Jeffrey Zeldman’s Post

📈Is the Venture Market Making a Comeback? PitchBook just dropped their Q2 2024 Venture Monitor (https://lnkd.in/dQcxh8iq) report. Looks like VC is entering a new era. 🤞 At first glance, Q2 venture investments seem promising, hitting $55.6B—a peak we haven't seen in eight quarters! But here’s the kicker: $14.6B of that went to just TWO companies—CoreWeave and xAI. Everyone else? Still struggling to raise funds as LPs play it safe. Adding to the cautious vibe: sluggish stock performance outside the "Magnificent Seven" (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Nvidia, Tesla, Meta). So yeah, we might have hit rock bottom, but we're slowly pushing off. Now it's all about watching the trends. 🚀

Just finished the Newton Venture Program Foundations course, and it's awesome for anyone who's new to venture capital or for founders wanting to learn more about how VC works. It gives you a solid overview of the VC world—why it's important, its history, and what it's like to work in the industry. Plus, it walks you through the VC process from finding deals to exiting investments.

Struck by the jargon in Venture Capital conversations? Let's unravel the mystery behind the VC lingo. Ever heard of 'Pre-money valuation'? It's the estimated worth of a startup before it goes public or receives external funding. Or what about 'Liquidation Preference'? This is the order in which money is paid out after an exit, usually in the favor of VC investors. Then we have 'Participating Preferred' - a type of stock that gives its holders the right to not only get their money back but also participate in the distribution of remaining funds. And let's not forget 'Dilution'. This is the reduction in ownership percentage due to the issuance of new shares. These terms might sound like they're from another planet, but they're the keys to understanding the intricate world of Venture Capital. Get comfortable with these terms. Make them your allies, not your adversaries. They could be the difference between navigating the VC world like a pro, or getting lost in the labyrinth.

🧠 If you're lucky enough to have a bank holiday this weekend, why not spend some of it learning about venture capital?! Newton Foundations is a free, accessible way to gain the key knowledge, skills, mindsets and tools needed to thrive in VC. Find out more here and start your learning journey today! #NewtonFoundations #LearnAboutVC

Bootstrapping vs. Angels vs. VC! This summary nails the key differences 👏

👏 starting 👏 a 👏 company 👏 is 👏 not 👏 risky 👏 ... or at least, any riskier than finding a job. I've heard this narrative that starting a company is risky from friends and recruiters and whatnot since college. Always as an excuse to take a big corporate job. This is dumb. The only risk here that I can imagine is the chance that you end up with no income. When you have a job, you have one source of income. You worked hard selling your product (your future services and IP) for that source of income. But you only sold it once. If you start a company all you need to do is figure out how to sell your future IP once and you have literally the same risk profile as getting a job. But chances are if you sold it once you can probably do it again, so why not do it again 🤔? If you make N sales it's like having N jobs. It's much harder to be fired from all N jobs than 1 job. This rant brought to you by the low agency thought process that led to "boostrapping is riskier than VC"

Is the concentration of VC funding a problem or a solution?

Interesting read

Why is there no middle ground in #venturecapital? I wrote a bit about how and why venture capital has evolved, and what that means for founders today. You can check it out and subscribe below: https://lnkd.in/ej7Q2pWq

Reminder: I strongly recommend that you read my two previous posts before reading below: - "Traitorous Eight, the origin of the semiconductor and venture capital industries" - "The Power Law" Who is Don Valentine? Don Valentine passed away in 2019. Here is his profile: - Founder of Sequoia Capital, founded Sequoia Capital in 1972. - The father of Silicon Valley Capital industry.