Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Walling: VC funds adopted content marketing to escape commodity status

Rob Walling · Episode 748 | The Ins and Outs of Startup Investing · Jan 14, 2025 · at 16:39

Rob Walling, co-founder of TinySeed, discusses the historical evolution of venture capital from an opaque commodity business into a content- and brand-driven industry.

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“That was a big thing, was for them to start, A, generating deal flow, but B, to get the trust, I think, from people so they weren't a commodity, because they were a commodity before. It's kind of like, if I'm gonna go borrow money for my house, who's gonna give me the lowest rate? We know with no prepayment penalty. That's it. It's commodity. It's numbers and it's pricing. And that's what I think venture was a little, at least from my perspective, was a little more like that at one point. And then it became not right. It became how do I get people to know me such that I do have some type of pricing power and also a lot of inbound interest.”

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