#54 Q4 Quarterly VC Update (Cooley)

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CFO Highlights: Pulling Insights from the Top VC Resources

We know there’s a lot of an amazing content out there. Here, we put our best VC CFO and LP hat on and filter the most relevant and helpful content so you don’t have to! 

Today, we’re sharing highlights from the Q4 2022 VC Update from Cooley (full post linked here). Some takeaways from John Clendenin’s conversation with Kate McAndrew:

• Q4 2022 Venture Financing: Downward Trends Continue in Deal Count, Invested Capital and Pre-Money Valuations, Up Rounds Drop to Less Than 80% of All Deals

• On recent trends in early-stage financings: “[T]he fundamentals of investing and company building are coming back. For the most part, pre-seed rounds have reset to be in the $750,000 to $2.5 million range and priced in the $5 million to $12 million post-money range.

• On growing a startup in the current economic climate: “[L]ean times make for lean teams – and that is an asset in the first years after company formation. It forces founders to determine who and what is essential. It makes for a focused, customer-obsessed culture. Those values will help you grow, scale and endure.”

• On building relationships with founders and mentoring companies: “A big part of this work is personal. I try to get to know founders as whole people, not just CEOs or CTOs, and to build a real relationship with them. … And then, honesty is vital. … Ultimately, you need to be able to tell founders hard truths and be very honest about what is working and what is not.”

VC Resources - Past Editions

• #50 VC Resource: Mosaic Strategic Finance - “strategic finance platform”

• #41 VC Resource: More Fund Models! - “fund size is your strategy”

• #38 VC Resource: Fund Models - “take your fund model from a beautiful disaster to a return driver”

• #35 VC Resource: #OpenLP - “amplifies insights across the entrepreneur ➡︎ GP ➡︎ LP venture ecosystem”

• #33 VC Resource: Signature Block - “advice and learnings from experienced GPs and to make the best resource for fund managers”

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