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Ed Sim

Founder & Managing Partner, boldstart ventures · 3 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorfounderauthor@edsim ↗LinkedIn ↗boldstart.vc ↗

Ed Sim specializes in inception- and seed-stage investments in enterprise infrastructure, cybersecurity, SaaS, and AI, having backed companies such as Snyk, Protect AI, Kustomer, Clay, and Superhuman at formation. He previously co-founded Dawntreader Ventures and publishes the newsletter What's in AI/Infra/VC.

88statements → 44claims → 24claims resolved → 46%fully supported → 3.83/5average certainty → 2.14/5average debate potential → 4.2/5argument clarity · the sources → 23said about them ↓

11 supported 10 partly supported 3 contradicted 5 not yet assessed 15 not checkable as stated how the 44 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

22 predictions · 22 assertions · 4 opinions · 23 insights · 15 disclosures · 2 what ifs · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 44 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 24 are resolved, 5 are not yet assessed, and 15 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ed argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Sim: Loom sold for under $1B after a $1.5B peak 2021 valuation
“At the end of last year, I'm not in the room with Loom, but that last round valuation was at 1.5 billion dollars, right? That was led in 20, 21, and they sold for nine 99 or something, nine 50, right?”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 20:52 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Ed Sim: Billion-dollar multi-stage VC funds stopped growth investing in 2022
“The spigot dried out last year, all the big multi-stage firms with a billion dollar plus funds stopped investing in growth.”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 3:26 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
75% certainty 3
68% certainty 4
33% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.2 / 5 directness 4.4 · coherence 4.3 · precision 4.1 · compression 3.7

redirected or did not address 5 of 53 assessed questions (9%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

285 words/min while actually speaking · 16.9 um and uh per 1k words · 10.9 false starts per 1k · 31.6% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 19,353 words across 3 episodes of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 3 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 4.3/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 43%

