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

.@whoisnnamdi's post here:

Why so few Series A rounds now?. ARR needs to be higher (up over 100% for median ARR since 2021), while valuations are just slightly up and total rounds are down 40%+. Investors clearly are more picky. Also less sure that ARR = PMF? @whoisnnamdi argues yes, link in next post

Quite interesting that the fastest rise in ARR is in the lower quartile. Matches the idea that the “lowest quality” As are simply no longer getting done. Threshold for founders has risen very quickly.

ARR vs Valuation at Series A. Vals from us at Carta, ARR data from the old friends at Silicon Valley Bank. 1) Valuations in 2024 were quite high, yes. 2) But ARR has shot upwards much faster. Median ARR at A was about $3M last year. 75th percentile was nearly $7M!

Solo GP fund seeing up to 6,000 (!) companies annually, investing in roughly 0.2% of them. Imagine instead she invested in. 0.4% of them. That's a major step towards diversification while remaining a long way away from "spray and pray". (Not saying Nichole should change, just.

It's getting harder to claim AI is having no effect on the startup job market. Hiring declines in 2022, 2023, and parts of 2024 were a story of lack of funding and capital efficiency. But now. gotta think AI is playing a major role. (data = only equity holding employees)

Silicon Valley is the home of startups and not going anywhere. But different sectors live in different places across the US and it's never been a better time to start up. 🇺🇸

Lead investors in seed rounds are taking more and more of the round lately. Median lead grabbed 52% in a seed round in 2021. Median lead has taken 61% so far in 2025 seeds. Sharper elbows? Bigger funds? etc.

Useful context:

Early stage VCs should (probably, on average) make more investments. Lots of objections, some of them very valid. But the general disdain for "spray and pray" is pretty anti-math. Link to the full argument as laid out by @credistick in following post

RT @JustinTMichael: So the Nuggets traded for Cam Johnson, got off the MPJ deal, AND they signed Bruce Brown? #MileHighBasketball https://t….

Does it take more capital to build a deep tech startup?. No, not necessarily. If you add median cash raised for Seed through Series C based on data from H1 2025, you get:. Software: $75.3 million raised.Deep tech: $81.9 million raised. Time to build in atoms?

Current market for venture deals in the US (pre-seed through Series C). Notes:. 1) yes this is heavily influenced by SF and NY because that’s where the deals are. 2) yes this has a lot of AI in it, as it should. 3) very pricey medians but fewer and fewer rounds.

If you're raising on SAFEs, how much you raise is the bigger input to your valuation cap vs what industry you're in. More money raised = higher cap.

Lead investors in venture rounds seem to be taking bigger slices of pie at Seed and Series A. The median lead took 52% of a seed round in 2021 and 61% so far in 2025. (this could settle a little lower as more securities are accepted but general trend holds)

Full report:

The VC fund scorecard for Q1 2025. 2,500+ funds included, most under $100M in size. Benchmarks for 25th through 90th percentile performance on Net IRR, Net TVPI, and DPI. Full report in following post.

Full episode:

VCs talking about 2021: really wish we had taken some liquidity out during that hype cycle. VCs talking about AI investments now: selling early is lame, concentrate into the winners, hold forever!. Maybe there's a middle ground? Loved chatting with @Beezer232 about this