Jody Saunders’ Post

From meet to term sheet: guiding investors through your fundraise funnel at Seed & Series A https://buff.ly/3AdwMs4 Guiding investors through the fundraise process from initial meetings to closing a term sheet is a critical aspect of securing funding at the Seed & Series A stages. Navigating this funnel requires strategic planning, transparent communication, and a compelling value proposition. Providing clear financial projections, showcasing a strong team, and highlighting market traction are essential elements in attracting investor interest. According to industry data, startups that effectively guide investors through this journey are more likely to successfully secure funding. It's crucial to understand the nuances of each stage and tailor your approach accordingly. #FundraisingTips #StartupInvesting

🔐 Unlocking the Secrets of VC Evaluation As a founder seeking investment, understanding how VCs evaluate ventures can be a game-changer. While it's true that every VC has their unique approach, James Heath, a seasoned Venture Investor, shares valuable insights into what VCs typically consider when assessing ventures . This framework may not apply to every VC, but it provides a fantastic road map for your venture journey. ❗ Remember, you don't have to tick every box; instead, tailor your focus to two or three key categories that align with your industry. Depending on the stage of your venture, aim to make improvements in every category. Even if you don't meet every criterion ✔, remember: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." 🌟 While VCs don't expect perfection from the ventures they invest in, they do look for founders who aspire to reach these heights. 🚀 Are you ready to align your venture goals with VC expectations? Source of original image: James Heath - LP & Venture Investor #Venture #VentureStudio #act2fly #Innovation #VentureCapital

When Growth Warrior Capital investors Erin Harkless Moore, CFA and Renata Aráuz-DeStefano at Pivotal Ventures invited me to participate in the All In PitchBook report, we collectively decided that the focus should not be on the low numbers of women and people of color getting funded or the harsh realities of being a founder or funder in this climate. Instead we would do what great investors do well, bring the future we want into focus. My lived experience is that opportunity is found in what others can’t or won’t see. At Growth Warrior Capital, we are squarely focused on the work that drives returns for our LPs and creates economically sovereign leaders who also invest in the future they want to see. We target unexpected, capable, gritty founders solving massive problems. At GWC, we hunt for alpha in dangerous founders. Why? As a former founder and CEO, I built companies and raised money from VCs for nearly 20 years. My role is to translate this experience to undervalued founders, transforming them into growth-ready CEOs. We don’t want them to fit the mold, we want them to break it. In the report, Erin acknowledges me and an investor I admire Miriam Rivera: “I’m inspired by the way they are seizing the opportunities that others have systematically missed and by the track records they are establishing to prove their theses.” Game on.

I just read Trace Cohen's latest Angel / VC newsletter (link below). As usual, lots of great and actionable insights. This part really struck me (as a notorious "SAFE-Hater", LOL): Aside from the macro-economic and market situation dampening VC returns and investment overall, Trace pointed out that "We’re also basically in a Series A crunch. What’s that? Essentially, the investors after pre-seed and seed stages have increased their scrutiny, raised expectations, and tightened their checkbooks. ... That means early investors aren’t getting markups, and/or it’s taking longer, so MOIC (multiple on invested capital) and IRR are lower. This makes convincing LPs to invest in your next fund that much harder." I have to think that the movement away from Founders being expected to come up with disciplined, reality-based projections and valuations (no thanks to Y-Combinator, SAFEs, and general over-hyping of *every* new technology over the last 20 years) is finally coming back down to earth. Momentum needs to swing back to early investors, to encourage Founders to be more disciplined, and to give fair value to investors to ensure that early investors remain willing to make future investment to keep a good business going. How to do that? By not pretending that these charismatic speakers with a PowerPoint deck are somehow on to a billion dollar idea. Of course everyone wants to get in on one, but come on, folks! There are not even 6,000 companies in the entire world of 7.7 billion people that are worth that much! What are the chances that your college incubator program just created a new one? Infinitesimal, sorry to say. Let's focus on a return to business fundamentals, like profit & loss, margins, realistic and sustainable business expansion, and we can create much better business activity for our communities. BUILD A BUSINESS, NOT A START-UP.

Venture investors are now being much more discerning with their dry powder. This has taken a heavy toll on the US venture market. Deal volume dropped to the lowest quarterly levels since 2013. What does this mean for founders? M&A is the new Series A.

