O'Driscoll: tranche structures price away the growth-round excess return, and that is how the trend ends
Rory O'Driscoll · Should the US Ban Chinese Open-Source Models | OpenRouter's Chance To Sell | Stripe Buying PayPal · Jul 23, 2026 · at 1:12:01
The StarZero cut
A short vertical edit of this exact moment, cut and captioned from the tape above. The tape stays the evidence; this is the version you can send someone.
Save the cut (mp4) →“So now what you're seeing with these tranche deals is, You know, nature abhors a vacuum, and sequoia abhors leaving a dollar on the table, so what's happening is people are realizing everyone wants these growth rounds, and this is how these trends end. Everyone, they're going, oh, everyone wants these growth rounds, so now what we can do is do this tranche structure and effectively price the excess return away from Harry and back to us, right? So, yes, because it's been such a good place to play that capital's rushing in. At some point, it won't be a good place to play.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →