Venture Funding
topic on 11 shows · 21 statements across 18 episodes
Acquired 
Startup Acquisition Stories 
the Pitch 
More or Less 
Startups For the Rest of Us 
My First Million 
A Product Market Fit Show 
Catalyst 
How I Built This 
the a16z Podcast 
20VC
21 statements about Venture Funding, every show
Gordon: Babylist avoided venture capital early because it was making money
“I was absolutely not thinking about raising venture funding. It didn't make sense because the business itself was making money.”
Khan: Millions in VC Marketing Could Not Match Pandemic Growth
“If we had had millions of dollars of venture funding to do marketing for Vidhug, it still couldn't have done what the pandemic did for it.”
Walling: Many founders raise venture funding only because they don't know better
“I realize that funding is far from the goal, and in fact, a lot of folks who take funding do it because they don't know any better, not because they actually should.”
Pekibar: Sold Before and After to self-fund next startup without VC
“So we, with the co-founder we kind of started another project a bit, you know, let's, let's call it a bit more serious project that we wanted to scale, and we really didn't want to raise money, even though we had some inquiries if we would be interested in acc…”
Weeks: Industrial Organic has raised $4.2 million in venture funding
“And we've raised 4.2 million in venture funding and we're still around and we're still growing”
Global VC funding reached a six-year low of $250 billion in 2023
“Venture funding in 20, 23 was the lowest since 2017. That's in terms of the amount raised, two hundred fifty billion dollars, which was the lowest since 2017.”
Sam Lessin: VC-funded startups attacking incumbents with AI will not survive
“Anyone whose business ends in dot AI or who's taking loads of venture funding, right, to build, you know, a, some of the next generation money losing go for scale startup attacking an incumbent with AI as a differentiator. Those are the losers. Those are not g…”
Alt-meat venture funding drop severely outpaced the broader private market downturn.
“It's also had a bunch of downstream effects on the next generation of alternative meat companies Where funding in the private markets and venture funding is down dramatically from previous years, well beyond the overall market downturn trend.”
Salehi: Many top companies and exits come from bootstrapped founders
“You don't need venture funding to be able to build a company. I think this is a very common misconception. Many of the most successful companies and successful exits have been with founders who have bootstrapped their companies”
Douwe Kiela: AI hype disillusionment will dry up funding and threaten startups
“At some point there's going to be a disillusionment with the technology and then funding might dry up and then these places are really in trouble.”
Miller: 150 VC-funded real estate crowdfunding competitors went out of business
“In 2012, we invented the idea of raising money for real estate on the internet. And within a few years, we had a 150 copycats, a 150 different companies trying to do what we were doing with a billion dollars of venture funding. So then roll forward eight years…”
Walling: Only 1% of Tech Companies Should Raise Venture Capital
“I think one percent of companies, one percent of tech companies need funding and the other 99% really shouldn't, shouldn't do it.”
Walling: Billion-dollar venture outcomes are rare edge cases overemphasized by press
“And even just the all or nothing idea of, I have to have a billion dollar outcome or else I'm a failure. I just think that that's not the norm. It's just so unfortunate that the press covers that because it is, these are such edge cases.”
Traditional venture funding restricts founder optionality around dividends and LLCs
“I was writing angel checks to startup founders who didn't want to take venture funding because it put them on a path and it reduced the options they had. They could no longer pull out dividends. They couldn't have an LLC. You know, there were just certain thin…”
Founders can build ambitious startups without VC funding or sacrificing well-being
“You can build a startup, you can build a SaaS company without venture funding, and you can be ambitious Without having to put your relationships and your family life and potentially your health on the line in order to build a company.”
Morgan DeBaun: Venture-backed startups must target $40M to $50M in revenue
“Also, venture funding isn't for every business model, right? You know, you have to very much be on a mission to build a hundred million dollar plus business and be able to Get to 40, fifty million dollars in revenue plus, right?”
Morgan DeBaun: Standalone media companies struggle to raise venture funding
“And I think media alone as an industry is very difficult to get venture funding for we've seen so many media companies go out of business.”
Morgan DeBaun: Venture funding creates constant pressure to sell the company
“Now, when you take venture funding, the only way people get their money back is if you exit. That's a very tough thing that I have to struggle with because that means that we are selling it to someone else and that there's a constant push And drive towards tha…”
Morgan DeBaun: Blavity diversified revenue to avoid relying on venture capital
“Blavity, we've always had a diversified business because I did not want to be dependent on venture funding, so we've prioritized revenue at our core in terms of operating because it was important that We had multiple industries and multiple revenue streams.”
Venture funding must rely less on exclusive operator networks
“I hope that venture funding becomes less of a closed circle, and actually that these networks become less important, and that access to this life-changing financial tool is democratized for many more people who didn't have the incredible luck That Jana and I h…”