Airstream Alpha Newsletter Archive

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Every Tuesday/Thursday, @TheFundCFO publishes VC/CFO insights that matter – highlights from notable VC GPs, LPs, and CFOs/finance pros. Love what we’re doing? Consider upgrading to paid for deeper dives on Thursdays (most paid subscribers expense these insights!)

#299: Navigating the 2025 Liquidity Drought

As 2025 wraps up, one theme cuts across nearly every VC and LP conversation: the liquidity drought. Fundraising cycles are slower, pacing has tightened, continuation vehicles are more common, and hold periods have extended well beyond historical norms. These dynamics have reshaped how managers think about reserves, DPI, and exit planning. In this post, we dive deeper into one mechanism that actually resets liquidity cycles: public markets.

#297: Q4 Valuation & Audit Time: What’s New?

It’s quarterly valuation & audit time again — dashboards open, KPIs refreshed, comps updated, and valuation memos circulating. Compared to the earlier part of the year, Q4 brings its own rhythm: year-end audits approaching, LP updates underway, and a natural moment to revisit how your valuation process is working. What follows is a grounded walkthrough of what we typically see in Q4, where teams tend to focus, and how to approach valuations with clarity and consistency — without implying that one method or policy fits all situations.

#294: A 5x VC Fund Is Rare - But It's Not a Myth

There’s a narrative in venture right now: “5x funds are unrealistic.” “Those days are over.” “LPs should lower their expectations.” That framing is emotionally convenient — but financially incomplete. A recent graphic and analysis by David Clark (CIO, VenCap International) offers a clearer, more precise way to think about it. Rather than giving into pessimism, his data highlights where the real opportunity lies.

#293: AI Gravity Gap: Solid Co.'s Not Raising

The venture market in 2025 isn’t just shifting — it’s polarizing. AI has become the dominant narrative, and the result is a funding environment where strong, durable businesses outside the AI arc are facing the toughest conditions of the past decade. Samir Kaji summarized this dynamic in a recent post: the data, the incentives, and the psychology of the market are all pointing in the same direction. Here’s what that looks like when you zoom out.

#292: 2025 AI Landscape & Venture Returns

Every cycle has a few defining companies. In the 2025 AI cycle, one of those few companies is Cursor. Akhil Paul’s LinkedIn post, “Cursor’s Generational Growth Curve,” highlights how unusually fast Cursor is compounding relative to modern SaaS benchmarks. And alongside that, Accel’s newly released “2025 AI Globalscape” maps the broader ecosystem — showing where workflow-native AI is gaining traction, how infrastructure is compounding, and why Europe and Israel are rising faster than expected.

#291: Mid-Quarter Check-In: Models, Mechanics, Q4 Close Prep

We’re at the halfway mark of Q4, and the signals are becoming clearer: funds are operating with more focus, LPs are paying closer attention to operational clarity, and fund models are increasingly central to how decisions get evaluated. This mid-quarter check-in ties together posts #280–#290, highlighting trends, observations, and practical takeaways as we head into year-end — while leaving room for different approaches and perspectives.

#290: Concentrated vs. Diversified: Fund Model Math That Matters

The math of venture capital keeps repeating a simple truth: in a power-law world, breadth beats precision. Stefano Bernardi (Unruly Capital) published a strong piece on Signature Block, challenging the idea that concentrated portfolios outperform. It’s a belief that persists among LPs — 15–20 high-ownership positions, follow on the winners, “high conviction.” But when you model it, the numbers tell a different story.

#287: Inside RAISE Global 2025 — How Fund Models Are Evolving

The 10th Annual RAISE Global Summit brought together General Partners (GPs) and Limited Partners (LPs) for a one-day, high-impact convening on the evolving architecture of venture capital. Recognized as a premier community for forward-thinking LPs and emerging fund managers, RAISE has become the nexus where capital allocators, operators, and institutional investors exchange practical frameworks for building next-generation funds.

#283: Signs of Life — What Q3 2025 Tells Us About VC’s Slow Rebuild

After four quarters of waiting, venture might finally be exhaling. The latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor paints a picture of cautious optimism: exits are back in motion, AI’s share of capital has (slightly) cooled, and LPs are re-entering conversations—even if selectively. It’s not a broad recovery yet. But for the first time since 2021, the data shows early indicators of a functioning market.

