Matthew Kane

Well-written and sourced article describing what's going in seed-stage venture market. At 9point8 Collective we tend to orbit the seed-stage (both ideating and developing companies to reach seed and helping post-seed companies refactor and scale in anticipation of A) and for many companies it's a critical inflection point which determines their long term success or failure. The main takeaways I was able to gather: 1️⃣ Many startups that raised seed rounds in 2021-2022 are struggling to secure Series A funding due to tighter market conditions and increased investor expectations. 2️⃣ Seed investors are becoming more cautious, leading to longer diligence processes and a preference for startups with strong traction or experienced founders. As a result, valuations have stayed relatively high even as deal flow reduces. 3️⃣ Startups are adopting various strategies to navigate this challenging environment, including cutting costs, raising bridge rounds or convertible notes, and M&A/acqui-hires. 4️⃣ Despite the challenges, there are opportunities for both startups and investors in this new landscape, particularly for those who can adapt to the changing market conditions. Investors are accumulating dry powder -- and with rates on the decline -- will be looking to deploy into companies with stronger fundamentals than their 2021-2022 counterparts.

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Thanks for sharing the knowledge, as always Pablos Holman! Anyone in VC that’s interested in an easy non- CRM solution, check out his video

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The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick

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Big rounds are back. VC Funding is flowing. In April, there were 28 fundraising rounds announced with >$10M in funding. We've seen private market (pre-launch) deals valued >$3B recently. Private Markets are hot. Public Market comps (FDVs) are hot. But who will buy our multi-billion dollar bags? Deal Flow Digest April w/: - Recap of largest web3 funding rounds - Airtable with ALL the data - Hackathons & Demo Days - VC Fundraises Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g7V4KrAj

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How can founders better prep themselves for early stage VC meetings? 🤔 Bill Georges partner at AlleyCorp tells me how founders need to PREP PREP PREP ✨ Address the top button early stage: 1️⃣ What's your founder story? 2️⃣ What's your go to market strategy? 3️⃣ What your product development strategy? 4️⃣ How big do you think this can get AND over what period of time? *Understand what your VC is looking for, and really try to understand their culture* ▶ https://lnkd.in/dZvciK2w Check out the entire episode of Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast and SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️💨💨

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🧬 This week's Austin Bio + Health Roundup highlights significant data trends, my stance on covering funding announcements, new partnerships, and action across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💰 Funding: The Way I Plan to Cover Funding Announcements You may have seen reports of a local Bio & Health startup’s funding round through an SEC report filing. While some outlets have covered this, my position is not to. I prefer to support our builders directly rather than trolling the filings for scoops. There is plenty of real investigative journalism that our city would be well served by if that is where they focused. Remember I am not a journalist and I am not the media. When the company is ready to announce their round officially, I’ll gladly shout it to the rooftops. 📊 Data Peter Walker at Carta reports that in 2017, Biopharma and Medical Devices captured just under 10% of all VC dollars. By 2023, this figure rose to 17.7%, and in Q1 2024, it reached 24%. The overarching tailwinds favor our sector and region with trends towards Bio & Health and the physical & digital intersection. Energy and hardware, two other sector blossoming in Central Texas, also saw similar share gains. 🤝 M&A and Partnerships Sensi.AI, a 24/7 senior care intelligence agent, is partnering with Caring Senior Service to deploy SensiAI’s platform in Caring’s 50 locations across the US. This partnership allows seniors a better opportunity to age gracefully in their homes. 🚩 Texas Bio Triangle BioMedSA is hosting an event called Women in Bioscience, Thursday June 20th. It’s designed to connect and empower women in the bioscience industry across Central Texas, and features Randi Brosterman Hutchens discussing "Building your Personal Board." Find the link to the event in the comments. Houston-based Lokum, a staffing solution to connect clinicians and clinical staff to health care facilities, has raised a $700K pre-seed round. Congrats Ayoade (Joy) Ademuyewo on the raise. What’s Next? #AustinNext #LifeSciences #Healthcare #Biotechnology

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Venture incentives are deeply misaligned right now. Many LPs stick with big-name funds for ‘buying IBM’ reasons, even when their size limits returns. Leaders of those firms can rake it in on management fees, while most big firm investors chase hot deals to climb the ranks. These incentives prioritize short-term wins over the long-term results that actually drive returns. Venture is a decades-long game—yet most people are thinking in years, not decades.

