Secondary Market Hits $95B Yet Remains Niche
ICYMI: PitchBook ’s latest secondary market report is out, and it shows record deal flow: $95B in estimated annual value across direct secondaries and continuation funds. While a viable liquidity path for some, it’s worth noting it still accounts for less than what we’ve seen from public listings and M&A in aggregate this year. Notable data points: ➤ $95B is just 2.2% of total unicorn valuations ➤ Direct secondaries are up 31% from the previous quarter ➤ The secondary market is heavily concentrated: the top 20 most actively traded startups account for 96% of deal value, and the top five alone represent 3/4 of the market over the past four quarters. Entire report linked here: https://lnkd.in/g_pCx8Jq
Round Robin Deals Are Optional, Non‑Guaranteed, So Drop Fast
Looking like a lot of these big round robin deals are… optional! Explains why so many dropped so quickly… they’re non-guaranteed, so no harm in signing them
Future Moats Rely on Individual Cognitive Micro‑systems
New tech, new moats. For the past 2 decades, the best moats were built on external forces: network effects & economies of scale. Cognition is different. It doesn't depend on one massive external system; it's about millions of microsystems—one per user. https://t.co/Qlr7qxQxbX
VCs: From Actuarial Skeptics to Post‑IPO Mystics
At Seed, pessimistic VCs are actuaries calculating your startup's probability of death. At IPO, they are mystics claiming they always saw the vision.
Navigating Product Strategy in the AI Era
London: We're doing a Fin x Attio x Granola meet up next week! I'll be joined on stage by Nicolas Sharp (CEO, Attio) and Vas Zhovner (CTO, Granola) and we'll be discussing Product Strategy in the AI Era. Details Wednesday,...
Revenue Fuels Growth; VC Praise Is Just Hype
VC praise is opium. Customer revenue is oxygen. Asking a VC if your idea is working is like asking a spectator if the punch hurts. Get in the ring pal.
Final Day: Apply to USC‑Techstars Accelerator for $220K
Calling all Trojan & USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy entrepreneurs. Get your applications in for the USC + Techstars programs. Gabriel Schlumberger leads the programs. See deets 👇
VCs Remember Missed Momentum, Forget High Valuations
If you make the VCs pay a crazy high price, but you crush the numbers the next 90 days, no one remembers If you make the VCs pay a crazy high price, and you miss the next few months, no one...
YC Demo Day Cuts Dilution, Boosts Investor Returns
YC Demo Day median dilution for small seed is 11% (top 25% is 7%), not 18% for non-YC YC Demo Day median dilution for big seed is 13%, not 21% to 23% for non-YC You do it all faster: YC funds you...
New AI Platform Scales Lending to Small Businesses
So excited to share that @KindredVentures is leading the @kaaj_ai seed round! Small business is the coral reef of the US economy. They are the employer of choice, the craftsman, the niche producer. Lending to SMBs has never been an...
Meta Wins FTC Fight; SUNO and Kraken Secure Massive Deals
META beats the FTC, SUNO and Kraken raise monster deals. https://t.co/M2JY0mIwRf
Intelligent Cloud File Browser Redefines Navigation for Generative Age
Excited to finally share more about one of our portfolio companies: @polydotapp (https://t.co/vEmFKklF6u) — an intelligent cloud file browser redefining how we navigate computing in the generative age.
Solve a Real Pain Point, Not Chase Disruption
Forget being disruptive and reinventing the wheel. Find a painful problem that slows businesses down. Then solve it better than anyone else.
2025 Day‑One IPOs: A Pure Crapshoot
Day 1 IPO “pops” in 2025: TL;DR: it’s a crapshoot https://t.co/rz9g4aNIjw
Align Story, Trust, and Media for Founder Brand Growth
Every great founder brand lives at the intersection of three forces: 1. Storytelling creates understanding. 2. Founder branding creates trust. 3. New media creates distribution. When those three align, everything compounds. Every launch, every post, every interview reinforces the same...
How Founders Should Navigate Private Equity Inquiries
When we bring on a new client, we often find they've been receiving calls/emails from private equity firms for some time. As part of those calls, PE firms tend to ask a lot of questions and founders aren't always sure...