Everything Ed Sim said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Sim: 2024 IPOs require cashflow breakeven, 30% growth, and Rule of 40
“If you're gonna go public, I think you've gotta be cashflow breakeven. I think you have to have, you know, 30% plus growth, which is probably what high growth is right now. You've gotta be moving towards a rule of 40 or 50 with slanted more towards growth than…”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 0:30 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sim: 2024 is the year zero-interest-rate startups face severe market fallout
“This is the year that the shit's hitting the fan because, you know, you can only extend runway so much and it doesn't mean much if you're not growing.”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 4:50 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Sim: There is a massive valuation bubble in inception-stage startup rounds
“I think there's a massive bubble with what I call inception stage.”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 9:50 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Sim: Meta's acquisition of Kustomer would not be approved by regulators today
“Fuck no. No way. And by the way, it had nothing to do with anything other than they hated Zuckerberg, right?”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 27:33 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sim: 25% of tech company revenue previously came from selling to startups
“Probably 25% of all this revenue from all these tech companies was selling to other startups. That shit vaporized, dude.”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 1:03:15 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sim: The 2024 venture capital vintage will produce incredible returns in five years
“But the firms that are making capital calls in 20, 24, putting dollars to work. I think this is going to be an amazing vintage because people are valuation adjusted. I think founders have the religion of the ones starting from now. And I think this is going to…”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 1:11:40 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sim: Great opportunities persist for investing in Israeli security and infrastructure startups
“I think that as people back away from Israel, cause they fearful of kind of what's happening there, I'm still seeing amazing teams there. And I think there'll be great opportunities to keep putting dollars to work in security and infrastructure deals in Israel…”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 1:14:01 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Contradicted
Ed Sim: Billion-dollar multi-stage VC funds stopped growth investing in 2022
“The spigot dried out last year, all the big multi-stage firms with a billion dollar plus funds stopped investing in growth.”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 3:26 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sim: Boldstart pushes down seed round sizes to test founders
“I'll lead you around now if you want three, but not at six. So they come back to us, you know, a few days later and like, you know what? How about four? And the reason I do that Harry is because I want to test them. I want to test them to make sure that they a…”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 5:58 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sim: Optimal Modern Seed Venture Funds Must Be $150M to $250M
“I think a fund size between one 52 50 for doing this in a highly concentrated position with ownership and doing it in a way that allows you to write bigger checks after the discovery round to help a classic round, you know, raise a little more of an extension …”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 17:41 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sim: Seed and pre-seed investors take less risk over time
“And then the pre-seed category was created because seed, seed investors weren't taking as much risk. And now the pre-seed investors aren't taking as much risk, which is why I'm saying let's do inception investing.”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 18:39 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Oct 2026
Sim: Boldstart will never fund AI startups spending mostly on Nvidia
“You will never find both start, for example, finding companies where, you know, they're raising 20 or thirty million dollars, and two thirds of that money goes to NVIDIA.”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 21:20 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Ed Sim: AI is transformational but making money will be extremely hard
“I think this whole AI thing, frankly, I think AI is the most transformational thing that we've, that we're ever going to see in a long time. However, I still think it's really fucking hard to make money there.”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 25:31 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Oct 2028
Ed Sim: Boldstart will not fund AI seed rounds at $100M post-money
“Chasing anything with a dot AI in their domain or an AI thing, I think is insane. However, I do think there's some opportunities there, but I'm not going to be funding these things at a hundred posts.”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 25:54 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Ed Sim: AI hype mirrors dot-com bubble and $100M seed portfolios will fail
“I just think that this is just like I saw in the internet bubble. Everything had a .com on it back in it, because I saw that. I lived through that shit. And we're gonna see the same thing. There are gonna be some massive companies built, no doubt, but it's not…”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 26:09 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Oct 2028
Ed Sim: Growth funds returning 1x on peak deals will outperform peers
“So I guess what I'm trying to say is I think those growth kind of funds that put the money at the peak I think the ones that deliver one X or slightly above will probably do very well. We'll be above, you know, cause there'll be a lot of ones that are underwat…”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 31:38 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Ed Sim: Venture money chasing LLMs will be vaporized
“Let's just say the money chasing all these LLMs, there'll be a lot of money vaporized for sure.”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 45:38 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Ed Sim: $30M to $50M inception rounds are bonkers and irrational
“I mean, as I said, I'm looking at the inception rounds, right? I laid out a framework from zero to zero to six, zero to eight, zero to 10. But you know, you're getting 30, 40, fifty million dollar, you know, inception rounds done. And I think it's just bonkers…”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 46:17 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Oct 2028
Ed Sim: High-growth tech companies will never see 35x-40x multiples again
“So do I think we're going to move back to one of 35 to 40 for companies greater, going greater than 40%? Never again.”
Ed Sim Oct 27, 2023 ▶ 48:10 Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E1076 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sim: The era of late-stage tech startups growing 100% YoY is over
“The years of companies at the later stages going 100% year over year are over.”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 4:24 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Contradicted
Sim: Seed valuations were the only startup stage to increase since 2021
“There's data from Carta that shows you that if you look at priced rounds from Q one of 20, 21 compared to, let's say Q four of last year, the only round that increased in valuation Was the seed round”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 8:48 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Sim: Loom sold for under $1B after a $1.5B peak 2021 valuation
“At the end of last year, I'm not in the room with Loom, but that last round valuation was at 1.5 billion dollars, right? That was led in 20, 21, and they sold for nine 99 or something, nine 50, right?”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 20:52 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Sim: Palo Alto Networks paid $200M to $400M for startups with $2M ARR
“Look at all the stuff that Palo Alto bought. A lot of those companies had two to three million dollars of AR getting sold for two, three, four hundred million dollars, right?”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 48:05 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sim: Docker is positioned to go public in the next three years
“Docker is, is, is from what you see out there is a company that can go public the next two years, two to three years.”
Ed Sim Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 49:42 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 24statements(64 left)

The other half of the tape: Ed Sim's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 23 times in 11 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 16Rahul Vohra 3Guy Podjarny 2Hussein Kanji 1Adam Besvinick 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00428320152016201720182019202020212022202320242025episodesmentions
02320152016201720182019202020212022202320242025episodes it came up in
0021.54320152016201720182019202020212022202320242025episodesmentions per episode
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2023 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2022 3 mentions in 1 episode
2020 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2016 2 mentions in 1 episode
2015 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode

Appearances (3)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · Jan 10, 2024 26m
Ed Sim: Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive & Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher | E10 Oct 27, 2023 35m
20 VC 092: The Repeatable Playbook of SaaS with Ed Sim, Founding Partner @ BoldStart Ventu Nov 30, 2015 17m
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