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Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? Nobody cared about our valuations any more.

Valuation 466
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Why Has Seed Investing Declined? And What Does this Mean for the Future?

Both Sides of the Table

As a result of the IPO window shifting we saw a massive inflow of public-market capital into the latest stages of venture. why the hell has seed financing declined so much in the past 3 years?? In this post I set out to explain why the seed market emerged as its own category in the first place and why it’s declined as of late. (

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Revisiting Paul Graham’s “High Resolution” Financing

Both Sides of the Table

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. Markets always evolve toward higher resolution. Either would be fine with startups, so long as they can easily change their valuation. Photo credit: D.

Finance 286
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Stock Market Drops. Then It Rallies. What Happens Next for Funding?

Both Sides of the Table

Valuations were enormous relative to progress in companies. Companies with less than $2 million in revenue were asking for $50-60 million valuations and getting them. I spent my days meeting companies, figuring out what areas of the market interested me and trying to get a sense for how VCs thought about fair valuations.

Stock 305
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It’s Morning in Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

There are obvious reasons the industry has had less-than-desirable returns, including: massive over-funding of the sector, huge increases in inexperienced venture capitalists that took a decade to peter out, and the massive correction in the value of the public stock markets that closed many exit opportunities for half a decade.

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On Going Public: SPACs, Direct Listings, Public Offerings, and Access to Private Markets

Ben's Blog

House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets (Committee on Financial Services) hearing on “Going Public: SPACs, Direct Listings, Public Offerings, and the Need for Investor Protections” May 2021. IPO market. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, SPACs raised $87.9

SEC 36
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US Economic Risks (Sept 2010): Impact on Investors & Entrepreneurs

Both Sides of the Table

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.