Bo Brustkern

How does an institutional LP decide which GPs to back? UTIMCO alum (and now partner at Foundry) Lindel Eakman opened up about how he picks on Samir Kaji's Venture Unlocked podcast 👇 (episode linked in comments) 🎣 "Would you trust them with your children?" Questions like this one tend to elicit genuine reactions and a real sense of a GP’s character and capabilities. Non-answers or silence in response to a pointed question like this one can be telling. 🤨 "Who fires who?" Questions like this help him evaluate governance and conflict resolution dynamics and the overall stability of the partnership. 1️⃣ Unlike some LPs, Lindel is very open to backing solo GPs. One of the reasons being that partnership risk -- which is one of the biggest when investing in VC funds -- is by definition, eliminated. 👍🏻 Lindel shies away from backing investors who may have potential to be top performers but are divisive or unpleasant to work with. Life is too short! Follow me - John Gannon - to learn more about the ins and outs of the VC market from all 3 sides of the table.

7

1 Comment

Why Buying Your First Business is the hardest & Financing The Fear is Being seen as too risky by lenders and investors. The Solution: Prepare a solid business plan with detailed financial projections. Work with a financial advisor to enhance your credibility. Consider alternative financing options like SBA loans or seller financing.

11

3 Comments

What's the fast river in alts? Listen to the latest Alt Goes Mainstream podcast with Mercer's Gregg Sommer & CAIS' Neil Blundell to hear how they are helping advisors approach private markets. Gregg, Neil, and I had a fascinating discussion about how the wealth channel can approach alternatives and how they can think about both diligence and customization. We covered: * The case for alternatives. * How advisors currently approach alternatives and how they can think about it differently going forward. * How to think about portfolio construction that includes alternatives. * How alts can help advisors differentiate their practice and attract clients. * Following the fast river in a career and why alternatives are “the fast river.” * The meaning of “structure over strategy.” * The rise in popularity of evergreen funds. Thanks Gregg and Neil for sharing your thoughts and expertise on private markets. Thanks to our sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions, for making this episode possible. https://lnkd.in/eBtyw6Fm

31

2 Comments

🌱 For founders taking on venture debt, covenants are the fine print you cannot afford to ignore. 📃 They set the boundaries for how you can operate and manage your company’s finances. If you don’t play by these rules, the consequences can be pretty dire. It’s all about negotiating terms that align with your startup’s financial health. Be sure to read the original post by Kruze Consulting to get the full breakdown. Link in the 1st comment. 👇 #StartupFinance

7

1 Comment

2 active fund offerings from the Echelon Fund team who have been killing it ever since their cohort at The Fund School. https://lnkd.in/gVd-dhfY sidecarportfoliofund.com This presentation of Echelon Fund, LLC and Sidecar Portfolio Fund (the “Company”) is for information only and shall not constitute an offer to buy, sell, issue or subscribe for, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or issue, or subscribe for any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is based on publicly-available information, internally developed data, third party information and other sources. The third party information has not been independently verified. While the Company may not have verified the third party information, nevertheless, it believes that it obtained the information from reliable sources and has no reason to believe it is not accurate in all material respects.

3

💰 Women-Led VC Funds: Navigating 2024 Fundraising Landscape 💰 According to Venture Capital Journal, despite a strong start, women-led VC funds are feeling the impact of the industry-wide fundraising slowdown. As of November 30, 2024, women-led VC funds have raised $2.54 billion, which represents a 25% decrease from 2023's total of $3.43 billion. In comparison, global venture fundraising is down 13% YoY. While the numbers reflect challenges, there's still potential for growth: • Several funds typically file updates in December • These late submissions could help narrow the gap Let's continue supporting diversity in VC and monitor these trends as we approach year-end. #VentureCapital #WomenInVC #FundingTrends2024 La Creme de la STEM ™ - female founders support system Noshin Ahmed Lori Rodriguez Emilie Vallauri Craig Zapatka

29

1 Comment

I bet there's going to be 100's of GP letters to LPs over the holiday break explaining why DPIs are down and fund lives are being extended. And they'll blame a lack of IPOs. But it's worth asking: why should a company bother going public anymore? Being public isn’t fun. There’s quarterly reporting, tons of regulatory oversight, and you need to Beat and Raise to make your investors happy. So what are the reasons Founders decide to do it? Let’s step back and think through First Principles of why a company goes public. Access to capital: For a growing company that needs capital, doing a new issuance in public markets is easier and faster than setting up an entirely new data room and round of negotiations for Series X financing. Founder/Investor Liquidity: Founders often have 99% of their net worth locked up in their company. Being public allows them a mechanism to take some chips off the table and diversify. It also allows early investors to cash in their profits and reinvest into new companies. Public awareness and brand building: Being public often brings with it lots of attention, and the IPO process leads to tons of free publicity. This can be useful, especially for consumer facing products. Current VC dynamics have pretty much eliminated (or strongly closed the gap) the advantages of going public. Access to capital: capital for the right growth companies is still plentiful, with many VCs funding companies at the same valuations that they could command in public markets. You can flip through Meritech Capital’s public saas comps table to see (link at end of post), but median valuation for mid sized ($1-10 Billion EV) public SaaS companies close to rule of 40 is 6.5x ARR. Most quality Series D or later are priced around that same multiple. The “40% private discount” is gone. Liquidity: The mental model of a Founder being forced to never take some chips off the table has (thankfully) changed. Founders and early investors are able to sell some of their holdings in secondaries, taking the pressure off to go public. Publicity: The top firms in SF have succeeded in their mission of turning Founders into rock stars. My mother knows who Sam Altman is. The era of only celebrating the S&P500 CEO is long gone, and staying private and becoming a Deca-corn could get you even better press and branding. For those expecting a turnaround in IPOs in 2025 and hoping that leads to an uptick in VCs returning money to their LPs, prepare to be disappointed. VCs, though the rise of secondaries, easy access to capital, and turning Founders into rock stars have succeeded in solving the main pain points of staying private. Now all that is left is the pain of being public. (https://lnkd.in/eB5Rrg2p) #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #IPO #StartupFunding #Markets

