Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Ball: Complex VC exits take 12 to 18 months due to investor alignment

Jamin Ball · Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jan 10, 2024 · at 13:53

Jamin Ball, Partner at Altimeter Capital, explains the reasons why resolving preferred stock stack issues and executing startup exits takes extended periods.

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“This is why these processes end up taking 12, 18 months is because it's not 12, 18 months of negotiating with an acquirer or figuring out how to do a dividend back to the preferred, right? It takes 18 months because these are really hard decisions that are often very contentious in the early days, and it takes a long time to get the early stage investors, the late stage investors, And the founders like all on the same page and agreement that this is the right thing to be done.”

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 Jamin Ball

Prediction Open · timeframe Jan 2029
Ball: Most 2021 mega-round startups will never reach their peak valuations
“I think there's the vast majority of companies who raise these mega rounds in 2021. Will probably never be worth at any point in time, right? The valuation that they were given in the public markets.”
Jamin Ball Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 20:34 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Ball: ZIRP-era funding rounds lacked ratchets blocking down-round IPOs
“The reality of the moment we live in today is a lot of these zerf rounds, they didn't have ratchets. It was the opposite. They were very light on terms and they were very light on structure. So you don't have this Dynamic of super heavy ratchets, anti-dilution…”
Jamin Ball Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 54:36 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
Ball: Down-round IPOs will become normal despite the current taboo
“I think kind of down rounds or down round IPOs will be the same thing. There'll be a taboo on them, but they'll be normal.”
Jamin Ball Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 1:01:48 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Didn’t hold up
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“From a regulation standpoint, it is really hard to see any large-scale M&A.”
Jamin Ball Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 44:10 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Ball: Software venture funding fell 90% from peak to 2016-2017 levels
“Really, twenty-twenty-one and probably the first half of twenty-twenty-two, and now in twenty-twenty-three, we're down 90% from where we were at the peak, but we're really just back to the 2016, 20 17 trend line, right?”
Jamin Ball Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 5:59 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Ball: True founder-friendliness requires investors to have hard conversations
“To be a truly founder friendly investor and board member. It is about having those hard conversations. It's not about shying away from conflict.”
Jamin Ball Jan 10, 2024 ▶ 14:38 Ed Sim & Jamin Ball: Did Figma Kill M&A Markets & 3 Requirements to IPO in 2024 | E1101 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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