PJ LaBarbera

Q3 is out and Q4 is in!  This is a great read about Base10's strategic switch showcasing how Carta is simplifying fund administration for emerging managers, which is especially important now rolling into the year-end busy season. 

9

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

6

1 Comment

Another edition of VCs Doing Work: Slauson & Co. 🎉Congrats to raising $100M for your second fund continuing your mission to make a difference!🎉 Wait... What and who is Slauson and Co? Slauson & Co. is a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments, founded by Austin Clements and Ajay Relan. The firm's mission centers on economic inclusion and democratizing access to entrepreneurship for underrepresented founders. Slauson & Co. primarily invests in: Preseed and seed SMB Tech (tools supporting small and medium businesses) Consumer technology The firm typically writes checks between $500,000 and $2 million, aiming to lead most rounds. Since its launch in 2020, Slauson & Co. has made significant strides: Raised a $75 million Fund I, exceeding its initial $50 million target Backed 38 companies, with a majority led by people of color and at least half by women Recently closed a $100 million Fund II, demonstrating continued investor interest in their inclusive approach The firm has garnered support from prominent investors and organizations, including: PayPal Ron Conway (veteran technology investor) Ashton Kutcher will.i.am True Capital Management Alpaca VC Slauson & Co. is just getting started! If you think you have a startup that fits their thesis and stage, reach out! #diversity #inclusion #venturecapital #consumer #smb Brittany Crockett #longla #losangeles #celebration #vcsdoingwork

97

4 Comments

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

Excited to partner with Antonio, James, and the XP Health team. The need for vision care and benefits in the United States is substantial. More than 200M U.S. adults (79%) use a form of vision correction. 2 out of every 3 U.S. adults have some type of vision care coverage, even those with 20/20 vision. Vision benefits are considered table stakes for employers, who are generally not likely to sacrifice this coverage even during economic uncertainty. Yet, it dominated by 2-3 outsized legacy vendors and encumbered with horrible customer experience and exorbitant out-of-pocket costs for consumers. XP Health is revolutionizing the experience of eyecare across eye exams and eyewear shipping, through a digitally native product that significantly enhances customer satisfaction through personalized care and reduces out-of-pocket costs. Read the full TechCrunch article: https://lnkd.in/ggVicTHm QED Investors Amias Frank Shruti Adams Laura Ashley Rachel Nigel

57

3 Comments

A new era of deep tech has emerged. First time funds will raise “unheard of” amounts of capital to fuel next gen deep tech startups - producing outsized, superior returns for LP’s compared to the rest. Prudent investors will act on this data and shift investment strategy as LP’s or risk being left behind savvy wealth managers and CIO’s / FO’s who saw this trend begin 4 years ago.

100

8 Comments

Congrats to Baller League on raising $25m Series A led by EQT Ventures and $8m Seed co-led by Dreamcraft Ventures. 💥 ⚽️ 🙌 Felix Starck founded Baller League in 2023 with an aspiration to lead a new era of #football with a fast-paced, six-a-side and 30 minute format. After two amazing seasons in Germany during 2024, the league is launching in UK and US during 2025, featuring hungry up-coming players in tandem with megastars like Ronaldinho, Usain Bolt, Luis Figo, John Terry, IShowSpeed and KSI. ✨ 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇺🇸 The #Dreamcrafters are proud to have co-led Baller League's Seed round in July 2024 with our friends from Oakvale Ventures, and we're excited to see the Baller Team secure a massive Series A led by our friends from EQT Ventures only six months later 🔥 📈 "Baller League’s rapid graduation from Seed to Series A is nothing short of remarkable. Raising their Seed round in July and securing their Series A in December highlights the team’s exceptional drive and focus. It’s great to be part of supporting an exceptional team and company that hits the sweet spot in our investment strategy with its #DigitalEntertainment focus and founded in #Germany. We’re especially proud to have brought in value-adding co-investors for their Series A round, ensuring the team is supported as they continue their great momentum." - Carsten Gjoertler Salling 🤗 Read more about Baller League and round in Financial Times and EU-Startups - find the links in the comments 👇 #Startups #VentureCapital

253

22 Comments

How should founders mitigate 2024's economic headwinds? "Behave like you're owned by PE" shares Jonathan Heiliger, General Partner Vertex Ventures US. As the macro-environment gets tougher, founders have to shift their operating mindsets to that of proving value and watching each operating move. #venturecapital #founders #entrepreneurship

