Max Altman explains why Saga Ventures focuses exclusively on seed rounds rather than competing for Series A deals against established multi-stage firms like Sequoia.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Parker Conrad unfairly took the fall for non-ethical Zenefits mistakes
“I think there were some small mistakes made, but they were company-wide. They were under all departments, not just his. Everyone knew about it. They weren't ethical mistakes, and he sort of, you know, took the fall.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Max Altman predicts climate tech startups will not produce great VC returns
“Yeah, I think we wanted to be somewhat involved with it, and there were a lot of amazing founders building in it, and they're gonna build great things, but they're not gonna get us great VC returns.”
Insight
A seed lead only taking pro rata in Series A signals failure
“I fully believe if they're like, hey, Sequoia led our seed, and I'm like, hey, are they doing your A, and they're like, Well, they're doing their pro rata. I'm like, this is not a good company. Like, objectively is not a good company.”
Insight
Tech workers should ignore mission and join the fastest-growing company
“Don't care about the product, don't care about anything, just go work at the fastest growing company because winning feels great.”
Insight
Altman: Traditional VC firm hierarchies distort associate incentives away from fund returns
“I don't know if they're fucked up cultures, but I don't think they're incentivized to have the best returns. If you're an associate at a firm, and you're maybe there for five or six years, your job is to get a deal done that's gonna get marked up quickly so yo…”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Andreessen Horowitz led only two seed rounds for billion-dollar AI startups
“Of the first 40 of them, only one person had two lead checks, and that was Andreessen, and no one else had two, and if you look through the smattering, there are, you know, Green Oaks is in there, a lot of Gill's in there, but there's a lot of other random peo…”