#282: Resources to Get a Fund Tax-Ready

Navigating your first tax and audit season can feel like decoding a new language. Between management fees, carried interest allocations, and partner K-1s, even well-run emerging funds find themselves racing to close books while prepping for the next capital call. Carta recently published its Tax-Ready VC Fund Playbook, and it’s one of the better checklists we’ve seen for fund managers who want to build institutional-grade processes early.

#268: PE Market Thaw: Q4 Deals Coming?

Change up - today we’re diving in to some PE (private equity) updates! PE is an important part of the private markets and can inform what’s happening in VC and other areas. Private equity dealmaking is finally showing signs of life after a sluggish first half. Advisors are seeing more sell-side mandates hit the market, and the valuation gap between buyers and sellers is beginning to narrow. That doesn’t mean PE activity is roaring back—but it does suggest Q4 could be the busiest stretch of 2025.

#266: Q2'25 VC - Concentration, AI Premium, & Hard Tech

CB Insights’ State of Venture Q2’25 shows a market still awash in capital—but with a sharper aim. Funding remains near record highs, yet deal activity has fallen to its lowest level since 2016. The new VC playbook? Fewer shots, bigger targets. Here are the takeaways that stood out to us: 📈 Funding Stays Hot — $94.6B in Q2 🤖 AI Still Owns the Cap Table 🏢 Corporate VC Pullback 🔧 Hard Tech’s Big Swing 🚀 Breakout Sectors to Watch

#265: Mid-Quarter Check-In: Fundraising, Liquidity & LP Patience

2025’s back half isn’t following the script. Fundraising is tighter, exits are selectively strong, and LPs are more patient but far more precise in where they place bets. The through-line? Proof beats promise. Here’s what’s moved — and what it signals: High-Impact View: QSBS 2.0 as a Strategic Unlock; Fundraising is a Readiness Game; Liquidity Momentum Is Building — For the Right Logos; Early H2 Exit Optimism; LP Signals: DPI Over TVPI, and more...

#264: VC Fundraising, Track Record & Data Room (2025 Edition)

Back when this newsletter was just getting started, we said every GP needs three things before raising a fund: Fundraising strategy Track record presentation Data room readiness Four years later? Same fundamentals. Higher bar. LPs have sharper filters, diligence cycles drag longer, and the “good enough” data room of 2022 no longer cuts it. This is your one-stop refresh — plus the best resource we’ve found: SVB’s Data Room Best Practices. Their 9-part manifesto boiled down, with links to our own earlier takes.

#263: VC Exits H2'25 — Liquidity Gains Momentum with Figma IPO

So far in Q3, roughly $22B in VC-backed exits have been realized. Layer in the estimated $13B+ in paper value from Figma’s IPO, and we’re projecting $35B+ in Q3 exit activity—if current momentum holds. That would make Q3 the second-best quarter in recent years, behind Q2’s $67.7B total. But important caveats apply: We’re not through the quarter yet—projections reflect early August data A large portion of “value” (especially in Figma’s case) remains locked up and unrealized The market is still sorting winners from markdowns

#262: VC Exits Looking Up in H2 2025

This week’s update builds on reporting from Sourcery’s “$FIG 250% IPO Pop + Bill Gurley”, which covered the Figma IPO and investor reaction in detail. We’re zooming in on the cap table math, the liquidity ripple effects, and what this signals for late-stage venture in H2. The exit markets just got a shot of adrenaline. This was a liquidity event that mattered—for founders, for LPs, and for GPs staring at long-dormant DPI waterfalls.

#258: VC Fundraising 2025 YTD

Venture capital fundraising in 2025 is increasingly a story of concentration—a market where a few firms are raising nearly all the capital. According to PitchBook’s Q2 2025 Venture Monitor, just 12 U.S. VC firms raised over 50% of all capital raised year-to-date. Let that sink in. Despite a challenging macro and distribution environment, capital is still flowing—but it’s flowing upmarket, toward brand-name managers with scale, strategy, and deep LP relationships.

#256: VC Midyear Update (2025): Liquidity, AI, & Secondaries

Insights from PitchBook's US Venture Capital Midyear Update At the midpoint of 2025, the U.S. venture capital market is sending mixed signals—renewed activity in AI and secondaries, but persistent headwinds in liquidity and fundraising. PitchBook’s US Venture Capital Midyear Update frames the landscape clearly: this is a market in transition, not recovery. The market has effectively split in two: This divide raises the question: How do new managers stand out?

