A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 18, 2022

Those values, on a schedule of investments we publish to our investors every quarter, flow through to our financial statements and capital accounts and establish how much an interest in our partnerships are worth at that time. Every quarter our firm goes through a process to value our entire portfolio.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

MARCH 14, 2022

There is a lot of criticism of venture capital in web3. Bitcoin did not have or need venture capital. Ethereum did not have or need venture capital. So why would any web3 project need venture capital? That’s why you might want to take venture capital for your web3 project.

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The Seraf Compass

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Travel to almost any part of the world these days and you are likely to run into clusters of entrepreneurship.

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The Seraf Compass

MAY 10, 2023

One of the biggest trends we witnessed over the past few years is the rapid pace of new early stage venture fund formation combined with significant growth in the amount of capital invested. Staying on top of the early stage investing world requires a lot of reading.

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This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 15, 2020

In venture, it’s all about getting an opportunity to make partner and being included in the carry—the economic upside of a fund. There have been a lot of calls for VC firms to make more hires from the Black and Brown community, as well as to hire more women. Not all hires, however, are made equally.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Today's top founders will undoubtedly start something new in the future, but they won't make up the majority of innovators going forward--just as prior generations of venture backed founders don't make up a majority of those who are succeeding today.

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The Seraf Compass

OCTOBER 25, 2023

If you make a simple mistake while driving, like hitting some black ice you didn’t see, and you skid off the road into a ravine and total your car, assuming no injuries, that’s a bummer and a major inconvenience for you. But if you borrow your friend’s car and do the same thing, sorting out the legalities can be significantly more complicated.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? What Does this Mean for a Venture Capital Firm?

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500

DECEMBER 16, 2019

This year we dove headfirst into the rise of corporate venture capital, the changing nature of venture capital education, and the important task of startup ecosystem building. In 2018, we saw this trend reach new heights with more corporate venture capital (CVC) funds than ever.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Or that venture capital is a meritocracy? This doesn’t take into consideration, however, that venture capital is a financial product—a product that works for some people and doesn’t work for others. We know what the racial and gender wealth disparity looks like: This is a lesson taught to be by Jewel from Collab Capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses. As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture.

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This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 3, 2016

That was a question posed to me by a new analyst at a venture capital fund. While there are lots and lots of really kind, generous people working in venture capital--the recently retired Howard Morgan, Hunter Walk, Brad Feld, and Karin Klein for example--it's really tough to argue that there isn't widespread jerkery.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 5, 2023

It will be the 105th deal out of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the firm I started back in September 2012, and it will be the last deal I’ll be making out of my third fund. It will also be my last venture capital deal. For me, I don’t mind sharing how I think about it.

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Revolution

MAY 23, 2023

The remaining 2.8K+ active investors in proptech are mostly asset managers, family offices, corporate venture capital firms, and real estate executives (let’s call this group “strategic” investors). VC firms are not blameless — over 1.8K VC investors wrote checks into proptech deals over the last five years.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

Unlike venture capital funds, they don't make money directly off the multiples of their return. Rowe Price and Fidelity funds who bid the company up to ridiculous valuations in their pre-IPO rounds. Seemingly everyone except them knew that the company wasn't worth that much--but it didn't matter.

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

It's key to getting into venture capital. That's how you get funded. That's how you get hired and how you can hire the best people. It's why you get press and even how to get customers. If you were driven to be the very best person anyone could ever hope to work with, you'd go on to do amazing things.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 18, 2021

In early June, I wrote this post explaining that I and we need to do more to reduce the inequality issues for Black people in tech, venture capital, and startups. I think MLK day is a good time to talk about what has happened since that post.

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Dream It

JULY 31, 2019

4- Any startup can raise venture capital I've also seen a misconception on business types, versus their ability to raise venture capital. Our ability to relocate to the States depends on our ability to get a permanent resident visa, which is not only hard but expensive.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 27, 2021

Last fall, USV raised two new venture capital funds from our loyal and supportive investors. "we remain committed to our way of practicing venture capital … Our funds are small. We announced the new climate fund on January 8th and I blogged about it here. While it is less newsmaking, it is worth talking about.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2022

In short, In Venture Capital, Size Matters Size matters for a few reasons. As a starting point we believe it is easier to consistently return multiples of capital when you aren’t deploying billions of dollars in a single fund as Fred Wilson has articulated consistently in his posts on “ small ball ” and small partnerships.

