Blake Robbins

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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Kettleborough VC has been active for ~6 years, invested in ~30 companies, gone through ~80 funding rounds, witnessed ~12 exits including ~4 instances of partial principal erosion, seen ~4 seed to $100M journeys, tracking ~29% XIRR across the portfolio. A couple of IPOs from the portfolio surely seem very much in line ahead.

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Summary: Trucks Venture Capital has announced a new $70 million fund to support early-stage startups in the transportation industry. Led by co-founder Reilly Brennan, the firm plans to invest in a diverse range of companies, including those working on autonomous vehicle tech, electric air taxis, and mobility data platforms. This is the firm's largest fund to date and its investment strategy has evolved to focus on great founders rather than specific sectors or ideas. Key takeaways: Trucks VC has a new $70 million fund to invest in early-stage transportation startups. The firm's investment strategy has shifted to focus on great founders rather than specific sectors or ideas. Previous investments from the new fund include charger installation-as-a-service startup Treehouse and zero-emissions jet aircraft company JetZero. Counter arguments: Some may argue that focusing on great founders rather than specific sectors or ideas may limit the firm's potential for success. The transportation industry is constantly changing and evolving, making it a risky investment for any venture capital firm. #startups #venturecapital #transportation

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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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An incredible deep dive from Nathan M. into the cultural and structural issues that are plaguing Boeing and how they got to where they are today. This article should be turned into a business school case study it's that good. And many of these issues aren't unique to Boeing. The focus on financial engineering over actual engineering is an issue at play in many scaled aerospace and defense companies. A definite must-read! https://lnkd.in/gkdpF2tM

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Did you know that YC founders get a secret weapon… and it’s not what you think. “Bookface” is YC’s internal social network. It was needed because YC had funded larger batches and the hardest part of a community is knowing who is in it and who you can trust and ask for help. On the platform, founders share real methods and advice that would break if it were shared widely It’s secret knowledge shared with a trust-first community - answering 80% of the questions a founder can have about building and selling a product, be it to clients, candidates or investors. Before the platform, if you had a B2B startup, you had to reach out cold to potential customers. Now there are over 1000 YC companies you can sell your service to and all of their contact information is in Bookface. As a result, YC alumni companies are often over 50% of your new sales during YC. It’s superpowers like this that make YC deals so attractive compared to the norm. You are investing in a founder with a 10x network already!

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People overcomplicate startup fundraising Listen, if you’re a first time founder: Avoid: - Long pitch decks to send out < (15 slides IMO) - Unreasonable financial projections - To much focus on your product/features - Not showing current competition Instead: - Focus on a simple pitch deck that can be skimmed (cause it will) - Reasonable financial projections with assumptions - Focus on the investment opportunity vs product - Show how you are unique vs competition Do this before you send out your pitch deck again. Sent it out from there. Investment is about multiplying money and getting someone to trust that you are the multiplier. Simple yet hard. If you want the exact formula for building up a pitch deck that helped me raise over 4 mio usd. Connect with me and comment PD and I will sent it to you. -MK

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AI startups continue to eat up more share of early-stage deal count and value. They were 22% of first-time VC financings – according to recent PitchBook data. The AI unlock is real. Some of this is visible and obvious, but there’s a lot happening behind the scenes. Builders are creating more with less, at a faster pace. As we roll into 2025, supporting startup founders and their missions – many of which will be AI-first or have an AI strategy at their core – has never been more important. I agree with the take on it likely being similar to the 2000s when companies were being built with internet and technology-first or related strategies that reshaped industries. Happy holidays to all! See you out there. Note: These views are my own and not associated with any company I’m part of.

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Great post by Josh Wagner on the importance of urgency. If you don't want to build a company characterized by urgency and extreme intensity over a long period of time - at least a decade - you would be better off not raising venture capital.

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There is this weird spot with pitch decks. Ideally a pitch deck exists to support a “pitch”. Yet, many (including VC) ask for a deck as an informational deliverable. It would seem that these 2 decks should be different.

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Series A investors - if a cofounder has just left a company when you invest, what % of equity is acceptable for them to leave with? (At seed, I like to see any "dead equity" at <6% pre raise and am curious if it's higher at A since more work has been done)

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Valuations are starting to (only slightly) be in check. Investors looking for revenue, quality of revenue, margins, and repeatable GTM. This has the best founders focused on what matters, and reaching out to their Boards and advisors for real advice and guidance. Good stuff.

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Is Bolt’s new $450M raise bold or reckless? I just saw this news (https://lnkd.in/eq9PxW8U)- Ryan Breslow is back at the helm, driving Bolt.com to a $14 billion valuation, not long after a $300 million stock buyback valuation that crushed the spirits of their employees who exercised their options at their last valuation. I'm all for founder-led companies with a little dash of crazy, but I don't like the smell of this new raise at all This dramatic turnaround, fueled by international investors, raises more questions than confidence. Breslow’s move feels more like an Adam Neumann-inspired hype play than a true growth strategy. The focus is on challenging Stripe and fueling FOMO, not on sustainable fundamentals. For founders and investors, this is a reminder: don’t let flashy narratives blind you to the reality of valuations. I’m all for supporting founder-led companies—it takes a little crazy to be a founder at this scale—but this one might be a step too far IMO. What’s your take on this announcement? All hype or the next Stripe killer?

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As a VC, there are times when you have to choose between prioritizing returns and supporting the founders you work with. It’s not easy because we have a fiduciary duty to our LPs, which, in our case, are primarily non-profits, to maximize returns. At Eniac, we play the long game: if we do what’s best for our founders, it will ultimately benefit our brand, reputation, and relationships, which will be best for our LPs in the long run.

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Make sure that you're hitting up the VC's for the right amount or else they are going to decline and laugh at you. If VC A is an A round focused firm, asking for $250k isn't going to fly. If VC B is a pre-seed round and you're asking for $10k, they aren't going to take you seriously. If VC C is a seed round firm, they aren't going to take you seriously if you're only offering 5% equity. Know the rules before you play the game!

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What does founder payday look like at an IPO? Data from major tech IPOs 2018-2019: - Median payday $268 million. - Average payday $708 million. - Median ownership was 9%. - Average ownership was 11%. For more data on founder compensation pre-IPO, checkout the article in comments 👇 Source: Analysis by Sammy Abdullah Abdoullah at Blossom Street Ventures #tech #startups #founders

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