#255: QSBS 2.0 - Faster Exits, Bigger Caps, New Playbooks

On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) quietly reshaped a tax incentive that’s been a bedrock of early-stage investing: Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS). The last overhaul was in 2010. This one’s bigger—and faster. To break it down, we’re turning to someone who knows the letter and the strategy behind the law: Chris Harvey, attorney and founder of Law of VC. Chris has helped funds, founders, and LPs navigate QSBS for years—and his analysis of the new law is the go-to reference for this update. As he puts it, “This is the most material update to QSBS in 15 years.” And it's not just cosmetic. QSBS 2.0 shifts timelines, raises caps, and reopens the door for companies and funds that thought they’d aged out.

#254: Q2'25 VC Valuation Policy & Insights

Valuation policy matters more than ever. AI dominates. The exit window creaks open. As we move through 2025, the venture market is beginning to feel familiar—but with new rules. Valuations are trending up. Deals are harder to close. Founders are getting more favorable terms—but only if they can clear a higher bar. Behind the headlines, a deeper shift is underway: valuation policies are becoming central to LP conversations, audits, and follow-on fundraising. Markups are back in style—but how you get there matters more than ever. Here’s a tactical recap of Q2 2025, with updated data from Carta’s State of Private Markets: Q1 2025, PitchBook-NVCA, and siliconAngle—and a full archive of past valuation deep dives at the end.

#253: Institutional Readiness Isn’t a Buzzword. It’s a Strategy.

Insights from Chris Harvey via Embracing Emergence: The venture capital landscape is shifting—fast. Capital is consolidating at the top, and the bar for emerging managers is rising just as quickly. In a recent piece for Benedikt Langer’s Embracing Emergence newsletter, Chris Harvey breaks down what it really means for a VC fund to be “institutional ready”—not in theory, but in practice. The market has effectively split in two: This divide raises the question: How do new managers stand out?

#251: Raising a VC Fund in 2025: Liquidity, AI, and a Tale of Two Markets

There are now 10x more private investment firms than public companies. Let that sink in. Private markets are no longer the “alternative.” They are the market. In a conversation with Turner Novak on The Peel, Samir Kaji (CEO of Allocate) unpacked the seismic shifts reshaping private investing. His message was clear: whether you’re building a fund or deploying into one, the game has changed. So in the spirit of Pavel’s post — and in a moment of reflection — here are a few principles that guide everything we share:

#250: >1200 Unicorns: Early Backers, >25% Are No Longer >$1B

Which investors are consistently spotting billion-dollar companies before anyone else? New research from Stanford Professor Ilya Strebulaev analyzed more than 1,200 unicorns founded after 2015 and identified the VC firms that most often led early-stage rounds in companies that eventually reached $1B+ valuations. The findings offer more than just a leaderboard—they highlight how power-law dynamics and early-stage conviction shape today’s venture outcomes.

#249: Venture Equations: Power Laws, Secondaries, and the Discipline Premium

Over the past two decades, venture capital has quietly—but fundamentally—rewired itself. The rise of trillion-dollar companies, the explosion in unicorn formation, and the strategic maturation of secondaries are reshaping how funds perform, how portfolios are constructed, and how liquidity is planned. We’re not just playing a different game—we’re playing on a different board. Here’s what’s changed, and why it matters: 1. Mega-Winners Now Define Fund Outcomes 2. Portfolio Construction Has Evolved 3. Secondaries Are Now Part of the Liquidity Stack 4. Entry Prices Are Climbing—And So Is Selectivity 5. The Edge: Discipline, Diversification, and Secondaries

#248: Top VC Takes / Accounts, Unique Perspectives

@TheFundCFO started with a simple goal: help GPs operate like the best in the business — especially when it comes to building funds that LPs can trust. That means fund mechanics, capital flows, reporting, structuring — and just as importantly, learning how to communicate clearly with your investors. If you’re an emerging manager looking to stand out with institutional LPs — or a GP navigating your second or third fund with more complexity than ever — this newsletter is for you. In short: we want to help GPs build LP-trusted funds. So in the spirit of Pavel’s post — and in a moment of reflection — here are a few principles that guide everything we share:

#246: 🎧 LPs, Solo GPs, and the Power Law: Michael Kim on Backing the Best

In this rare LP-side deep dive, Turner Novak interviews Michael Kim, founder of Cendana Capital, one of the most influential limited partners backing early-stage VC managers. If you’re a solo GP, raising a first fund, or just trying to make sense of this market, Kim delivers a calm, clinical take on what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to building durable venture franchises. This episode is also a window into how funds like Banana Capital are evolving operations. Make no mistake—Michael reminds us that in venture, tooling is leverage, but judgment is everything.