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I recently saw this metric from Carta’s 1Q24 VC Fund Report, which is very concerning. DPI... is nowhere to be found in earlier vintages that probably should start showing DPI. Funding early-stage projects is great, but ultimately, these venture dollars need to exit their investments and pay back their limited partners. That’s where the metric Distributed to Paid-In Capital (DPI) comes in. While managing a fund, we get interim measures during the life of the fund (e.g. IRR, MOIC), but ultimately, “you can’t eat IRR.” If you want to build a lasting venture capital organization, you need to start showing DPI for your fund. Keep in mind that this is traditional VC data from Carta, and is not strictly crypto venture. Crypto venture tends to get liquidity earlier (tokens) and things tend to go parabolic sooner (faster, more unicorns) - but I’d wager that the data here is somewhat similar for Crypto VCs… Not as much DPI as there should be from these earlier vintages. Read the full article, as well as a recap of all the crypto fundraising rounds for August, here: https://lnkd.in/g3eVJ-iF

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Every experienced VC will tell you. At the beginning of their career when evaluating a new investment they were solely focused on TAM, Metrics, etc But as they got more time under their belt, they learned the only thing that matters is the people. Do I enjoy this person, Do I want to grab a beer with them after work? VC founder relationship is a marriage. You are going to be together for a minimum of 10 years. So you better make sure you like each other. Lior M. VC Battery Ventures Link to the full episode in comments

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The results are in. Emerging managers and especially sub-$25MM funds are out-performing their larger counterparts, even in a sub-optimal market. TVPI metrics for 2017 vintage was 3.8x versus 2.7x for a $100MM+ fund. Even a 2022 vintage is seeing a 1.1x vs a 1x TVPI. I'm personally working with a top-quartile sub $50MM fund that has delivered a 1.6x TVPI from a 2020 vintage with gains of over 100% for it's LPs (and no it's not pre-seed). Another solo-GP has averaged 60x MOIC. Smaller funds are more nimble, have more skin in the game and are quicker to react. Whilst it's predominantly smaller bets at an earlier stage (i.e. more risk), it also means a larger, more diversified portfolio where it only takes 1 to 2 wins to return all the capital to LPs = earlier upside. Add to that a much more favorable cost-structure, it's a relative no-brainer. A bit like startups, this segment is in it's infancy, so I expect we'll see much more data in coming years. (P.S- as I'm seeing some fantastic new operators come to the market, and we still have so much to learn, share and exchange about emerging managers, make sure to sign-up to upcoming newsletter! I'll be sharing much more in-depth insights, fund launches and interviews with GPs and LPs to create a vibrant and meaningful community- link in comments).

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Let's finally get rid off the "VC alphabet song" and redo the system to become more founder friendly. "The benchmarks set by funding stages are often arbitrary and not necessarily aligned with the actual development needs of individual startups." #vc #venturecapital #founder #fundraising #startups #fundingstages #funding #fundingrounds #pitchbook

