This is the story of Assurance, which sold to Prudential in 2019. The founders bootstrapped the company to profitability and never looked back. I think a big part of this was getting the timing right. “It’s an unusual success story […]
“And thanks to power law distribution of winners and losers, the worst VCs are impressively efficient at destroying wealth.” We’re invested in the asset class. I think I will hold on to my rosy expectations for the performance of the […]
“There is nothing inherently “wrong” with venture capital. Its impact and ability to fund, and rapidly scale, businesses is undeniable and highly valuable. But there is an underlying business model driving behavior that many overlook or ignore until they can’t […]
“Fueled by record levels of venture capital funding, they quickly blanketed New York City with their delivery bikes. The bet was that, in densely populated metropolitan areas, ultra-fast delivery would be more financially feasible to pull off. But just as […]
From the highly credible Rob May, investor in 100+ AI companies. His point is that there’s little defensibility for most of these companies. First, before there are no barriers to entry. Second, the foundational models that these companies rely on […]
“Some of the last generation of VCs feel tired. Their colleagues’ codephrase is “no longer doing new deals.” | learn more
“I’ve observed what I perceive to be a “market inefficiency” on the platform, which is what I want to call out today: Tier 1 VC bridge rounds.” This is the same lesson as Mark Suster’s 2014 gem Why Am I So […]
“Pollen, the events festival tech startup, went bankrupt in August after raising more than $200M in venture funding.” Employees will likely get none of the £3.1M in owed wages, as they are behind secured creditors in the pecking order. Full […]
I read this with great delight. This author managed to model private market venture returns using only public market stocks. The point he makes is that the underlying driver of the returns is innovation, and there’s plenty of that to […]
“In reflecting on [my business] failure, I have come to realize that my main mistake was in pretending certain trade-offs didn’t exist. Specifically, I think when building a company, all founders need to clearly prioritize the following three values: Scale, Speed, […]