May Recap: VCs -> RIAs, LP patience, small fund power, and more

One of the most useful things about stepping back is seeing not just what’s happening—but what’s compounding. May’s posts covered the reopening of the IPO window, concentration risk in platform VCs, and the structural advantage of small funds. But across all of it, one theme kept reappearing: GPs are adapting to longer feedback loops—and LPs are adjusting their expectations for return timing, fund model, and portfolio strategy. Here’s what we covered, and what’s worth keeping in view:

#243: Tech IPOs Are Coming Back. Slowly. AI Might Lead.

After a multiyear freeze, the tech IPO market is showing early signs of a thaw in 2025. The pace isn’t frenzied, but movement is real—and this time, it’s deliberate, as highlighted in a recent CNBC report. CoreWeave. eToro. Figma. Galaxy Digital. Chime. Omada Health. These aren’t just logos; they’re signals. The IPO window isn’t open—but it’s no longer frozen shut. And for CFOs, that’s a critical shift.

#242 The New Operating System for Venture

Last week, we unpacked Lightspeed’s quiet leap into RIA territory. This week, we step back—because this isn’t just one firm making noise. It’s the venture operating system getting reinstalled. A16z. Sequoia. General Catalyst. Lightspeed. They’re not just VCs anymore. They’re infrastructure. This isn’t compliance theater. It’s structural. The legacy venture model was built for spray-and-pray, LP-optimized returns, and decade-long waits.

#241 Mid-Quarter Check-In: RIA Era, Secondary Power Plays, and a Shifting Stack

We’re halfway through Q2. Time to zoom out. 2025 hasn’t just been noisy—it’s been structurally interesting. Capital is consolidating. VC firms are becoming platforms. And the “venture stack” is getting rewritten in real time. Here’s what’s moved—and what it signals: The Operating System is Changing; Valuation Signals Are Fractured; Q1 Was a DPI Mirage; Secondaries Are Becoming Infrastructure; The Traditional VC Stack is Breaking; Macro + AI = New Exit Math

#239 April Recap: Broken Lines, Secondaries & Spring Swings

April was anything but boring. From navigating valuation season to making sense of a whiplash-inducing public market, this month brought a mix of practical tools, deeper context, and a few surprises. We kicked things off with Q1 valuation prep, took a closer look at 2025 policy trends, and even unpacked how macro market shifts affect private markets in real time. Here’s a look back at what we covered this month—just in case you missed a post (or want to bookmark a few for your next Monday standup)

#232 April Markets Up/Down/All Around

It’s been a wild past week in the public markets. Even though we’re focused on private markets and venture capital here, what happens in the public markets will always have an impact across asset classes. Lower volatility markets (what we had before last Thursday) makes it easier to raise venture capital dollars, plan new investments, and exit businesses. When volatility increases (where we are now), a lot of that hits the pause button.

#218 Size Matters: Small vs. Big VC Funds (5x+ vs. 2x+), Lightspeed Returns Detail

Sheel Mohnot recently highlighted a key challenge for large VC funds: even with breakout hits, it's difficult to return more than 3x on a large fund. While firms like Lightspeed generate substantial absolute returns, smaller funds often achieve higher multiples. This aligns with insights from our previous post, where we analyzed how small VC funds can deliver outsized returns despite higher volatility (more below).

#210 VC Monitor Report Deep Dive (Q4'24)

Ever quarter, we highly recommend reading the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. In the report, they provide great market data on what’s going on in VC. Lots of highly valued companies, few exits. 2024 IPOs performed well in public markets. Dealmaking remains slow but shows promising signs for 2025. Outsized deals continue to elevate total deal value. Q4 notches 2024 high for early-stage deal count. Despite Q4 increase, late-stage deal activity declines for third consecutive year.

