or a strategic partner. This month, that […]
