Praying to the God of Valuation

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. It wasn’t always like this and frankly it took a lot of joy out of the industry for me personally.What happened? How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with...

Dec 2022

What Does the Post Crash VC Market Look Like?

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. From 2019 to May 2022, the market was down considerably with public valuations down 53–79% across the four sectors we were reviewing (it is since down even further).==> Aside, we also have a NEW LA-based...

Sep 2022

Upfront Ventures Raises > $650 Million for Startups and Returns > $600 Million to LPs

Photo by Scott Clark for Upfront Ventures (no, Evan is not standing on a box)Last year marked the 25th anniversary for Upfront Ventures and what a year it was. 2021 saw phenomenal returns for our industry and it topped off more than a decade of unprecedented VC growth.The industry has obviously changed enormously in 2022 but in many ways it feels like...

Jul 2022

Density & the Future of Real Estate

Nearly six years ago, I was thrilled to invest in Andrew Farah and the team at Density when they had a vision for building anonymous tracking of how people use office buildings, rentals and other public spaces.And today, as the company announces their latest funding round of $125M at a $1B+ valuation, I’m still thrilled to back Density as they are growing...

Nov 2021

The Changing Venture Landscape

The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Society is reorienting to a new post-pandemic norm — even before the pandemic itself has been fully tamed. And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems...

Sep 2021

Introducing Trust, and the Importance of Product-Founder Fit

Photo by Vanna Phon on UnsplashCustomer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. Most of these startups spend the lion’s share of their marketing budget in today’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Snap, TikTok and so on because — no surprise — that’s where the customers...

Aug 2021

On Funding — The Denominator Effect

On Funding — The Denominator EffectI recently wrote a post about funding for investors to think about having a diversified portfolio, which I called “shots on goal.” The thesis is that before investing in an early-stage startup it is close to impossible to know which of the deals you did will break out to the upside. It’s therefore important to have...

Jun 2021

On Funding — Shots on Goal

On Funding — Shots on GoalBeing great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together:You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustainedYou need be perfect with your market timing. Being too early is the same as being wrong. Being...

Jun 2021

What Mistakes Do VCs Make When Fundraising?

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking to Samir Kaji on the Venture Unlocked podcast about a wide range of topics that we as venture capitalists think about everyday, including:How to build a generational firm — retaining partner talent and finding the complimentary networks and skillsets firms need to succeed over timeThe state of venture today...

Jun 2021

Playing the Long Game in Venture Capital

Silicon Valley and the media industry that surrounds it values youth. The culture is driven by the 20-something irreverent founder with huge technical chops who in a “David vs. Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins. It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue...

May 2021