#169 VC Market Update (Q2'24) & Exit Predictions (DPI)

Highlights: PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor (Q2 2024) Every quarter, we highly recommend reading the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. In the report, they provide great market data on what’s going on in VC. From there, we can take that data and make some predictions about the future! Here are some of our favorite highlights from the 50-page report (we pulled out the best insights so you don’t have to). We’ll also share takeaways and predictions.

#162 VCs Closing Q2 w/ Playbook, Model, Valuation Updates

The Quarterly Closeout Happy last week of Q2 - time to close it out! At the end of each quarter, we look back at the past three months, professionally and personally. What worked well (celebrate the wins!) and what didn’t? What can we change to make the next three months even better?! Revisiting The Year-End CFO/Finance Checklists at Q2 Our year-end process can easily be applied to the end of Q2. We’ve seen a lot of different frameworks over the years to keep track of all the requirements for funds at year-end. One of our favorites is breaking things down into four buckets: portfolio companies, investor reporting, compliance/legal, and operations/HR. Here’s some of the top items in each bucket for year-end…

#161 The 2024 VC Vintage & Power Law - Time to Invest?

“When the going gets tough, the tough keep allocating” “Is now a good time to allocate to VC?” That’s a common questions LPs are asking GPs these days. Today, we dive into a recent report from Stepstone that examines what returns looked like for VC investors in various vintage years. “We believe 2024 very well could be a power law vintage.” Read more here (full report linked below): “In VC, we often observe two behavioral phenomena hindering successful outcomes that are closely linked: recency bias and the fear of missing out. Quite simply, investors tend to allocate more heavily to the asset class during periods in which recent performance has been strongest. Concerns over not capturing upside when the stars seem to be aligned can further exacerbate aggressive investing at market peaks.”

#160 VC Fund Math: "Maximum Convexity" Leads to 10x+ Funds

VC Fund Math: "Maximum Convexity" = 10x+ Funds What game are you playing in VC? Are you going for 10x+ funds or 3x+ funds? Established VC funds with large AUM can lower their return targets to 3x+. A $1b fund generating a 3x = $3b of returns, $2b of profits. That’s at least $400m of carry for the team at 20%. Not bad. I would argue (and believe most LPs would agree) that most early-stage emerging managers need to be shooting for 10x+ funds. But how do you do that? Today, we share insights from Roger Ehrenberg (Eberg Capital, formerly IA Ventures). Roger shares the following (linked here): “As I've written on numerous occasions, markets, portfolios and, in fact, many systems in life take the shape of barbells.”

#159 VC CFO Q3 Capital Call Template (Free)

VC CFO Q3 Capital Call Template We’re approaching the end of the quarter again - that means it’s time to start planning ahead for Q3 and the second half of the year! Most VC funds call capital from LPs at the end of each quarter, so later this week. LP’s often appreciate a regular capital call cadence so that they can plan cash flow. There are a number of different pieces that go into a capital call forecast. Good news, we’ve seen almost all of them! Here’s a link to a simple capital call template you can use for Q3, pictured below. Enjoy!

#158 VC Breakout Companies (Ch.1) - What Does it Take?

Venture Capital Insights - YTD 2024 We’ve made it to Memorial Day Breakout Company Founders: Highlights from Devin Wenig (Symbolic.ai) and Mike Silagadze (ether.fi) We talk a lot here about what it takes to build great VC funds and firms! The catch is, none of it matters if you aren’t accessing and investing in founders that can build breakout companies! Today, we share some insights from two of those founders. In a recent Chapter One ‘Breakout Companies’ call, we had the privilege of conversing with two industry leaders: Devin Wenig, co-founder and CEO of Symbolic.ai, and Mike Silagadze, co-founder and CEO of ether.fi. Here are the key takeaways from the discussions.

#157 VC Fund Budgets & Models, Unpacked

Fund Budgeting and Portfolio Construction (Vector) We’ve been really impressed with recent thought leadership pieces from Vector. Here are some of our favorite takes on fund budgeting and portfolio construction: “Effective fund management requires an understanding of the various expenses involved. Fund expenses and management company expenses are two primary categories that every fund manager must plan for over the lifetime of the vehicle. Fund expenses are typically borne by the fund/investors and these expenses are paid directly from the fund’s assets. Management fees, paid by investors as a part of their capital commitment to the fund, are typically a percentage of the committed capital (or invested capital, though generally that strategy is less common in VC and utilized in the latter half of a fund’s life) and are paid to the fund managers.

