VCs now reserve deals for a select few anointed startups
Greg Martin · Revolutionizing Application Security: Transforming Risk Management and Facilitating Startup Success · Jul 16, 2025 · at 15:55
Ghost Security CEO Greg Martin discusses how the post-ZIRP venture capital fundraising landscape has shifted to rigid ARR milestones for most early-stage founders.
0:00 / 0:29exact quote · 29.6s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“A lot of the VC communities are making deals [959] Greg Martin: but it's a much smaller number of deals, and you know, they even joke amongst themselves that there's like this select few that are the anointed ones that get these big deals and valuations, and everybody else, it's really a spreadsheet exercise of, okay, you hit, you know, 1.5 million ARR, you're allowed to have a series A now, and that wasn't the case before.”
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 Greg Martin
Martin: Heavily diluted $100M ARR founders often net same as early exit
“I meet a lot of entrepreneurs that have built great businesses, a hundred million AR businesses, but they've been at it for 10 years, and they've taken so many rounds and deluded themselves so many times that they would have probably had the same outcome if th…”
Martin: Founders should use venture capital instead of personal savings
“Look, I'm of the use someone else's money mindset. Don't use your own hard earned money. What we're doing is high risk enough. What you're able to put in your bank account, you need to save and protect for your family. If you have something really good you kno…”
Martin: Outbound cold-calling sales model no longer works in enterprise software
“That wasn't the case, you know, five, 10 years ago where you could just, you know, have a team of college kids, cold calling customers pitching, pitching their ideas. You know, that model unfortunately is, doesn't work anymore.”
Martin: Automating Enterprise B2B Sales via AI Outreach Leads to Failure
“The idea that we're going to automate the sales process with, You know, AI sending emails and LinkedIn messages and automatically converting to self-service customers. I just, I don't see it. And I think that's kind of a road to failure and at least in kind of…”
Martin: Big-company top performers often fail at early-stage startups
“If you work with somebody at a big company in the past, and they were a top performer, they may very well be your lowest performer in a startup because it takes a complete different DNA and skillset to be successful as an early individual contributor or any ro…”