Woody Marshall: Large venture firms face strict auditing on portfolio valuations
Woody Marshall · Roundtable #4 with Jason Lemkin, Woody Marshall, Deven Parekh, Harry Stebbings | E1071 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Oct 11, 2023 · at 19:45
Woody Marshall, General Partner at TCV, contrasts the valuation auditing rigor faced by large growth funds with the practices of early-stage venture firms.
0:00 / 0:15exact quote · 15.2s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“If you're a firm as big as mine or as Devon's, there's a very sophisticated process that gets reviewed by auditors, which is a little different than, you know, with a lot of the early stage guys, so it's hard for us to play around with valuation”
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 →
More from Woody Marshall
Woody Marshall: There are no downsides to going public
“So I actually don't think there are cons. I think it's a positive. It causes a company to be crisp in your execution. You have to tell your story thoughtfully. You have to deliver. You are accountable. And I think all of those over the long term for great comp…”
Woody Marshall: The tech IPO market is open for companies resetting valuations
“So to me, I actually think the markets are open. But people have to, you have to rip the bandaid off and not be wed to, you know, oh, but in 2021 I was valued at X. It doesn't matter. If you're a public company today, that's in the rearview mirror. The public …”
Woody Marshall: Entry valuation matters less if competitive durability is high
“Getting that durability of the value proposition, and whether that's competitive modes, whether that's management execution, those are the important things to get right. But if you get those right, I do agree, valuation in hindsight can be a little less releva…”
Woody Marshall: Refusing to reset inflated valuations causes suboptimal business decisions
“The smart companies are, you know, resetting the deck. They're ripping bandaid off because the problem with companies that hold on to some of those valuations is they're going to make decisions that are suboptimal.”
Woody Marshall: TCV's 2021 investments will take longer to yield returns
“If you look at the things we invested in, in 21, we like those companies a lot. It may take, it's gonna take us longer. To get our returns. It just is, because multiples have come down.”
Woody Marshall: Penalizing venture partner mistakes creates risk-aversion and mediocre fund returns
“If all of a sudden you start smacking people on the hand for, if they make a mistake in a risk business, what are you going to end up with? You're going to end up with a risk averse set of, You know, investors and you're guaranteed your next fund is going to b…”