The Ledger
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Liaw: Regulatory fear has chilled M&A for Meta, Google, Amazon, and Apple
“I think that probably the bigger challenge is for a lot of the biggest mega cap tech companies, fear of regulation and regulatory authority intervention is probably causing a lot of them to say, this is probably not worth our time, right? So it's kind of a fun…”
Liaw: Early-stage venture is about picking; late-stage is about access
“I think at earlier in seed stages, I think there's Probably more picking going on. I think that those stages companies need capital or else they're likely to die. Capital is more like a necessity. I think as you get much, much later sort of companies that are …”
Liaw: Growth stage startups will be hit hardest by market correction
“I think growth will be hit the hardest, because there, the universe of alternatives, particularly for some of the largest investors, is Private company A at multiple X or public company B at multiple Y.”
Liaw: High entry valuation multiples require path to $300M+ revenue
“If something's five or ten million, but you really have conviction, it can become three, four, five hundred million in revenue, then the 600 to a billion entry price is still fine. If it's like five, 10, and you think it's gonna maybe get to a hundred, a 150, …”
Liaw: Venture capital has lost sincerity due to a self-congratulatory echo chamber
“I think that, hey, did you hear so-and-so did this seed? And then that becomes the A, and then everyone's like, oh, you're so smart. Like, it's lost some of the sincerity, and that's too bad.”
Liaw: 2022 public listings and SPAC activity will decline from 2021
“I think there will still obviously be new listings and direct listings and probably not as many SPACs. That's a different topic. I do think you'll still have some activity, but not like last year.”
Liaw: 2022 tech M&A volume will slightly exceed 2021
“I expect maybe a little bit more M&A this year than last year, just because last year there wasn't that much of it.”
Liaw: Salesforce will pause major M&A while digesting Slack
“Now, I think Salesforce is probably going to be quiet for a little bit as they digest Slack.”
Liaw: IVP Invested Over $100M into Aiven After $16M Initial Check
“Our first investment was sixteen million dollars in size in their series B. They've now gone on to raise a C and a C one. Now we have over a hundred million dollars invested.”
Liaw: Passing on Datadog's Series B was his biggest career regret
“Biggest regret in my career was not investing in Datadog a lot earlier than when we ultimately did. We loved The company, it was probably nine or eleven million dollars in revenue at the time. This is probably the 2014 time frame, and they raised a series B. S…”
Liaw: Unprepared introductory pitch meetings with founders are now obsolete
“The idea of, you know, have a first meeting. So tell me about your company and you know nothing like that's a dead meeting. And that's actually great. It saves time, saves the entrepreneurs time so they can get back to running their companies and doing the bus…”
Liaw: Distrusting a CEO's decision means investing in the wrong person
“And then you have to go back to, well, you don't trust your CEO to make the decision. You probably invested in the wrong company or person.”
Liaw: Boards Must Replace CEOs Who Have Lost Board Confidence
“If the consensus view ends up being that the CEO has lost the confidence of the board, then I think the board has a responsibility to make a tough decision. The CEO serves at the pleasure of, for the shareholders, and the board is actually supposed to be the o…”