The Bulletin #8: Climbing the Right Hills & Recapping StartupConnect 2021
Everything Van Wickle Ventures is reading, listening to, thinking about, and more in the world of VC.
What We're Consuming in Venture:
Articles we've enjoyed
What do you want to be doing in 10 years?: Climbing the Wrong Hill
This is a great article to read about the hills that we will all encounter post-grad. It asks you to interrogate the paths you've set for yourself and questions: why do smart people continue to stay working in an area where they don't have long-term ambitions?
I love this quote: "People early in their career should learn from computer science: meander some in your walk (especially early on), randomly drop yourself into new parts of the terrain, and when you find the highest hill, don’t waste any more time on the current hill no matter how much better the next step up might appear."
Why are seed rounds getting to be $100 mm post-money?
From Union Square Ventures, Fred Wilson discusses the recent huge seed rounds we're seeing and their implications, as roughly half of seed stage investments fail completely, wiping out everyone’s investment.
“In almost twenty years of producing some of the highest performing VC funds in the business, Union Square Ventures has never had a portfolio company become worth over $100 billion. That is a very high bar, too high to expect in your portfolio.”
Podcasts
On Stripe, Mixpanel, and First Round Capital
Meka Asonye (@BigMekaStyle), partner at First Round Capital, joined Ben Casnocha at a Village Global event to discuss customer obsession, how an early stage startup can approach large organizations, mistakes founders make in pitches, and how much money to raise early stage
People to Follow
Smart people whose Twitter feeds we like to stalk
Harry Stebbings (@HarryStebbings): Founder of 20 minute VC, contributor for TechCrunch, and all around a smart investor
Mac Conwell (@MacConwell): The founding and managing partner at Rare Breed Ventures, Mac is knowledgeable about all things software and startups.
Memes
Because venture capital memes are a very real thing
Brand trumps all, am I right?
Just the typical daily life of a hardworking venture capitalist. Check out @mattturck on Twitter for more threads & memes.
Van Wickle Ventures Updates
Recap: Startup Connect 2021.5
This past week, VWV and Contrary Capital cohosted our Startup Connect Fair, featuring lightning talks by Devin Finzer of OpenSea, Sridhar Ramaswamy of Neeva, and Ben Chesler of Imperfect Foods. Over 240 registered students got the chance to talk to founders of companies VWV has sourced or are connected to. We had a ton of fun hosting, and were so glad that Brown/RISD founders, alums, and students all had the chance to connect to strengthen Brown's entrepreneurial ecosystem!
VWV Wishlist
Every week, VWV does a "deep dive" into a particular industry, sector, or trend where we identify the market, top performers, exciting future developments, and why we are excited about the space. Do you have an area you are particularly interested in? Shoot us an email with your idea of what we should do a "Deep Dive" in next, and see yourself featured in our next newsletter!
As always, if you are a Brown/RISD alum with a startup we should hear about, reach out to vwv@brown.edu
Wishing you all a restful Thanksgiving Break! - VWV