Know What's Happening in Venture Capital
Know What's Happening in Venture Capital
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Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
Mistral lands $830M debt raise, Europe’s biggest AI financing
Mistral secured an $830 million debt raise to build its first AI data centre, the largest single financing for a European generative‑AI firm. London fintech 9fin raised $170 million, pushing its valuation to $1.3 billion and joining the unicorn club. The week saw over 60 European tech deals totaling roughly $1.3 billion.
Also developing:
By the numbers: St Barbara lands $333M strategic investment for Simberi project
In the episode, Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert and Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya discuss how they align values with profit, navigating activist government pressure and anticipatory compliance while scaling their businesses. They share strategies for integrating environmental stewardship and immigration support into growth plans, recount pivotal moments that shaped their companies, and express optimism about future impact. The conversation highlights the balance between purpose‑driven leadership and commercial success.
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Sequoia managing partner Roelof Botha argued that venture capital should not be treated as an asset class, noting that VC returns are essentially uncorrelated and represent a “return‑free risk.” He pointed out that the number of...
The latest data from @cartainc is brutal. Of 547 Series B deals in 2018: - Figma did 100x ... but - 39% are worth 1x or less - Only 34% are worth 2x or more after 7 years But - 11.7% do achieve...
https://t.co/G2n0dQg1PW
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Astro Teller, CEO of Alphabet’s X, explained that a moonshot must tackle a huge world problem, propose a product that could eliminate it, and rely on a breakthrough technology, noting X’s 2% hit rate and "fail...
Sequoia Capital managing partner Roelof Botha defended partner Shaun Maguire after Maguire’s July 4 X post calling NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani an “Islamist,” citing the firm’s commitment to free speech and opinion diversity. The remarks sparked a backlash, an open letter...
Today, we're launching @Sequoia's latest seed and venture funds to partner with outlier founders at the start of their journey. There's never been a more exciting time to be a founder. Nearly every industry will be disrupted by AI. So far, the...
"The best companies are going from $0-$100M in revenue very very quickly. As an investor, you have to believe that this company is going to be in the $0-$100M club". @DavidCahn6 Love to hear your thoughts on the required growth...
Raghu Raghuram reflects on his front‑row experience of the early internet wars, the Netscape‑Microsoft browser battles, and the landmark VMware acquisition of Nicira that reshaped networking. He and the a16z hosts discuss how VMware grew from a modest startup to...
Mantle (https://t.co/acxDq4HklH) is the operating system for every company. Tell Mantle about the grunt work you do and it does it for you in the background, exactly how you would, directly in your stack. Let Mantle do the boring stuff for...
some thoughts on @poolsideai's project horizon announcement last week: building a 2gw ai factory "This level of vertical integration - from model and agent development through to power generation and deployment - gives poolside a durable advantage as AI systems become...
In this episode, ElevenLabs co‑founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski discusses how the company’s emotion‑driven voice AI is reshaping sectors such as personalized healthcare and film production. He explains the technology’s ability to generate nuanced, expressive speech that can adapt to...
As the world follows every whisper & rumor from AI, what has happened to public SaaS? The answer is not much! All the fun is in the private markets. Multiples haven’t moved outside of a narrow band since the post-Covid crash in...
Yo founders, mark your calendars: • Batter Up SF — Nov 10 • Batter Up NYC — Nov 10 • Founder Friends SG (Fintech Festival) — Nov 12 Community partner events: • Wild Card: Game Night — Nov 5 • Monterrey Tech Week — Early Stage...
In this episode, Sequoia partner David Cahn argues we’re in an AI bubble but sees lasting moats in physical data‑center infrastructure, while mapping out which companies will thrive or falter as AI reshapes markets. He discusses the impact of big‑tech...
Our last episode with David Cahn was one of the most downloaded of last year. This episode today is even better. - The Winners & Losers in AI - The $0-$100M Club: Is Triple, triple, double, double dead? - The Future of Defence: Who...
"Most of the great investments I have made I was the only term sheet. This idea that the best companies are always super hot rounds is wrong." @DavidCahn6 Have your best investments always been competitive @chadbyers @infoarbitrage @honam @Alfred_Lin? https://t.co/MWp77TBZzR
20VC’s latest newsletter synthesizes three interviews with practical takeaways for founders and investors: Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz laid out a repeatable M&A playbook that rebuilds frontends in months and full backends to hit product scale in about nine months (vs....
The biggest myth in tech is that great product automatically builds a great business.
When 20VC led the Series A for Fyxer they were at $1M ARR. Today, they are adding $1M a week. 🚀 https://t.co/qvjg8Ke7uw
AI startups are printing cash. Live on @acquiredotcom: AI platform helping marketers maximize every dollar. Automating research, creative testing and scaling campaigns. > $1.15M ARR > $798K TTM revenue > $678K TTM profit > 997% YoY growth Full listing: https://t.co/jNAVKv3ABY https://t.co/GOthuI0JQl
Applications for the YC Winter 2026 batch are now open! Apply by November 10: https://t.co/gNl84El3BS https://t.co/H9yEOuCwR5
Fair or not, this is what your VCs are comparing you to Fair or not https://t.co/v9L5oDXV2h
The VC version of #8: Over-index on operator/founder LPs, even if their checks are small. It's one of the best decisions we made at Weekend Fund.
