Fundraising

Peter Thiel on the importance of pitching your startup as a “discount to the future” Most founders will pitch their startup valuation as a sort of premium on the last round (e.g. “Our valuation last year was X, we’ve made Y progress, and now we deserve a valuation 2x greater.”) But Thiel arg... See more

A startup in the summer YC batch got offered funding at a 60m valuation. I didn't ask if this was pre or post. They turned it down, wisely I think, because a valuation like that creates a significant danger of a down round later.

When VC works wow 📈🚀 •Index Ventures – Estimated fund size: ~$400M, Return from Figma: $7B, Fund multiple: 17.5x •Greylock Partners – Estimated fund size: ~$600M, Return from Figma: $6.5B, Fund multiple: 10.8x •Kleiner Perkins – Estimated fund size: ~$700M, Return from Figma: $5.7B, Fund mu... See more

Sequoia’s Doug Leone explains what made Drew Houston’s pitch for Dropbox great Dropbox raised a $1.2 million seed round at a $5 million valuation from Sequoia in 2007. Eleven years later, the company went public at a valuation of $9 billion. In hindsight it’s a home run, but in 2007 Dropbox ... See more

Marc Andreessen on what VCs look for in startups “The conventional statistics are that about 200 of the 4,000 venture-fundable companies per year will be funded by a top-tier VC. About 15 of those will someday get to $100MM of revenue, and those 15 will generate something on the order of 97% of all of the returns for th... See more