8

In addition to building our own VC practice at AAF Management Ltd., we’ve invested in 37 VCs since 2017. Here is what, I believe, it takes to build a multi-vintage, early-stage, venture franchise: 𝟭- 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀: hyper-focused GPs build longevity and consistency in their businesses. If you pitch LPs saying you will invest in early stage consumer but end up doing late stage consumer that’s a massive red flag. Stay germane to your mandate and strategy. 𝟮- 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: the market is crowded with venture firms, articulate your differentiated value proposition to LPs and founders. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Focus on 1-2 value propositions to your stakeholders and execute them with excellence and defensibility. 𝟯- 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆-𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: we tell stories everyday. Raising capital for a fund and building your venture firm requires that same story-telling skillset. Tell consistent narratives to the market to help build your own brand as well as your firm’s brand. 𝟰- 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁-𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲: if you possess subject-matter expertise in a certain vertical, domain or industry, you already own a defensible moat. Accentuate that to your advantage when building your firm, raising capital from LPs and winning deals from founders. 𝟱- 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: early stage venture is a highly collaborate asset class. Keep your ego at the door, you will never be able to do everything it takes to build a firm alone. Leverage LPs, partners and founders for deal flow sourcing, diligence and overall industry best practices. 𝟲- 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁-𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁-𝗙𝗶𝘁: in quintessential startup vernacular, ideally find your product-market-fit by the time you launch your second fund. You need product-market-fit before you scale your AUM, grow your team and carry more fiduciary responsibility. 𝟳- 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: early stage VC investing is a marathon. Patience will reward you personally, professionally and financially. Build mental, physical and psychological stamina to endure the inherent ebbs and flows of your entrepreneurial journey. 𝟴- 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗺: early stage VC investing is the archetypal long-term financial asset. Think in 10 year increments for your firm’s grand vision, think in 4 years for a given fund’s investment period and think in quarters when reporting material updates on your portfolio to your LPs. 𝟵- 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗻: if instant gratification, short feedback loops and a constant need for reaffirmation is what you are looking for in a career then early stage VC investing will not fulfill you. Have fun building, and as Naval Ravikant once said: "𝙗𝙚 𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙥𝙩𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣." Finally, and most importantly, be authentic and true to yourself. #firmbuilding #entrepreneurs #VC

218

20 Comments

I get asked almost weekly how to setup proprietary sourcing pipeline stages... AND, since the pre-ski-season stoke is real right now (with 4" of base-grinding November tease in Tahoe), here's how I shred the proprietary sourcing mountain: In my experience most PE firms have far too few funnel stages, and often something like: ▪️ Unengaged ▪️ Engaged ▪️ Tracking ▪️ Active ▪️ Closed The problem with too few stages is that you lack the granularity to cross-sectionalized your CRM data in any meaningful way, meaning you can’t separate failure from success (at an individual or team level) or determine any sort of root causes of poor sourcing performance through your funnel... ❓ Is it because we can’t convert LOI’s? ❓ Are we not getting enough at-bats? ❓ Where are we dropping the ball? ❓ Is our sourcing team not keeping up on outreach? ❓ Why do we have so many regrettably missed deals?? 🤷‍♂️... 🤦 That's why I firmly believe in having at least these 10 pipeline stages for proprietary sourcing: 🔟 New Account Added to CRM and assigned an owner 9️⃣ Outreach Initiated 1+ credible contact(s) at the company (i.e. CEO, shareholder, etc.) been sent some form of outreach (email, phone, text, mail, etc) 8️⃣ Reply Received A credible contact at the company has responded 7️⃣ First Meeting / Call A substantial call or meeting with a credible contact has taken place with anyone at the firm 6️⃣ Escalated & Nurturing A substantial call or meeting with a credible contact has taken place with either (a) an Investment VP or above or (b) F2F with at least one additional member of the firm, AND we are in the process of nurturing the relationship as a firm 5️⃣ NDA / Financials An NDA has been sent and/or financials have been received 4️⃣ IC Presentation(s) The opportunity has been formally presented to and/or discussed at investment committee 3️⃣ Management Meeting(s) A management meeting has taken place 2️⃣ LOI Sent A LOI has been delivered to the company 1️⃣ LOI Signed A LOI has been signed by the company 0️⃣ Closed Won Whoop WHOOP! There's obviously tons of nuance to pipeline design, and make sure you right-size it for your firm, tech stack and team as it is definitely a balancing act: in general greater granularity like this will pay huge dividends over time, especially as you (a) look to coach your team and (b) attempt to identify areas for continuous improvement in your sourcing practice, BUT too many stages without any automations for updating pipeline stages, and all your work will be wasted (as no one will update the stages if it is too manual). 🤔 What am I missing? How else do you think about structure the pipeline for proprietary sourcing and why?