AI Elevates Accounting, Not Replaces It
"AI is not going to kill your job in accounting just like calculator didn't. You will do higher level work!" Agree or disagree with @henrysward CEO of @cartainc?? Do you use Carta. Building an AI first company? Don't miss this episode of...
AI Now Dominates Tech: 2025 Macro Trends Unveiled
Twice a year, I produce a big presentation exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. New in November 2025, ‘AI eats the world’. https://www.ben-evans.com/presentations
Twitter Turns DMs Into $5M LP Deals
Last 24 hours became friends with $10BN+ founder through sending a DM. 24 hours later: He is co-investing in 20VC with 2 companies. Asked to write a $5M LP check. The power of Twitter.
Successful Exits Begin Long Before the Sale
A life changing exit doesn’t start at the finish line. It starts long before you’re ready to sell. Seun Oshinaike (@SeunOshinaike) knew that. He sold Street Tag on @acquiredotcom to a strategic buyer, taking the company even farther. Full interview: https://t.co/TLnv3EpAHp https://t.co/jAzRoJCjoJ
IPO Peaks Fade: Patience Beats Day‑One Hype
What happened in 2025 IPOs if you bought near the peak: Figma (FIG): -74% 📉 Circle (CRCL): -73% 📉 CoreWeave (CRWV): -58% 📉 Klarna (KLNA): -38% 📉 Omada (OMDA): -31% 📉 Chime (CHYM): -30% 📉 Hinge Health (HNGE): -27% 📉 eToro (ETOR): -21% 📉 Average decline from peak: -44% The...
New Opportunities Unlocked: Gates Now Open
THE GATES HAVE BEEN OPENED https://lnkd.in/gQVHdHtu
Big AI Firms Threaten Startups, Driving Shift to Chinese Open-Source
Are the largest AI model-makers a threat to smaller startups? On TWiST, I note that the competition for AI startups doesn’t just come from rivals in their space, but the companies that designed the LLMs upon which they’re building their...
AI Threatens White‑collar Jobs; Self‑reliance Is Essential
Even if we believe AI job displacement is real… what can we actually DO? Alex Wilhelm and I discuss the very real possibility — as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei suggests — that AI-related advances in productivity are leading us straight...
Frugal Founders in Booming Markets Ignore Abundant Funding
Startup founders building in rapidly expanding markets who optimize their burn rate, while competitors are raising $100M, remind me of people who count calories at an all you can eat buffet.
Treating SAFEs as Credit Cards Erodes Real Equity
Startup founders who treat SAFEs and convertible notes like credit cards until the Series A closes... and then realize they have been playing Monopoly with real equity.
AI Agent Handles 77 Conversations, Amplifying Small Team Power
Our general AI Agent (“Digital Jason”) handled 77 conversations and 203 messages yesterday. Most were pretty good, I am sure. But the real point is I couldn’t have done it. Nor could our tiny team. This is some of the...
Explore Top B2B AI VCs with SaaStr Research
Want to learn more about top VCs in B2B + AI? Browse our new SaaStr AI Research VCs -> https://t.co/3JyImX3jMX We'll even help pick the best ones for you (and much more to come) https://t.co/rG7K5x5YYU
Poolside AI Acquires Fern Labs, Forming Full‑stack Frontier AI Powerhouse
news! @poolsideai has acquired @fern_labs, in which @airstreet was the first and sole investor - and a first investor into poolside as well. i met @ashedwardst in late 2024 before fern had a name or team. his technical depth, product taste...
JPMorgan Accelerates Stealth Startup's Bold Market Entry
This is how America wins🇺🇸 A public shout @jpmorgan + our partners Doug Petno (co CEO commercial + inv bank) + John China (co head innovation banking) Lux stealth seeded serial founder w/big audacious plan + tech to match in non-obvious market JPM...
AI-Powered Marketplace Unlocks Previously Untapped Offline Market
.@arthur_leopold and Jonathan are a force. Ambitious, focused, hungry, hard working, insightful, and obsessed with their customers. Classic right founders + right timing, leveraging AI to crack open an offline, friction-ful market that has eluded automation. We've learned many times...
