Peter Walker
@PeterJ_Walker
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Head of Insights @Cartainc | New data on startups out multiple times per week
Joined March 2020
How much do VC-backed founders ACTUALLY OWN of their companies over time? Might be less than you expect. The median ownership for the founding team after a Series A sits at 36.1%, according to our study of over 14,000 US startups. The full report has much more data broken out
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Won’t believe it until the day it happens but I hope it does 🚀
Scoop: SpaceX has decided not to spin off Starlink and is aiming to IPO the entire company next year
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Asking "who else in investing" makes sense and usually a fair question, especially for funds that don't lead rounds which is most funds.
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30 agents. Cameras ordered off. @erictrump recounts the moment the raid began.
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Despite what you may read, raising a Series A is tough right now. Ya valuations are up, but total rounds are not. You're either in a hype-cycle with many term sheets or out in the cold with none it seems
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More on deployment pace, management fees, and many other topics for venture funds in 2025: https://t.co/gWKFcEAIHk
carta.com
The nitty-gritty details of how private funds operate have always remained behind the curtain. Now, Carta provides a never-before-seen glimpse at how VC and PE investors manage and operate their...
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It feels like the AI frenzy is making VC move faster than ever - but we're still not at 2020/21 levels of wild. Funds are deploying capital at a measured pace. Fundraising for startups outside the hot AI narrative center is anything but easy.
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We dig into: GP commitments Capital call tardiness Deployment rates Management fee benchmarks Carry benchmarks Operating expenses Lots more. Read it now
carta.com
The nitty-gritty details of how private funds operate have always remained behind the curtain. Now, Carta provides a never-before-seen glimpse at how VC and PE investors manage and operate their...
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Do VCs always charge 2 and 20? No, it turns out they don't. Many funds will charge 2.5% or even a little higher during the investment period Fresh insight on how VCs make money in our new Fund Economics report. Data from 2,000+ funds on Carta (next post)
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VC firms ran hot in ZIRP years. But for some funds raised in 2021 and 2022, it’s hard to let go (and finish deploying that $$). I broke down interesting new data from @cartainc’s Fund Economics Report, with an eye for helping startups spot the zombies 🧟♂️ https://t.co/WSoDnLnfno
upstartsmedia.com
A new study by Carta shows that later-cycle funds raised in 2021 and 2022 have dramatically slowed down their investment pace. Here's what it means for startups.
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I can hear some investors saying "well if they were ACTUALLY exceptional founders, they wouldn't fail" but that feels too deterministic. Kinda agree that pivots are often overhyped.
One thing I’ve changed my mind about in startup investing, after backing a few hundred startups the past 7.5 years at @VillageGlobal: the quality of the day 1 business idea matters more than I thought it did. Exceptional founders working in a bad market tend to fail. Pivots
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The FirstFrame, TAG & BBQ. (TAG or Transcendental Argument for God.) TAG starts in interpretation, BBQ starts before interpretation, TAG argues inside a system, BBQ names the moment before any system exists. TAG depends on categories, logic, metaphysics, definitions, and long
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Founders are selling this much equity to VCs per round: Seed: 19.5% Series A: 18% Series B: 14% Series C: 10% Series D: 7.5% But those medians obscure really wide ranges. All data from software startups on Carta, deep tech typically has to sell a little more at seed and A.
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Ppl really dislike when you mess with the y-axis. But ordering the bars randomly is also annoying 😅
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every single person should read this book
Opus 4.5 is available today on our API and on all three major cloud platforms. Read more: https://t.co/IyiLyYjmm6
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Side A: Splitting equally is the sign of a weak CEO Side B: Splitting unequally means you don't value your cofounders Which side are you on, no nuance allowed.
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Add a toggle to turn off the y-axis and you’ve really got something here
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Every seed stage VC says they’ve never been busier, yet there will be fewer seed rounds this year than 2024 or 2023, most likely. More money into fewer companies these days
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Unpopular opinion: It is absolutely okay for a founder to give up. If you're 3+ years in, 8+ pivots deep, barely paid yourself, and your spirit is broken, you've run out of emotional runway. Go get a job, enjoy life, and come back in a year. You need a reset.
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Ever so slowly, more VC capital is being invested into companies building physical stuff. (excludes rounds for foundational labs 😅) Building in atoms, not bits is becoming cool
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Fundraising data for founders trying to close deals before the end of the year. 1) These are historically expensive AF 2) Many AI companies get even higher vals / rounds 3) Dilution is calculated independently. You can't simply read across the rows.
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There is some correlation between “hot” deals and whether they raised a Series A however. If by hot you mean they raised a big seed round. Series A does not equal ultimate success, obviously.
We have both kinds in our portfolio. But it turns out there is no correlation between how hot a seed deal is and success. It just shows how wrong investors are at the early stages.
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Very true. Although outside of some narrow examples, we don’t see founders taking Jack’s advice here and giving out super generous equity packages. Especially in an era of small teams, I thought that might change.
I think it's probably as hard as it's ever been to build a talent-dense early stage team. The core dynamic is that options other than joining an early stage startup are more attractive than ever. Big companies are genuinely appealing places to work, mid stage companies let you
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