Before $10m ARR, Do not hire a VP of Sales that mainly talks about process You are too early for them
My favorite part of running @acquiredotcom is seeing entrepreneurs win. The founders who bootstrapped through hard months. The ones who landed their 1st customer. The ones who just sold their startup and changed their life. Every win reminds me of why this...
The secret to LP intros that no one tells you. Make friends in alternate, non competitive categories (growth, secondaries etc etc). Share LPs. Discovery is the hardest thing in fundraising. Non-competitive managers sharing LPs is needle moving.
new zurich and munich events added to the @airstreet ai meetup calendar for 2026! stopping in a city near you soon - subscribe at luma(dot)com/airstreet https://t.co/2JYV1TVNOt
We all know how much AI has already changed customer support But it's not cheap Across all my investments in the space, the average price to resolve or reflect a ticket is about $1 For complex issues, around $5 in tokens etc That's much...
Software is waking up again. Ten years ago, apps were the frontier. Screens were canvases. Curiosity was the culture. Then the App Store froze. The same grids, the same playbooks and the same incentives repeated endlessly. We optimized everything except imagination. For a while,...
Yes, ‘prosumer’ vibe coding apps like @Replit are best at CRUD and CRUD+AI apps today. But that also means if you have some experience building CRUD apps … that you can just fly when you ‘vibe’ your next one. All the stuff...
It’s usually a bad sign when a founder stops sending investor updates. But occasionally they surface with impressive news. Just received this one: “$50M run rate and profitable” For founders (as a founder and investor): Most investors will assume the negative without updates. They’re...
2025 has been a big year for us at @acquiredotcom. We have grown revenue, reduced expenses and finally became profitable. > $6.1 million in revenue, up 24%. > $4.5 million in expenses, down 26%. > Operating profit, up 50.2%. > Total profit, $1.6 million. Absolutely...
"A 75% fit with @altosvc + @20vcFund? That's huge. It was exactly who we'd hoped for." Sign up for waitlist for SaaStr AI VC -> https://t.co/Eg5TFmnXmm https://t.co/r9Ct5KFhbP
The new SaaStr AI VC Matchmaking tool has already made 116 VC intros in https://t.co/P5GuMbTEG9 https://t.co/RzkMeULyjI
When you ship v1 before the pitch deck is perfect, you are already ahead of 90% of startup founders still polishing their slides. Execution crushes credentials!
Great founders don’t time the market Great founders often don’t even check the markets at all They just start up when they see white space, and are ready to go So … Every year is a good year to invest
At 776, we strive to be the first backers of founders building a legacy with their work. Can't help but get fired up watching this. https://t.co/k16CvaWzbT
Anduril's at a 6.6x multiple since my tattoo. Can't wait to share what the second one is. VCBrags, come slay me.
Really proud to have the opportunity to work with Reza Rahman Omar Sinno Abed L. and the team at Ava. They’ve been pretty quiet about the work they’ve been doing for the past few years but they’re making a really...
I do not care how long it takes for a company to get to $1M in revenue. But I do care desperately, how long it takes for a company to get from $1M-$50M in revenue. The road to PMF is...
Founders: please ditch the credential chase. Build fast and ship. Strong execution is the ultimate credential.
Talked the other day to a founder raising a seed round at an insane price Here's the thing: the last two start-ups he worked at are worth $10B+ He wasn't the founder at those ones. But he does know how...
Did some of the best start-ups like Figma, Stripe, etc. take years to get to any material revenue? Yes. That happens — and it can work out. But I don’t think they stopped sending investor updates. So far, I’ve seen 0 success from...
Let's fucking go!! Proud of @ChaseLochmiller and his whole team. You've come a long way on your journey from your gas to cash strategy and now you are the backbone of some of the most important infrastructure in the...
Woo-hoo!! Crossed 1,500 VC Pitch Decks uploaded to SaaStr AI VC -> https://t.co/XzJ5d0OYvZ Get real time feedback on your deck, benchmarking against 1000s of rounds, and optional intros to the best VCs https://t.co/BIC0fmziG2
What’s better than one B2B SaaS? Two B2B SaaS. Two profitable AI SaaS duo for content creation + SEO automation. > $252K TTM revenue > $200K TTM profit > 20% YoY growth > 5K+ customers Bootstrapped + Lean Listed on @acquiredotcom: https://t.co/hVgmr7nPE3 https://t.co/gTiI2EJmqJ
You don't have to know the 'right people' anymore to get funded If you've got the results -- we'll tell you And introduce you to top VCs. In minutes. SaaStr AI VC. Sign up here -> https://t.co/Eg5TFmnXmm https://t.co/4KllqrnwZp
The reason (good) investors are more optimistic is that, for them, the outcomes are weighted. If you're just measuring percent correct, you win by predicting startups will fail. But if the outcomes are weighted, you look for big wins even...
Velvet (@Velvet_Videos) is building the Adobe Premiere of AI video, allowing creative teams to generate and edit dozens of cinematic AI videos in seconds. https://t.co/lYvqpwSEXb Congrats on the launch, @lrmantovani_ & @luke_tux! (They made this launch video using Velvet by spending ~$50 in...
