View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

Over the last 10 years, we’ve been in a bull market with considerable froth in late stage financing activity and valuations. The trends described above in VC performance have an upstream effect on Limited Partners which is somewhat counter-intuitive. This would suggest that TVPI would be performing well. LP Constraints.

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

Similar to the explosion of seed funds in the past decade, we (and some limited partners too ) believe these Flexible VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem. The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO).

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Venture Chronicles

JULY 5, 2010

In today’s online WSJ there was an article about nanotech investor Harris & Harris expanding in debt financing and equity investments in public companies as a result of the lack of liquidity options for private venture backed startups.

Venture Capital 40

Venture Capital Marketing Limited Partner IPO 40

Professor VC

DECEMBER 8, 2015

I think we will see more of these in 2016 and beyond as IPOs are still far and few between and unicorns struggle to justify their stratospheric valuations. Both companies were relatively well capitalized, building peer to peer payments businesses and spending a significant amount of their funding on customer acquisition.

Merger 28

Merger LP IPO Redemption 28

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

As most of you probably know, the vast majority of VC firms make investments out of funds structured as limited partnerships with a 10yr life. 1) LP Bases Change Over Time – Most healthy VC firms tend to have stable relationships with the limited partners investing with them.

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178