#156 Top VC CFO Insights of May 2024

Key Themes at Allocate Summit From GPs & LPs (Samir Kaji) AI App Layer Wins. Most believe that LLMs are not where investments return will be had, but rather much more excitement for the app layer. Feeling is LLMs will be commoditized, and large incumbents will be the winners. Sentiment: Optimism for tech is sky-high, but investment sentiment is still tempered given the AI hype & continued deterioration of portfolios that were propped up during the ZIRP period. Liquidity: Everyone agreed liquidity market is broken. IPOs are now reserved for companies that have $200MM-$300MM+ in revs and large cap M&A is really tough given regulatory environment. Lots of discussion about continuation funds, PE led acquisition ($500MM-$2B).

#155 Venture Insights & Small VC Fund Outperformance

Venture Capital Insights - YTD 2024 We’ve made it to Memorial Day Weekend 2024 - congrats! We’ve been inspired recently by a number of insights and wanted to share some highlights here: Aumni Venture Beacon Year End 2023 Report: The prevailing narrative since the end of 2021 has been one of stress feeding through venture markets owing to a combination of a higher rates environment, banking market volatility, and subdued IPO markets. Median post-money valuations fell ~50% from 2022 to 2023. These developments were accompanied by steady increases in the prevalence of down rounds through last year.

#154 VC Fund Math: The Path to 10x+

“Making 10X in Venture is complicated…” A recent X post from Martin Tobias on VC fund math inspired us while also reminded us that VC is hard! You have to worry about things like dilution, protecting your ownership, etc. to hit a 10x return on just one investment. Then to have a great fund, you really need a 100x fund driver. That’s hard to get! We’ve written about this topic extensively (more below). In the meantime, we’ll pass the mic to Martin to share more on his 15.6x mark-up that was really a 5.5x after accounting for dilution (spreadsheet linked in thread): “Making 10X in Venture is more complicated than most people think. I recently invested in a $16M post, and the company just raised a $250M post. Up 15.6X? No, only up 5.5X. Here is the math. For early investors to make 10X, the valuation has to be over 40X higher than our entry price. It is much harder for VCs to get outlier returns than most understand.”

#151 Top CFO Takes for VC GPs & LPs

Top CFO Takes for VC GPs & LPs Revenue multiples matter! It’s wild to look back at peak EV/NTM revenue multiples in late 2021. The top companies peaked at 62.5x! Applying that math to private companies, if you had $16m of revenue forecasted (and investors believed it), you were worth $1 billion (unicorn)! Today, things have come back to reality. Most companies are lucky to get a 10x multiple. That means you have to build a $100m revenue business to be worth $1 billion in the public markets. Times have changed!

#150 Primack's Letter To VCs & CFO Takes

Letter to VCs (Dan Primack) & CFO Takes Earlier today, Dan Primack shared a letter to VCs that you can read here. Dan is known for his daily newsletter and often spicy takes on VC. The letter does capture a lot of what VCs and LPs are talking about in today’s market environment. While I don’t agree w/ all of it, here are some of my favorite takes: The basic VC model is cyclical. Raise money, invest that money, exit via IPOs or strategic sales, and then use those exits to raise more money. But it doesn't work if you stop exiting companies. A whopping 37% of "unicorns" are being held for at least nine years by VC funds, including 13% that are past the 12-year mark LPs need to believe they’ll see distributions within a certain timeframe. The VCs that can balance distributions with holding their winners will gain credibility with LPs and thrive going forward.

Paid Newsletter- #149 VC Fundraising in 2024 - Execute!

Top VC Fundraising Reads & Lessons (Timeless) Previously, we shared posts with lessons learned from VCs such as Fred Wilson @ Union Square Ventures, Jeff Morris Jr. @ Chapter One, Elizabeth Yin @ The Hustle Fund, Winter Mead @ Oper8r, and Mark Suster @ Upfront Ventures. All have had different fundraise journeys and share unique insights. The background posts are linked here: #134 VC Investor Relations, LP Communication Best Practices #94 VC Fundraising Basics & Bear Market Strategies #30 VC Fundraising in 2023 #21 VC Fundraising 101: Track Record & Data Room #9 Opportunity Fund Insights #8 Fundraising - Show Me the Money!

