Katie Roof’s Post

Founder Collective announced the closing of $95 million in capital commitments for Founder Collective V to continue investing in startups at the seed stage. "When we started Founder Collective in 2009, we aimed to create the kind of venture capital firm we had wished existed when we were founders. A seed fund built by founders for founders." Founder Collective has participated in more than 350 investments with two dozen of them earning more than $1 billion valuations. #CapitalCommitments #EarlyStage #SeedStage

"At a glance, Q2’s venture numbers look promising: With $55.6 billion invested, deal value rose to an eight-quarter high. But $14.6 billion of that capital was concentrated in just two companies — CoreWeave and xAI." The Q2 2024 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gnrjnxUJ #Fundraising #VC #Startups

Seven predictions for US #VC in 2024 from Pitchbook 🎉🎯 - Venture #fundraising is expected to increase slightly over 2023 - Startups' existing investors will maintain their amped-up role in leading deals. We expect outsiders to offer some relief as nontraditional investors reenter the asset class. - The number of #unicorn companies and their collective valuation is set to decline as more are forced to raise capital.  

The venture market continues to be pressured and it's going to continue for a while. VCs deploy less capital in the first half of the year, making it harder to raise new money, and then there's less money to deploy.Valuations are up but it may be misleading.Pre-money valuations soared for growth deals, hitting a $238 million median. But a lot of that is born of existing unicorns that held off fundraising for a couple of years, only returning to market when it was necessary. Over half of the companies raising at high valuations also had high valuations when they last raised in 2021 or 2022, aren't getting big step-ups. The mediocre ones are raising non-priced rounds or aren't able to raise at all, so what looks like strong valuations is masking what's really happening. https://lnkd.in/eh6WwJVe

JP Morgan looks at some trends and recent activity in Seed round fundraising. Slicing the data into number of deals, deal size, and founder backgrounds. Also, some actions that founders can take to increase their probability for success, during these increasingly uncertain times. #startupadvice #startupfunding #vcfunding #Startups #StartupEquity #StartupLeadership

With my recent venture into #venturecapital marketing, I've been intrigued by SE Ventures' distinctive positioning as a specialized VC fund. Focused on sectors like climate tech and energy efficiency, SE Ventures offers decades of investment expertise, coupled with industry-specific expertise, tech insight, and access to Schneider Electric's expansive ecosystem. If you, too, are intrigued, I recommend reading this article about Generalist vs Specialist VC: https://lnkd.in/g_B6urX4

Some seed-stage VC firms give up their pro rata rights due to lacking capital to meet the high capital requirements of a late-stage round and competition from larger VC firms. Alpha Partners, SignalRank, and SaaS Ventures are now stepping in to help seed-stage VC investors exercise their pro rata rights to maintain their ownership percentage. VC firms like Alpha Partners, SignalRank, and SaaS Ventures specialize in providing capital for pro rata investments for Series B and beyond funding rounds. #VentureCapital #Startups

#SeriesA funding is a crucial step for startups in the early stages of their journey. It's when a company raises capital from venture capitalists to help fund product development, expand their team, and scale their operations. #StartupLife #Funding101

Increasing Numbers of VC's Are Heading for the Exit - What Should Founders Consider? Carta reports that in Q1 investors were 70% of secondary sellers, up from 50% in Q4 of 2022. These are very different sales from venture employees looking to cash out some of the appreciated equity. Here are some things for founders to consider: ➡ Investor Relations: Founders should communicate with their investors and understand their reasons for selling in the secondary market. It's important to maintain a positive relationship with existing investors and address any concerns or questions they may have. ➡ Selling Restrictions: Share transfers may be subject to rights of first refusal and other restrictions or conditions. Further, these transactions must comply with securities laws and regulations.  Founders should consult with counsel in advance of any such transaction. ➡ Ownership and Control: Secondary transactions have the ability to alter the “balance of power” on company boards and the voting of share classes.  ➡ Valuation: Even assuming sale prices remain confidential, some secondary sales can impact the valuations for tax (409A) and accounting (ASC 718) purposes. ➡ Information Disclosure: When investors sell shares in the secondary market, they may disclose sensitive information about the company to potential buyers. Founders should ensure that confidential information is protected and that the selling investors adhere to non-disclosure agreements. ➡ Stakeholder Messaging: Even if the sale price is not disclosed, secondary sales in this transaction create significant “signaling risk.” Founders need a proactive communication strategy for remaining investors, employees, customers and partners. ➡ Understand the Buyer: There are a broad spectrum of secondary buyers. Sometimes the sale occurs in the context of a VC’s sale of an entire portfolio – in this case, the Buyer may have limited interest in many of the portfolio companies. At the other end, a Buyer may have a strong interest in the specific company, have significant new funds to invest and are taking advantage of the opportunity to buy at a discount. ➡ Mitigation Strategies: Consider implementing strategies to mitigate the potential negative effects of secondary market transactions. Although founders often have limited leverage in such situations, they often remain key to a venture’s success so options should be explored. #venturecapital #secondaries

S3 Ventures, the largest venture capital firm in Texas, specializes in Seed-Series B investments in B2B Software companies. Nicole Bentz, a VC at S3 joins host William L. to break down the firm's investment strategy and how its unique sole-LP structure augments the firm's ability to be hyper-focused on their founders. Nicole and William also discuss establishing diligence frameworks for evaluating early-stage companies, how junior VCs can be value-additive to founders, and S3 Ventures' perspective on the current state of early-stage funding. #venturecapital #startups #businesstechnology #digitalexperiences #healthcaretechnology