Startup Rebounds: From Stalled Growth to Resurgence
A year of smoothly exponential growth, and then suddenly it stops working. That has to be demoralizing. But the startup toughs it out, and five months later growth is back. https://t.co/tQM44KNJXY
David Meline Joins Lux Board, Brings Global CFO Expertise
Absolutely stoked to announce that David Meline has joined us on the Board of Lux family co @EikonTX David was: CFO Moderna CFO Amgen (2014-2020) CFO 3M (2011-2014) CFO GM (on 5 continents) and serves on the Board of HP, ABB, Lonza Group + the...
Respect Entrepreneurs' Time: Plan, Punctuality Essential
@bhorowitz: ...bldg a co is xtremely hard & culturally, we want to have the ultimate respect...we don't want to waste any entrepreneur's time & so that's your most important thing... every time I have to like go to the meeting,...
Build Apps on Your Phone with Simple Prompts
We seeded a company literally called @vibecodeapp - a mobile-first way to build apps with simple text prompts, on iOS or Android. Access to creating software on your phone is about to look nothing like what my generation learned. The shift...
Fast Experimentation Signals High-Performing Teams
How quick a team experiments is a good indicator of team quality.
Founder Credit Card Points: Integrity Test or Fraud?
Is using company credit card points for personal travel a perk of the job? Or is it FRAUD?! A lot of founders see spending the points accrued from a company card on a personal vacay as essentially innocent, a way...
Never Ignore Random Big‑co Acquisition Calls—There’s Strategic Value
So one of the weirdest calls you'll get as a founder is when a BigCo out of the blue wants to talk about acquiring you. Literally out of nowhere. Now, sometimes it's for real. Sometimes, it's the start of something. But if...
Record Year: 9 New Investments, LP Liquidity, Two Funds
While we at Version One Ventures have been around for 13+ years, 2025 was definitely one of the most fun: 9 new companies (8 of which have hardware!), liquidity for LPs, and 2 new funds 👀 to back even more...
Nova AI Automates Hiring From Calls to Coding Interviews
Nova from @peopleboxai is a human-like AI that makes sourcing calls, screens resumes, conducts two-way video interviews, and runs live coding rounds in a single automated workflow. https://t.co/0z8WkpN7qX https://t.co/onTGhWMmAZ
Kid's South Park Arbitrage Exposed Legal Gap, Birthed Billion‑dollar Market
The biggest prediction market in America just raised a billion dollars. The real story didn’t start in a boardroom. It started with a kid in New York arbitraging a 28-second delay in a South Park episode. That moment exposed something...
Growth Depends on Uncontrollable Calendar Time, Not Just Action
There's 2 types of time in startups: 1) time to do something (you control that) and 2) Calendar time - the time required for a customer to buy and be successful. You can't control the latter, and this is a...
Bootstrapped SaaS Sold for $1.25M in 65 Days
We just helped a founder exit for $1,250,000 on @acquiredotcom. Business was a bootstrapped SaaS. Multiple 4.7x profit. Took about 65 days from listing to close. Another life changing outcome. https://t.co/z3cU78jzi5
Prep, Docs, Communication Accelerate M&A Deals
Another awesome @acquiredotcom webinar tomorrow. We'll be showing buyers and sellers how preparation, documentation, and clear communication make deals move faster. Register here (you'll get the recording): https://t.co/9GxFHTo3dz https://t.co/tAD5US18j5
Reid Hoffman Confirms He's Ruling
"You're ruling out a bubble bursting?" @reidhoffman: "Yes" https://t.co/LfVBBbZfsf
Excited to Lead $300M Round for Standout Infra Company
This is the most interesting infra company I have met in a long time Exciting to be leading their $300M round via Elad Gil & Co https://t.co/MQuO3ksdrk
AirGarage Seeks Head of Finance for Series B Growth
Any Heads of Finance looking for a new role? AirGarage, Series B stage portfolio co building a big business in an overlooked market, is looking. DM the CEO, @jonathonbarkl, if that's you. :)
Finite Markets Burn Quickly: Beware Exhausting Your Leads
I was talking with a CFO last week who had what most GTM leaders would kill for: a perfectly defined market. Their company sells software to independent financial advisors. Not the ones at Merrill or Goldman... the 76,000 registered with...
Ignoring Low Standards Creates a New Normal
"If you see something below the standard, and don't correct it, you've set a new standard." ht: @bhorowitz
Vista Point Advisors Launches New NYC Office
I’m excited to share that Vista Point Advisors is opening a new office right in the heart of New York City! This is a big step for us as we keep growing and getting closer to the amazing founders, investors,...
Prediction Markets Go Mainstream with Kalshi’s New Asset Class
From fringe to mainstream, prediction markets are now part of everyday culture. @Kalshi has created a new asset class and fundamentally changed how people engage with future events. Congrats to @mansourtarek_, @luanalopeslara & team. @Sequoia is proud to be on your...
Avoid Nonprofits for AI Products: Simplify Legal Structures
another reminder folks - plz don’t start a non-profit if you want to build ai products, it literally makes no sense, you will have to do the awks conversion or spin out a newco don’t invent complicated legal structures that add...