41

5 Comments

AppLovin, Snap, and the new Walled Garden pathway A notable reversal took place in Q2 of this year: the market capitalization of AppLovin, the mobile gaming ad network, overtook that of Snap on a sustained basis. As of this writing, Snap’s market cap is $13.91BN to AppLovin’s $28.88BN. In looking at the divergent outcomes across AppLovin, Snap, and other advertising platforms, more important to consider than specific feature implementations is the imperative of expanded access to data that doesn’t adhere to the canonical conversion feedback loop. And in AppLovin’s case, this acquisition of data calls into question the popular definition of a Walled Garden.

73

1 Comment

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.

27

1 Comment

This week Mikal Ventures brings you a 4-week breakdown of the US capital market with an emphasis on the Mikal verticals. Over the 4-week period ending June 10, just over 590 new companies were added, resulting in 95,661 companies included in the US Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. AI Tech maintained its most active status, seeing the greatest percentage of growth in both new companies and transactions. The US Fin Tech vertical led the way in SEC Filings and news articles.  Mikal Ventures publishes these stats to provide a perspective on how the verticals and new startups move through time. We hope you find them informative and thought-provoking. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

2

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

60

8 Comments

Does the incoming administration adjust the landscape for VC in the South? Three trends for family offices and VC investors to consider: https://lnkd.in/dVhVvuND

6

Summary: Humba Ventures has raised a $40 million fund to invest in deep tech and defense tech startups, as a sister-firm to Susa Ventures. This comes at a time when defense tech is seeing record-high venture investments, and the two firms will work together to share resources and punch above their weight in terms of assets under management. Key takeaways: The $40 million fund will focus on deep tech and defense tech startups, in contrast to Susa Ventures which typically invests in fintech and software companies. Defense tech is a growing sector, with nearly $3 billion already invested in 2021. The sister-firm structure allows for sharing of resources and increased marketing power, even with a smaller fund size. Counter arguments: The defense tech sector is competitive, with established firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund also investing in the space. The decision to only take money from certain countries, such as the U.S., may limit potential opportunities for investment. #venturecapital #dualuse #dualusetech #defensetech

2

Don't call it a comeback - growth equity deals on the rise again per PitchBook. From the attached article: "According to PitchBook’s latest US PE Breakdown, PE growth investments were on the rise in the first half of 2024, accounting for about 23% of all PE deals and surpassing leveraged buyouts, which made up 19%. That reverses a long-time trend. Growth investments in the first half of 2024 are already exceeding those from the whole of 2023, when they accounted for 20% of all PE deals." The heightened cost of capital is obviously driving a lot of this dynamic. However... it is interesting to note that PE funds are seemingly more willing to take minority stakes - a dynamic that is historically more from the VC playbook. The hard truth is that, even in a challenging funding and valuation environment, growth stage companies - both PE-backed and VC-backed - still offer large institutional investors a compelling return profile. A growth-potential profile not often available in the public markets. This dynamic alone will push PE and VC private market investment through and beyond the current challenges... Endeavor Colorado Zeb King Tegan Stanbach Kathryn Dickson #privateequity #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #innovation #founders #startups #investing https://lnkd.in/gKZKwXct

8

Talkspace's share price is up 18% today. Why? They just released their Q3 earnings. Here are the financial highlights. - Q3 Revenue was $47.4m (+23% YoY) - This rev growth was driven by their Payor customers (+45% YoY) - Gross margin down to 45.6% (vs 48.8% Q3 23) - this is due to the greater mix of lower margin Payor revenue - DTC revenue continues to decrease (down 30% YoY) - Operating expenses were $21.5m (down 10% YoY) - Net income was $1.9m - They're hit their third consecutive quarter of profitabilty on an adjusted EBITDA basis ($2.4m vs $2.8m loss in Q3 2023) - Balance sheet still strong with $119m of cash I'll be covering their entire earnings release, plus any information they share on clinical outcomes and the payor landscape during this weeks The Hemingway Report newsletter. __ If you want insights on the mental health industry in your inbox every week, subscribe to The Hemingway Report newsletter and follow me Steve Duke 📩 Link to the newsletter in the comments.

43

11 Comments

✨ Breaking: Category Ventures Announces New Fund.- Category Ventures Category Ventures is a $160 million venture capital fund launched by Villi Iltchev. The fund focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups in enterprise software applications, infrastructure, developer tools, and artificial intelligence, with investment checks ranging from $1.5 million to $5 million. https://lnkd.in/dbw8mY6h Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups #Venturecapital

10