My question is about where you see the future of early-stage investing going in the next few years.
The undisputed 'best VC funds' in the Valley (names like a16z, Sequoia, etc) have all generally adopted the strategy of basically choosing companies that are already clearly on their way up and going to be successful, positioning themselves as the 'go-to' firms for capital, and investing large amounts at large valuations. They've publicly shied away from seed-stage, which is now largely dominated by YC, AngelList, FundersClub, and so on. Do you think this disparity will keep widening? Where is the future of seed investing? Perhaps one answer is to go earlier and earlier, investing before they even are at seed stage, such as with the Thiel Fellowship.
Secondly and relatedly, I think it's obvious that the balance of power has shifted over the past few decades from the venture capitalist to the entrepreneur. What are the ways with which the best and upcoming VC firms can differentiate themselves and convince the best companies to take their money? Is it by having a giant and powerful relationship db/management system like a16z? Is it by assembling teams of technical talent, recruiters, designers, etc to help portfolio companies as much as possible? Or is it by trying to discover more fundamental truths about why companies succeed?
sfstartupperson24 karma
Hey Peter, thanks for doing this.
My question is about where you see the future of early-stage investing going in the next few years.
The undisputed 'best VC funds' in the Valley (names like a16z, Sequoia, etc) have all generally adopted the strategy of basically choosing companies that are already clearly on their way up and going to be successful, positioning themselves as the 'go-to' firms for capital, and investing large amounts at large valuations. They've publicly shied away from seed-stage, which is now largely dominated by YC, AngelList, FundersClub, and so on. Do you think this disparity will keep widening? Where is the future of seed investing? Perhaps one answer is to go earlier and earlier, investing before they even are at seed stage, such as with the Thiel Fellowship.
Secondly and relatedly, I think it's obvious that the balance of power has shifted over the past few decades from the venture capitalist to the entrepreneur. What are the ways with which the best and upcoming VC firms can differentiate themselves and convince the best companies to take their money? Is it by having a giant and powerful relationship db/management system like a16z? Is it by assembling teams of technical talent, recruiters, designers, etc to help portfolio companies as much as possible? Or is it by trying to discover more fundamental truths about why companies succeed?
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