We had our annual general meeting right before Thanksgiving, and every year I share some of what we covered. Last year, I shared a post about three potential states of the venture capital world, as I felt we were in the middle of significant shifts in the early-stage venture capital market. This year didn’t have a unifying theme, but I did discuss making sense of the returns potential for multi-billion-dollar VC funds, how AI companies are setting the bar for everyone when it comes to fundraising, and how outbound sourcing has changed over time.
Jesse H
3d
A clear snapshot of how venture is evolving from the rising bar set by AI founders to the new realities facing multi-billion-dollar funds. Outbound, returns, and fundraising are no longer the same game!
Great breakdown, Charles. The shifting benchmarks for returns and sourcing are definitely changing how funds think about scale and opportunity. The $1T company conversation feels more relevant every year. 👏
#3 is good. Not many folks have talked about this publicly yet.
Love it - I always have mine in early December before Christmas and New Year's! Everyone is in such a festive mood. 🎉
Charles Hudson, sounds like a solid review of the business. Three practical topics, no grand pronouncements about "disrupting the ecosystem" or other nonsense. The multi-billion fund returns piece is probably the most interesting. Those numbers get unwieldy fast, and LPs are finally asking harder questions about whether bigger actually means better returns. Math has a way of catching up with ambition. AI companies raising at silly valuations - yeah, that's setting expectations that most others can't meet. Seen this movie before with different technology. The fundamentals still matter, even when everyone's temporarily forgotten them. How's the outbound sourcing evolution playing out? More noise to cut through, or are you finding better ways to spot the real opportunities?