Venture Capitalists are vocal about what they look for in startups they invest in: stellar team, large market, scalability, exit routes, etc. What about the evaluation criteria they don’t discuss but critically influence their decision-making process? Behind-the-door dynamics and subconscious cognitive biases built on intuitions going wrong often push Venture Capitalists to invest or pass on investment opportunities. In this post and companion webinar, I uncover seven untold criteria Investors use to evaluate startups, including cognitive biases on the Founders & their ideas, typical blind spots VCs fall prey to, and internal dynamics within the VC firm. In our newsletter #134: ❎ The Tweet: Harry Stebbings (20VC) on VC as a low margin commodity 📖 The Article: Fred Destin (Stride.VC) shares nuggets on VC decision-making 📺 The Video: Why Andreessen Horowitz invested in Adam Neumann's flow 📈 The Graph: James Heath reports on new VC fund vintages 📨 Join over 11,000 VCs and Founders who read the newsletter. Subscribe now! ▶️ https://lnkd.in/eCrgAwzd #venturecapital #newsletter

“Having transparency on how assets are actually performing, through strong relationships with both entrepreneurs and GPs, will allow more accurate pricing and proprietary sourcing of the best deals.” Check out Forbes latest article featuring 14 bold predictions for 2024 in the VC landscape. From groundbreaking trends to emerging opportunities, it's an interesting read for anyone in the investment space. 🚀 Read the full article here ➡️ https://hubs.la/Q02dGYmZ0 #altvia #forbes #venturecapital

I Do Not Understand The VC And Investment Side Of Business. Does That Mean I’m Not Good At Business? https://lnkd.in/gMZvxPmn #DraperFisherJurvetson #ElonMusk #Innovation #KevinOLeary #KleinerPerkins #SharkTank #SiliconValley #TheStateofVentureCapital #Venture #Ventureperformance

Random Sunday Thoughts #89 1. It takes hard work to pay off. It is one of the cliches that is always accurate. I have posted here recently that, despite a challenging climate, I envisioned a strong Q4 for the most valuable exact match, category domain name assets, and that came to fruition this week. We Hilco Digital Assets oversaw the acquisition/sale of one of the most valuable brandable domains on the Internet, Tiger*com, in one of the most significant transactions of 2023 and a great win for both the seller and buyer. And also this week, we had 7 figures of domains transacted on the Squadhelp Ultra Premium Marketplace. This coming week is likely the final one for 2023 acquisitions/sales and we have a handful of major domain name assets that could get acquired still this year🤞. The most valuable .com domain names in the world continue to be amongst the strongest performing asset classes as a standalone investment, and worth exponential times that in ROI to the companies that acquire them. 2. A few months ago, we entered into a joint venture to acquire the category killer domain names VentureCapital*com and PrivateEquity*com, two of the three cornerstones of the global investment markets. In 2010, I successfully sold the company I founded, InsuranceQuotes*com,  and predicted this was the last domain name I would oversee as an operating business. We have, of course, invested in many domain names as standalone investments but strictly for resale. I saw too much opportunity on these 2, at so many levels, to not dive in and acquire them, and the domain owner was a willing and excited partner. This week, we soft launched VentureCapital.com, which features real time venture, investing, tech and business news; a resource center for Founders/CEO's, and a platform to leverage our network and connections to help Founders of strongly performing startups connect with the best VC's, faster and with credibility walking in the door. 3. Thursday Dec 21 at 12pm EST will be our live stream podcast, Random Thoughts Episode 3, again featuring another exciting special guest CEO/Founder who has successfully leveraged their exact match, category domain name into a market leading business and successful exit. You can see EP 1 and Ep 2 https://lnkd.in/en92WFSG and can watch live on Thursday on our YouTube page, https://lnkd.in/gjxBUgs9. I will post a reminder and a call-in link for Ask Us Anything on Wed. 4. It was a tough week in sports. My kids' school, Tulane, lost the AAC championship game, their amazing head coach and a bunch of star players to the transfer portal, ending a 2 year epic run of college football. My Patriots beat the Steelers on Thursday night, blowing at least the 1st and likely 2nd pick in this year's draft. And I just missed taking down a massive win in DFS on Draftkings. Hoping for a better day today! Until Next Week #domainnames #digitalassets #brands #digitalmarketing #venturecapital #podcast

Down rounds are up in Venture Capital, as expected after the 2021 frenzy, but few people seem concerned about their little brother/sister: the anti-dilution ratchet. My latest analysis tackles why I believe VCs should waive ratchets more than they enforce them. Three main reasons: 1/ Ratchets Demotivate Founders At The Worst Time Down rounds are psychologically difficult for Founders. The extra dilution from ratchets is further demoralizing, especially when they realize what that ratchet clause meant at that moment. 2/ Ratchets Lead To Incentive Asymmetries & Moral Hazard Founders who are too diluted are more likely to keep the business funded to save their status and perks. 3/ Ratchets Don’t Make VC-Level Returns Gaining a few points in ownership in a potentially struggling business will not help VCs reach 10x-100x returns. 💡 Head over to The VC Factory for the full article! I included detailed calculations on full and weighted-average ratchets. I've also shared links on down round data by Carta's Peter Walker, featured in this week's quote. *** I have two requests for the community here: - Please check my calculations. I struggled to find reliable sources. - Please share examples of happy endings despite ratchets being enforced. I've never seen one.