22

4 Comments

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

25

2 Comments

Great time on the Embracing Erosion podcast w/Devon O'Rourke! We talked about: 🚀 How to scale a company from concept to 9-figure exit 🔄 How to break away from the traditional consulting model and apply product approaches ⏩ Why it’s important to iterate quickly and often with messaging 💸📈What signals are important to pay attention to when investing in startups and much more!

1

1 Comment

💰 Founders, are you wasting time and resources pitching to the wrong investors? 💰 In this podcast excerpt, David Forsberg, CFA from Ascent Energy Ventures shares a crucial piece of advice: Make sure your startup is truly venture-backable before you start seeking funding. 🎯 I've advised hundreds of startups that have raised billions in VC and venture debt funding, and I've seen firsthand the pressures founders face when growing their companies. 🌱 Listen to the full podcast for more game-changing insights. Link in the original Kruze Consulting post. 🎧 #startups #venturecapital #funding #entrepreneurship

1

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.

257

17 Comments

The best things Founders can receive from investors (apart from term sheets) is feedback! At Funden, about 50% of pass notes come with some sort of feedback thats actionable and helpful to the Founder. Here’s an example of a pass note from earlier this month: “We focus on having live, paying enterprise customers with a repeatable, scalable sales process and line-of-sight to series-A financial metrics" Boom! That kind of transparency is unprecedented in the venture world. This type of feedback says, "Hey we're excited about the industry and product, but we need to just see a little more proof of concept on the business before we can dive deeper". Now, this founder has someone they can reach back out to, who is going to be familiar with them, and the Founder will now be right in their investable sweet spot! Another one we got recently was a few investors are telling the same founder, independently of one another, that their round size was far too big for their level of traction. Hearing the same type of feedback as to why they're passing in such a short period of time has a real and meaningful impact on how founders are structuring their raise. And we're happy to help them. https://lnkd.in/gZ_tVkTB ---------------------- Funden is the #1 fundraising platform connecting founders to capital. Founders use our tools and strategic guidance for quicker, more effective fundraises. Investors use us to receive curated, quality deal flow and broadcast co-investment opportunities to our audience of 1000+ global VCs, family funds, angel networks, syndicates, and more.

19

2 Comments

Want to build wealth faster? Skip startups. Buy Boring Old Businesses. Here’s why: 1. They’re already making money. 2. They come with customers, systems, and momentum. 3. They’re undervalued – 2.5x profits is standard. 4. SBA loans or seller financing make them accessible. 5. Easy profit boosters: raise prices or add new products. 6. They’re easier to scale than startups. Startups fail 65% of the time within the first 5 years. But "boring" businesses? They’re built to last. Don’t build from scratch. Buy something proven. If you could buy a "boring" business, what type of business would you buy?

7

2 Comments

🌱 For pre-seed/seed founders 🌱 The early stage vc markets have changed drastically -- but many founders don't truly understand how or how much things have shifted until its too late or they are deep into the fundraising process already. This recent Allocate pod lifts the veil on the pre-seed/seed 2024 markets. SO MANY GEMS are packed 💎 into the first 20 min, I had to listen twice. Key takeaways from pre-seed VCs I'm a big fan of Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures, Kirby Winfield at Ascend (PNW represent!) & Nate Williams. 💎 The market in one word: 'turbulent' 💎 Fundraising bi-furcation; 2X founder building in AI (rounds take weeks) vs All Others (rounds take up to 6 months). 💎 "Leading VCs" (ie. first check in) are putting in a TON of work - building conviction & then helping founders fill the round. 💎 Up to 5 rounds pre-A; need lower early valuations to enable step ups 💎 Pre-seed entry valuations have corrected to $5-8M 💎 Round sizes have increased at pre-seed & seed for extended runway Many more insights in the full pod here: https://lnkd.in/gYf-DMr6 #venturecapital #preseed

75

7 Comments

Excellent new guide from the Homebrew crew on managing layoffs - it’s never an easy decision for founders, and a difficult process to balance employee empathy with minimizing risk for the business. beth sheffner scheer shares best practices: ✅ Consult and lean on your lawyer, your job is to protect the entity, ensure you’re staying compliant with employment laws, and avoid lawsuits. “If you say or do the wrong thing, you can put the company at risk.” ✅ Keep all communication brief, direct, and concise. This can be difficult and counter intuitive when you want to be helpful with more answers and details- lawyers can help guide you on what needs to be addressed/not addressed. ✅ Always have a third party witness ✅ Severance isn’t required by law, but of course- it is a kind gesture and the right thing to do to support the employee if you have the runway. Typical severance at early stage startups is 2-4 weeks, with an option for healthcare continuation and accelerated vesting Check out the guides below for the full playbook 👇

10