Jean-Michel Deligny’s Post

Back in 1999, Ron Conway invested $25,000 in Google by chance, which turned out to be one of most successful investments of all time. Sadly we can't all be like Ron. You see, investing in Venture Capital is like riding a roller coaster blindfolded – thrilling but unpredictable. VC follows a "power law", where 80% of your returns come from just 20% of your investments. And the power law isn't limited to the companies you invest in either. Data showed that over a 22 year period, 80% of returns came from just 5-7 of those years. To solve for this, Jaap Vriesendorp firms, Welt Ventures and Marktlink Capital, use a 3 principle approach they call 'The time machine approach to investing in Venture Capital': ❶ Diversify Entry Valuations: Invest consistently over many years to optimise entry valuation and capture outlier years. ❷ Diversify Exit Windows: Invest across different stages (seed, early, growth) to spread exit timelines. ❸ Invest in Primaries and Secondaries: Purchase both newly issued shares and existing shares to spread risk and increase liquidity. Want to learn more? We go into the details in this weeks episode of "The Unsophisticated Investor". Link in comments. #venturecapital #investing #privatemarkets

Much of the current #IPO storm and its artificial inflation is because the public has no way to reliably assess socioeconomic value. https://lnkd.in/e2gq2uB9 #Arbitrage #Facebook #FinanceBubble #Freemarket #LasVegas #Limitedpartners #Privateequity #PublicMarkets #Reference #SecuritiesandExchangeCommission #Technology #Venture #VenturePerformance

Cash Flow Dynamics in Different Business Types: A Closer Look In the realm of business, cash flow management varies significantly across different sectors. For consumer-oriented businesses, we often see cash being distributed back to investors, while in the software sector, this is less common Typically, software companies resort to dividends and payouts when they're not poised for substantial growth. These businesses have found a sustainable model, understand their unit economics, and are steadily growing. As a result, they can afford to return some money to investors, who might initially be pleased However, this often masks a deeper issue it's a sign that the company isn't the major success story the investors were hoping for Getting back the initial investment might seem like a win, but in the world of venture capital and angel investing, it’s a disappointment. True success in these fields means significant returns, not just breaking even. That's why I advise entrepreneurs and investors alike, if you’re aiming for modest returns, that’s not the essence of venture capital or angel investing. It’s more strategic to either retrieve your investment or acknowledge it as a loss rather than enduring minimal gains over time. This scenario often leads to what I call a "zombie company" it’s alive, but not thriving Consider Facebook's IPO in 2012. It was a game-changer, demonstrating the kind of substantial growth and return on investment that venture capital thrives on Thoughts?

The Power Of Pre Seed/Seed Investing. 💪🏼 This is a list of Ubers seed investors. Absolutely incredible.🚀 Granted, Uber is a unicorn investment.🦄 However think of all the businesses/ideas that had the potential to perform on levels close to Uber that weren’t able to get investment or lacked the knowledge, so didn’t get the opportunity. There are endless amounts of incredible opportunities, that have this potential. It’s just finding the right opportunities. That’s the game.♟️ #investment #investors #seed

Climate X closed a Series A funding of $18 million led by GV (Google Ventures) ! I’m not usually one to share personal stories on LinkedIn, but today is an exception: Four years ago, during the COVID lockdown, Climate X was born in our bedrooms across Birmingham, London, and Lyon. Lukky A., 🚀 Kamil Kluza, Raiyan Ahmed and I, we embarked on a mission to help financial institutions tackle climate risks using the best data available. We spent countless hours pitching our vision (hello 4.00am talks in ClubHouse!), refining our pitch decks, and building our MVP. Then everything went fast by opening our first office, hiring the first employees, first events, first calls, first prospects, launching our products, Spectra and Adapt,... This journey has been filled with moments of laughter, intense discussions, stress, and immense joy, success, failure,... and as I always say, Climate X is more than just a job to me; it’s a story of resilience, innovation, and making a meaningful impact. Today, we’re proud to provide our customers with an exceptional solution and we will keep doing even more! For me, Climate X is more than just work. I often think about the stories I’ll share when I’m older, and this journey is undoubtedly one of the. Despite the hard work and challenges, the sense of contributing something valuable to the world is immensely rewarding. It's a pleasure to be part of this adventure. Thanks everyone at Climate X, LA, KK, MA, and so many others! #climatetech #startup #venturecapital #growth #tech #innovation #climatechange #sustainability #finance #realestate #pressrelease #news

This is huge - and probably one of the proudest & biggest announcements I've had the privilege to be part of. We hit Series A, raising $18M, led by GV (Google Ventures). I couldn't be prouder to be part of something this impressive and watch it grow into the industry-leading firm that we have today! 🚀 🚀 🚀 #pressrelease #news #investment #climatetech #fintech

Excellent news from our members, Climate X, successfully achieving - and surpassing! - their funding goals for their innovative climate risk data platform that helps financial institutions to price, manage and build resilience to climate change impacts on the built environment. We are excited to see how you grow! #ClimateRisk #Finance #Risk #ClimateAction

Sequoia’s Golden YouTube Investment Memo 🚀 In a landscape dominated by text and images, one trailblazer envisioned a revolution. It was 2005, and Roelof Botha of Sequoia, was convinced that the next big wave would be in video. He penned an investment memo to the IC proposing a fledgling yet promising video platform - YouTube. His persuasion worked. Sequoia's partners consented, pushing forward a $1 million seed round, followed by a meaty $4 million Series A. And then? A game-changing takeover. Google swooped in just a year later, acquiring YouTube for a whopping $1.65 billion. The end result? A cool $500m profit for Sequoia, a striking 57x on their initial outlay. PS. check out 🔔 for a winning pitch deck the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel https://lnkd.in/ejp-Bhnu

Startup investors believe they are limited to solo angel investing or syndicates. But there is a 3rd investing option: 𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐧𝐢 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬. These networks, comprising former employees and associates of successful companies, are bubbling with potential. Airbnb,  PayPal,  Tesla,  Stripe, Google,  OpenAI,   and Lyft alumni, among others, have gone on to create unicorns and achieve IPO success. Why don't more companies and communities invest in their alumni? 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭: 📌 the challenges in starting a fund 📌 the difference between syndicates & angel investing as a community 📌 how to invest in alumni using PIN More here: https://lnkd.in/d5D9Dy-C

One key criterion for gaining investment that most founders are unaware of is demonstrating accelerating traction and product momentum during a fundraise. Due to a lack of resources and bandwidth in a company's early stages, this is not as straightforward as "more paid ads" or pushing on channel partners. Founders have to get creative to achieve that initial traction wave. ➡ Scroll through the carousel to learn how Ramp, Stripe, and Brex used low-cost, creative growth hacks to accelerate traction, attract investment, and wedge their way into the market. ---- ♻ Repost to help founders in and out of your network! If you want to delve deeper into tactics to reverse engineer the venture capital investment decision, you'll find our newsletter helpful. Click the "try our free newsletter" in the bio to sign up.