Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Mignano: Venture capital ARR metrics are often poorly defined and misleading

Michael Mignano · Why Lightspeed Bet on xAI, Neuralink, Suno, Granola, & Pika | Michael Mignano · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea · Dec 27, 2025 · at 9:44

Michael Mignano, partner at Lightspeed, discusses venture capital valuation metrics and the tech industry's obsession with top-line ARR numbers.

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“So w one of the things that I take a little bit of an issue with right now in venture is there's so much of a focus on this ARR number. And it's not even defined properly half the time, right? Like you might just take some of these companies are literally just taking like yesterday's subscription rate and like multiplying it by 365, whatever. I think it doesn't say anything about the durability or the quality of the revenue.”

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