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Peter Walker is Head of Insights at Carta and writes a newsletter called “The Data Minute”, a weekly newsletter highlighting data from over 43,000 private tech companies that use Carta’s platform to manage their cap table. He gives us into a deep dive on VC valuation trends, the fundraising landscape, and startup strategies.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(04:50) Valuation trends in 2023
(08:10) Why Seed valuations went up over the past two years
(12:27) AI startups are getting higher valuations
(17:40) Why Biotech might be the next big bubble
(19:15) Boston as the 2nd largest VC ecosystem
(21:15) How SAFE’s work
(24:06) The impending SAFE reckoning
(26:13) Why startups don’t pay dividends
(28:31) Downrounds were 2x more common in 2023
(32:11) Almost half of all 2023 Series As were extensions
(35:34) Is there really a lot of dry powder?
(40:43) The emerging manager fundraising landscape
(48:19) Exit environment
(51:45) Why pre-Series B is the most common acquisition stage
(52:47) Liquidation preference & why an acquisition at Seed might make a founder more money than at a Series B
(55:59) Compensation market data
(56:38) Why the number of total startup employees shrank in 2023
(57:38) Why startup employees aren’t exercising their options
(1:00:57) Health of the secondary markets
(1:04:51) Most co-founder splits aren’t 50/50
(1:06:47) Why you should always vest co-founder equity
(1:09:30) 2023 record year for startup shutdowns
(1:17:19) Will other startup ecosystems ever catch Silicon Valley?
Links:
Carta’s Q4 ‘23 Private Market Report: https://carta.com/blog/state-of-private-markets-q4-2023/
Peter’s Newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/
Where to find Peter:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterJ_Walker
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjameswalker/
Where to find Turner:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/
Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/
