Rick Heitzmann, founder and partner at FirstMark Capital, discusses macro economic conditions and how low interest rates affect venture capital and broader asset returns.
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“So as you're looking at a decade of a bull market, if you're looking at historically low interest rates across the board, and therefore a flight from fixed income, everything else is basically overcapitalized, and it's really depressing returns across all asset classes.”
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Insight
Overpaying 20-30% on seed valuations has minimal impact on fund returns
“If we're wrong by 20 or 30% on price in a seed in a series A company, it doesn't matter that much. If we're off by 50% on price, it does matter. And a hundred percent of price matters more.”
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Insight
VCs must proactively issue term sheets instead of waiting for fundraises
“So you can't reactively wait for someone to raise their hand and say they're raising. You have to proactively be focused on the best companies and the best entrepreneurs, and basically proactively kick off a financing process by putting out a term sheet or bei…”
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PredictionNot checkable as stated
Venture capital will not lose its artisanal, craftsman approach
“I don't think we're going to lose it because there's folks like you or I who really treasure that, and they really view working with an entrepreneur as a partnership and not being, especially at the earliest stages, solely driven by quantitative and being data…”
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Insight
VC reserve capital should target winners rather than downside protection
“Although you want to reserve some for downside protection, those dollars aren't really as valuable as opposed to making sure that your true winners, you're able to put dollars behind.”
Rick HeitzmannNov 11, 2019▶ 17:4220VC: Firstmark's Rick Heitzmann on The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, His Biggest Learnings From The Pinterest Board, 2 Things VCs Can Do To Prepare Their Companies For The Downturn and Why Now Is A Good Time to Be Contrarian and Invest In Consumer
Opinion
Negative sentiment makes now a great time to invest in consumer tech
“I don't think so. I think that I would say enough people are down on consumer now. It's a good time to be contrarian on consumer.”
Rick HeitzmannNov 11, 2019▶ 25:0520VC: Firstmark's Rick Heitzmann on The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, His Biggest Learnings From The Pinterest Board, 2 Things VCs Can Do To Prepare Their Companies For The Downturn and Why Now Is A Good Time to Be Contrarian and Invest In Consumer
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Snap and Pinterest broke Google and Facebook's acquisition duopoly
“I think Snap and Pinterest have kind of broken through that duopoly, and therefore there's some heterogeneous ways to acquire customers, but not as many as you'd hope.”
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