Investors Back Cloudflare Rivals to Prevent Single
resilience investors won’t be mincing their words either when they start funding a bunch of cloudflare competitors can’t have the internet crash bc of this single point of failure ey
2025 IPO Pricing: Unpredictable, No Clear Pattern
Why the Hell Is It So Hard to Price an IPO in 2025? In 2025, day one IPO performance feels like a total crapshoot. Figma went parabolic (but now sits at the failed Adobe acquisition price), CoreWeave was flat out...
Rapid Growth, Not Just Features, Defines an AI Native
How to know if you are an “AI Native” start-up: 🚀 You are growing much, much faster than last year Otherwise, you just have AI Features
AI Startups Outpace SaaS Growth Tenfold, Investors Must Choose
Why are AI companies growing SO MUCH FASTER than their SaaS counterparts? On average, AI companies are growing at about 10 times the speed as startups pursuing software-as-a-service business models. Investors now face a choice… “Bet on the past” by...
Negative Sentiment Threatens AI More Than Any Bubble
How negative sentiment could be a more pressing concern for AI than any bubble… In this TWiST highlight, I consider the recent backlash against AI apps and related technologies. Pushback and cynical takes around AI are coming from a number...
Bezos Co‑Leads Secret ‘Physical AI’ Startup Project Prometheus
What is Project Prometheus and why is Jeff Bezos going to (co-)run it? On TWiST, Alex Wilhelm and I do a little digging on $AMZN founder Jeff Bezos’ latest project, the secretive AI startup Project Prometheus. We know they’re doing...
Get Instant Funding Verdict by Uploading Deck
Wondering if you can get funded ... or not? Wonder no more Upload your deck to SaaStr AI VC and we'll tell you -> https://t.co/S5UFYzoN7a https://t.co/VLRaBqjNa3
Acquisitions Close Quickly, but Relationships Take Years
If you want to potentially get acquired — start now. It often really, quietly takes years. What do I mean? Well for sure, acquisitions themselves technically often happen very quickly. The acquiring CEO reaches out, they meet up...
20VC: Europe’s Only Fund Embracing 996 Culture
20VC crushing the 996 London life. Only fund in Europe that works this. 🤷♂️ https://t.co/RkVTlQhcTW
Deedy Das and Jay Eum Join VC Roundtable
Deedy Das and Jay Eum Join the VC Roundtable! https://t.co/GLAHbFKopV
Faire’s $5.2B Offer Highlights Public‑Company Worth
Long Faire 🚀 Long indie retail, long local communities, long craft, quality products. The $5.2B tender offer led by crossover investor WCW signals Faire has the attributes of a public company and has built a lasting, category-defining business. https://t.co/nYvdMAxuXG
Join Founder University Japan: Research Top Startups
Wanna come work with me? LAUNCH is bringing Founder University to Japan, and we’re looking for a sharp, curious researcher to help us discover the most promising startups in the region! It’s a huge opportunity to learn, grow, and get...
Compute Scarcity and Geopolitics Define AI's Future
“In my career working in AI, I have yet to meet a single AI person that ever felt like they had enough compute.” “Open-weight models is a tremendous source of geopolitical influence” “When China’s government makes an all-nation commitment, it’s a very...
AI Coding's VC Subsidy Mirrors Early Food Delivery Boom
Is AI Coding Like Food Delivery: VC Subsidised and Unsustainable: " I remember the early days of food delivery, it was VC subsidized. We're seeing that right now with AI coding. This can't go on forever... there will be some very valuable businesses...
Even Disney+ Struggled: Forecasting New Brands Is Guesswork
5 learnings from launching (and attempting to forecast) Disney+ ... Forecasting a brand-new product, even one with Disney's IP library behind it, is a leap off a cliff. As Vanna Krantz , former CFO of Disney Streaming, told me: “We...
OpenAI Lacks Platform Power Without Network Effects
Posit: OpenAI’s fundamental problem is that it cannot become a platform company as long as the models it wants to use as a platform have no network effects and remain pure commodities. People had to use Windows, but there is...