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Day 74: 10 Pro Tips to Make Your Startup Pitch Deck Pop! Nail Your Pitch: Essential Startup Pitch Tips from the Founder Institute. Happy Friday, Friends! Today, I’ve got a 🔥 resource for you from the Founder Institute Texas that you NEED to check out if you’re working on a startup pitch. After seeing 1000s of pitches over the last 5+ years, I can tell you that nailing your pitch is an ongoing journey. You'll always find ways to sharpen it, tighten it, and make it hit harder. Trust me. So, to help you along, here are 10 tips to make your pitch deck pop and leave people saying, "Wow, this founder knows what's up!" 1️⃣ Focus on storytelling: No one cares about just facts—give them a story that pulls at their heartstrings (or at least keeps them awake ). 2️⃣ Structure matters: Follow a simple flow—problem, solution, market, traction, team. If you can’t explain it in that order, are you even solving a problem? 3️⃣ Keep it concise: You’ve got 10 minutes max. If you're taking longer, they’re thinking about lunch. 4️⃣ Prioritize content over design: A slick design is cool and all, but can you just make sure your content isn’t cluttered first? Please. 5️⃣ Use conversational language: Ditch the tech jargon and buzzwords. Talk to them like you're explaining it to a 10-year-old—simple, clear, relatable. 6️⃣ Show, don’t just tell: Demos, screenshots, whatever you’ve got—use them. Don’t just talk about your brilliant idea; prove it works. 7️⃣ Practice, but don’t aim for perfection: Things will go wrong. It's fine. Be prepared to roll with it. 8️⃣ Be prepared for questions: If someone stumps you with a question, don’t ramble. Take a beat, answer, and move on. Less awkward that way. 9️⃣ Demonstrate execution ability: Ideas are cool, but execution is KEY. Show you’re not just dreaming—you’re doing. 🔟 Build relationships: Your pitch isn’t a one-off—it's the start of a relationship. Get them hooked so they want to see you again. Want more? Check out the Founder Institute NTX’s cohort and get the tools and support to build something amazing: https://fi.co/dallas Your pitch is just the beginning—go make them believe in your vision! Who's ready to crush their next pitch? Tell me what part you struggle with the most in the comments. Let’s make the next days of our journey count, filled with more stories, inspiration, and community impact! P.S. Want to get involved? If this resonates, repost, to share with others ♻️ and follow Javy Martinez for more in the future.

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Today's Boring Biz: Pool Leak Detection Company - $2.3M Revenue - $610K Cashflow - South Carolina - Day 39 of "50 States In 50 Days" Note: We do not represent this deal, highlighting for informational purposes only for viewers What do they do? 1. Leak detection services 2. Electronic detection equipment 3. Pool inspections Investment Highlights 1. Strong market demand 2. Established reputation 3. Business systems in place Investment risks/concerns 1. What is the competition 2. Customer concentration 3. Length of contracts #SMB #ETA #finance #Cashflow #investing #search #searchfund #privateequity #microprivateequity #smallbusiness #venturecapital #vc #entrepreneur #business #businessowner #pool #leakdetection #southcarolina #servicecompany Disclaimer: Hypothetical and illustrative only. Please do your own research (DYOR) or work with tax and legal professionals before making a decision. This video are intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice, nor should be construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any security by SMB PE LLC or any third party

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The more capital you raise, the more you dilute ownership. But equity dilution isn't the only path for new founders: 💰 Venture Debt → Bridges gap between funding rounds. → Provides capital without diluting ownership as much as equity raises. → Maintains founder control with no board seats for debt providers. Revenue-Based Financing → Investors receive a percentage of monthly revenue as repayments instead of equity → Ideal for high-growth companies with predictable revenue → Offers flexibility and scales growth Founders, I'm not saying you shouldn't opt for VC-backed equity financing. Just beware of equity implications - they affect you AND your VCs. According to pre-seed VC Martin Tobias, to make 10x investment profits, a startup's valuation has to be 40x higher than the entry price. He illustrates the effects of dilution on investors below 👇 Do you agree with Martin's sentiments? Why or why not? PS 🔔 Follow me for strategies and resources for startups and VCs! Looking to raise capital? 💸https://fundingstack.com/ for VCs and investors 💸https://foundersuite.com/ for startups At only $250/month: Fundingstack gets you access to 221,000+ global investors. Or you can send me a direct message with "FREETRIAL," and I'll give you a secret access link.

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