Excited Launch: Dive Into Wealthfront Investing Platform
BOOM let's go Wealthfront https://lnkd.in/gF5iacam
VCs Inflate Ownership Stakes with Optimistic Rounding
When a VC tells me they own 10% It's usually like 6%-7% It's the VC version of optimistically rounding up
Custom Weekend Code Will Outpace Pricey SaaS
Zoho’s business would be first to be competed away by people building their own custom software built by people using @Replit @emergentlabs and @Taskade Why pay $30/seat/month for over bundled SaaS when soon even nontech ops ppl can vibe-code a...
Software Will Be Free; Value Moves to Scarce Hardware
One-to-many software companies might not exist in 3 to 5 years. Software production is en route to becoming abundant and free. When one component of production becomes abundant and cheap, value accrues to what remains scarce scarce and difficult (e.g. those...
Airport Lounge Club Could Tap $500M Market
Huge opportunity for someone to create a membership club like SOHO house for airports There are 100,000 people who would pay $5,000 a year — $500m — in the USA to have lounges at the top 100 airports I guess...
Investors Bet on Nuclear Tensions, Fresh Defense Capital
Nuclear Rivalries & Hadrian’s Fresh Funds: Defense Investors' Year-End Bets https://t.co/X75Amdor1M
SaaStr Fund Backed Us Since Pre‑Seed
Boom!! Proud @saastrfund has been an early investor since pre-seed!!
Grateful for Founders' Support, More Stories Coming
Thank you Jordan Nel for telling the Version One Ventures story better than we could 🙏 and the ~200 founders who welcomed us on their journey so there'd be a story to begin with 🩷 Lots to write still... and...
Seek Out Doers, Not Just Talkers
Look for the doers. https://t.co/FbyE6M4KnV
Relentless Execution, Not Strategy, Fuels DoorDash's Dominance
DoorDash CEO @t_xu's philosophy: "If you're in technology and you are not making improvements, you are actually decaying. Until it's over all of a sudden." The key wasn't strategy. It was relentless execution and obsession over tiny details that save seconds...
USV Robotics Secures Another Strategic Investment
Announcing another @usv robotics investment!
Stuart Faught’s Formula Sold 18 Startups for Millions
Stuart Faught has sold 18 startups (yes seriously) on @acquiredotcom totaling millions in closed acquisitions. Here's how he makes that happen: https://t.co/cLIHwCEGgj
Henry Kravis Shares Secrets to Building a $100B Firm
Fireside w me & Henry Kravis of @KKR_Co and a legend in alternative asset management / PE 🔥 -Starting KKR -What to look for in people you hire -Transforming businesses -Building a $100B public company -Who he would have dinner with if could chose anyone? Hosted...
Getting Ready for Massive Live Podcast at SaaStr AI London
Prepping for massive live pod with @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll and me tomorrow at SaaStr AI LDN!! https://t.co/GrNgLU8TVB
AI Sets New Fundraising Bar; VC Returns Evolve
We had our annual general meeting right before Thanksgiving, and every year I share some of what we covered. Last year, I shared a post about three potential states of the venture capital world, as I felt we were in...
Conventional Wisdom Is Frequently Mistaken
Conventional wisdom turns out to be often wrong . . .
Own the AI Narrative or Lose Market Leadership
If you don’t own the AI narrative in your industry, someone else will—fast. It's not enough to just quietly do the work. Now, more than ever -- it's important to also win the narrative. Founders still consistently...
When Founders Chase Imaginary Problems
Founders solving problems that doesn't exist: https://t.co/t3JMsUJYDs
AI Boom Spurs High-Paying Data Center Jobs
In the coming months and years, there will be more conversations about what the American workforce looks like in the age of AI. Instead of asking whether AI will eliminate ALL our jobs, we should be thinking about how to...
AI-Driven Custom Apps Will Eclipse Traditional SaaS
SaaS is Over: " SaaS apps were built at a time when software was relatively hard to build. Now many of these AI applications are easy to build on top of these LLMs. Most companies will start building custom software super easily." @jonsidd Love...
AI's Ripple Effects: Energy Ambition Can Boost Jobs
Amidst doomerism, it's essential to consider the second-order effects of AI. Ex: Data center investment has been massively positive for blue-collar workers. If we matched that level of ambition in domestic energy (necessary), we’d unlock similar gains across the workforce. https://t.co/QhksSGZs04
Data Labeling Market Faces Revenue Concentration and Synthetic Threat
Data labelling is a fricking hard market and there are some core questions. 1. Why does no player want to be called a talent marketplace? 2. Is the proclaimed “revenue” real revenue or GMV? 3. What are the margins given the GMV structure...
Airstreet Backs Europe's Breakthrough Visual AI Startup Flux
new on the press: unveiling @airstreet's investment in the leading frontier ai company for visual intelligence, @bfl_ml from the black forest 🌲 @robrombach @andi_blatt and their team have shipped the world's most popular image generation and editing models, FLUX - and...
Prioritize Distribution Before Perfecting Your Product
Focus your startup on distribution 1st then build the best product 2nd.
Venture Valuations Are Speculative Bets on Future Worth
Most venture valuations aren’t real — per se They are bets They are bets you will be worth a lot, lot, lot more. Not tomorrow. But fairly quickly.
Fund Startup Ops with Bond Interest, Not Dilution
I talked to a startup today that had been forced to take so much from investors and whose expenses were so low that they could put the money in bonds and fund their operations off the interest. I told them...