#148 a16z Closes $7B: What It Means Emerging VC Managers & LPs

a16z closes $7.2 billion → what does it mean for emerging managers (“venture alpha”)? As reported by Axios, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has closed on $7.2 billion for its newest set of funds. CFO take: a16z raises capital from large investors looking to access venture capital and is a barometer for how LPs feel about the asset class. Many LPs take a “barbell approach” to venture capital. They invest in large fund vehicles like a16z to get “venture beta” (2x-3x target returns). The other side of the barbell is “venture alpha” (5x+ target returns), often represented by emerging managers.

#147 Navigating the VC Landscape in 2024

Outperformance & Fundraise Insights from Cendana & Sapphire Navigating VC Landscape in 2024 - What’s Going On? PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor (Q1 2024) Law of VC: #32 Episode - YC's Secret SAFE (Chris Harvey) In the Q1’24, the US VC stayed slow but is maybe finding a bottom?! Key stats: $36.6 billion invested across 3,925 deals, remaining steady compared to previous years $300 billion in dry powder available Defensive investment climate, where investors are focusing on existing portfolios rather than new ventures Insider-led rounds are prevalent, while first-time financings are at multiyear lows.

#146 Best CFO Reads for VC GPs & LPs

Top Reads of Recent History, VC CFO Style #142 VC Market Maps & Useful Data #141 VC is the Best (Asset Class) if You Choose Wisely #140 RTF (Return The Fund) Math for VCs #137 The Ides of March -> VC CFO Deadlines #135 Regulatory for VC Funds, CFO Edition #130 Top Takes of 2024 (So Far) & Takeaways #123 Q4 Valuations + Real Policy Examples (Download) #119 The Ultimate PE/VC Fund Checklist for Year-End Finance & Compliance A Crowdsourced List of Books and Resources for New Venture Capitalists

#98 Emerging VC Outperformance: Insights & New Capital From Cendana, Sapphire

Outperformance & Fundraise Insights from Cendana & Sapphire The right emerging VC managers can drive real outperformance in investment portfolios and will continue to do so for decades to come. Every manager in the market today was emerging at one point, and behemoths like a16z just ~15 years ago. While we find ourselves in a slower VC fundraising environment today, capital allocators are still investing in emerging managers.

Paid Newsletter- #95 VC Deep Dive: Footwork + 20VC

There’s a lot of great content from notable VCs, LPs, and CFOs/finance pros on the internet. Here, we’re focused on pulling out the insights out that really matter, as well as finding the most current content that overlays historical lessons with current market dynamics, which are changing faster than ever. Today, we’ll share some insights from the recent conversation with Nikhil Basu Trivedi (Footwork) and Harry Stebbings (20VC).

Paid Newsletter- #91 VC Deep Dive: Fresh Takes From Top VCs

VC Deep Dive: Fresh Takes From Top VCs Dear readers, thanks for all the great feedback on our recent VC deep dive posts! We’ve gone deep on some notable VCs & unpacked some insights around building generational firms (#89 VC Deep Dive: Brad Gurley (Benchmark) + David Sacks (Craft) & #87 VC Deep Dives & Building Generational Firms). “Now more than ever, VC firms need to think strategically about their business model.”

#83 Q2 LP Updates - Best VC Insights from GPs & LPs

Q2 LP Updates - Best VC Insights from GPs & LPs If you’re a VC GP or CFO/Finance Pro, you’ve likely finalized (or are close to finalizing) your Q2 report and financials. At the end of each quarter, “The Playbook” requires VC funds to review and update their financial performance to investors. That means working with fund administrators / accountants to review portfolios and update company valuations based on your Valuation Policy.

#79 VC Insights in London, UK, Europe

Headlines Remind us London, Europe is a Big Deal for Venture Capital It’s been an exciting year thus far for London, the UK, and Europe more broadly. As increased regulation and scrutiny builds in the United States, we’ve seen a different approach to technology (including AI and web3) in London and Europe. Major VCs such as Sequoia and a16z have opened offices and made major investments. Here are some recent headlines that give context:

#56 LP Email Updates, Insights: Getting Hit By The AI Lucky Truck @ Chapter One

LP, Investor Email Updates Matter - Tips, Tricks, Insights for VCs & CFOs The email update is arguably the most important form of professional communication today! VC’s / fund finance pro’s request them from their portfolio. LP’s request them from VCs. If you master the email update, it can be highly efficient! You can message 10, 100, 1000 people all at once and let them know what's going on.

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