#107 VC Deep Dive & New York Tech Week

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Recent Recap: The "Why Now?" for PE/VC Funds? A Look at the Data

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.

Earlier today, the Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor was released w/ Q3’23 data. As we’ve moved through 2023, we’ve referenced data from Jamesin Seidel (Q3 2023 Funding), Crunchbase, Pitchbook, Carta, and others. In Q1’23, Bain released their annual Global Private Equity Report and Pitchbook released their Private Benchmarks Report. It’s worth revisiting today to consider what you can do about it now (before everyone else has the data). The TLDR:

Less money is flowing into private equity & venture capital (funds and companies) in 2023 and likely 2024. We believe this creates an opportunity for outstanding performance. Historical data supports this.

Fundraising Fireside at New York Tech Week

This week was New York Tech Week. It is a week filled with events for the tech sector where VC funds descend upon the city. There are fundraising fireside chats, theme-focused gatherings, conversations led by both large companies and smaller investors. You can see all the detail on the tech week website. For those that weren’t able to attend (yours truly), San Francisco and LA will be hosting next iterations of these in early 2024.

VC Deep Dive: Fred Wilson (USV) & Mark Mullen (Bonfire)

For those that weren’t able to attend in person, many events were streamlined live over the internet. One of the most impactful events I attended was the fundraising fireside with Fred Wilson (USV) and Mark Mullen (Bonfire). Fred is focused on Series A+ and Mark is focused on seed investing (LA focused).

Today, we dig deeper on both Fred Wilson (USV) and Mark Mullen (Bonfire) and share our takeaways from the panel discussion, as well as what that means for 2024 and beyond in venture capital:

VC Deep Dive: Fred Wilson (USV)

Fred Wilson is a prominent VC and the co-founder of Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm based in New York. He is widely recognized for his influential role in the tech and startup investment landscape. He has an amazing blog that has some timeless lessons: you can read more here. Some of his most successful investments and notable contributions include:

• Twitter: One of Fred Wilson's most famous investments, Union Square Ventures was an early backer of Twitter. The platform has since become a major player in social media and communication.

• Etsy: Fred Wilson invested in Etsy when it was still a fledgling online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods. The company went public and became a leading e-commerce platform.

• Zynga: Union Square Ventures invested in Zynga, the social gaming company known for titles like FarmVille and Words with Friends. Zynga became a major force in the gaming industry.

• MongoDB: The firm backed MongoDB, a popular open-source NoSQL database company. MongoDB is widely used by developers and businesses for its flexibility and scalability.

• Twilio: Union Square Ventures was an early investor in Twilio, a cloud communications platform that provides tools for developers to integrate voice, messaging, and video capabilities into their applications.

Fred Wilson's knack for spotting innovative startups early in their development and providing strategic guidance has made him a respected figure in the venture capital world. His investments in these and other successful companies have not only generated substantial returns but also had a significant impact on the technology and startup ecosystem.

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