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500

APRIL 28, 2020

Long before diversity and inclusion became buzzwords, we decided to make venture capital inclusive from day one at 500 Startups. They became our guiding principles, because we know that great talent exists in all forms, no matter your gender, race, nationality, age, or background.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Venture capital is about backing the leaders of tomorrow who imagine the world as it should be and aren’t constrained by what it is today. As an industry we’re not always as good as we could be about our own “creative destruction” to create the tomorrow of venture capital.

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The Seraf Compass

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

In the language of Venture Capital, the goal of a successful early stage investor is to achieve a Distributed to Paid-In (DPI) ratio greater than 2X. In other words, for every dollar you invest in your portfolio, you want to get two dollars back over time.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Public stocks, bonds, private equity, real estate, venture capital, etc. In venture capital, there were something like 30,000 companies that raised venture capital in 2019. And within each category, there are so many different investment opportunities. How do you make sense out of all of that opportunity?

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Source Link

APRIL 14, 2021

Despite the growth in women-owned businesses, venture capital is still funneled to mostly male-owned businesses. of venture capital funds went to women-owned businesses in the U.S. That’s more than double the percentage in 1997. Since 2007, the number of businesses owned by Black women has grown by 163%.

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Revolution

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

What we did: Tige Savage and Revolution Ventures Associate, Carl Leacock , headed to the Renaissance City for Renaissance Venture Capital ’s Fall UnDemo Day, an event connecting VCs from across the country with startups based in Michigan. Where we went: Detroit, MI? Where we went: New York, New York?

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 1, 2021

Most venture capital funds have a “recycling” provision that allows them to sell some percentage of their investments and reinvest those funds back into new investments instead of distributing that capital to their limited partners. We do this at USV very aggressively. We do this at USV very aggressively.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

[link] — Dan Primack (@danprimack) February 25, 2023 I DM’d Dan to let him know that is not the right way to think about the venture capital business. That’s the only way to think about the venture capital business that makes sense to me. The entrepreneur is the customer and the LP is the shareholder.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JANUARY 31, 2023

I like to think of what we’ve been going through in the tech sector/startup land/venture capital over the last year as a cleanse. Venture capital firms got out of whack. Things had gotten so nutty, frothy, and out of control that we needed a reset. Cost structures got out of whack.

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The Seraf Compass

JULY 19, 2023

So, is it possible for an angel to make venture capital returns (e.g. I subscribe to the belief that as an angel investor I should be open to a variety of investment opportunities as I build a successful, early stage company portfolio.

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This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Turns out being in a quiet place with good WIFI minding someone who basically just eats and sleeps most of the time while tethered to all manner of monitors actually makes for a great work environment for venture capital. She’s even been on several board calls already and last week showed up on her first pitch call.

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Revolution

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

BioSTL: BioSTL has introduced nationally acclaimed initiatives in startup creation and investment (BioGenerator), strategic business attraction (GlobalSTL), physical environment (including the Cortex Innovation District and BioGenerator Labs), entrepreneur support, seed and venture capital, workforce diversity, and public policy.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

On the other side, trying to invest in venture capital funds on behalf of a family office must be a bit like being a legitimate Nigerian businessman trying to cold e-mail people. Most times, investors don’t actually invest in any given deal—so it’s not like someone is automatically a fraud if you don’t know anyone they invested in.

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Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

JANUARY 29, 2020

Finding a female mentor with the same background was difficult, as was procuring venture capital funds in a male-dominated field. It is significant to note the tenacity required of her to enter the field as a technological entrepreneur.

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American Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 4, 2024

T he Fund through venture capital investing advances America’s interests by focusing on sectors where “technology meets mission”, such as cybersecurity, AI, drones, space, advanced computing, and additive manufacturing.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JUNE 12, 2022

I have worked in three venture capital firms in the thirty-six years I have been doing venture capital investing. This is actually quite rare in the venture capital business. And special partners to take capital from. There are many models out there for building and managing investment firms.

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The Seraf Compass

MAY 24, 2023

In Part I of this article we addressed trends in VC fundraising, the roles played by GPs and LPs, and key questions fund managers should expect during the prospecting process. Now let's take a closer look at the primary elements of a fund prospectus and the critical skills every fund manager should possess.

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