Divining the future of VC, saying goodbye to Danny

Oct 27, 2021

In a bittersweet farewell, the team reflects on the impressive surge in venture capital investment and its sustainability. With records shattered and unicorns flooding the market, discussions delve into Sequoia’s innovative fund strategy that aims to enhance flexibility for investors. The complexities of evolving venture dynamics highlight misalignments in incentives, pushing for smaller funds. Amidst heartfelt goodbyes, they celebrate shared successes while pondering the future landscape of startup funding.

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INSIGHT

VC Boom and Oversaturation

The venture capital world is experiencing a continuing boom with record funding numbers.
This boom is leading to an oversaturation of similar VC news stories.

INSIGHT

US VC Dominance and Tiger Global's Growth

Roughly half of global venture capital dollars, a higher than expected proportion, are raised in the U.S..
Tiger Global's assets under management have drastically increased, indicating market excess.

INSIGHT

Sequoia's Strategic Shift

Sequoia's new strategy signifies a shift in venture capital approach.
They're changing investment timelines and holding investments past public debuts.

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This is a special, if somewhat bittersweet episode. It marks the final official podcast with our own Danny Crichton, who is off to other pastures in short order. Danny stepped in when we lost a host a few years back, and has been both a staple and a pillar of the show since. We're going to miss the ever-loving heck out of him.

But the show must go on, so we spent this episode discussing issues core to our remit: The venture capital market, startups, and the interplay between each.

Natasha and Danny and Alex and Chris got together for this particular Wednesday edition of Equity, the part of the week when we niche down to a single topic and discuss it at length.

This time 'round we tackled the very small of whether today's pace of venture capital investment is sustainable, and whether the current structure of venture capital funds will survive. It was the right time to do so, given that:

Tiger is reloading with even more capital. Danny noted that its rising asset base is a good indicator of just where things are today.
Venture capital is at all-time highs. Natasha and Alex riffed through the numbers, noting just how crazy things have become.
And as we were collecting our notes, Sequoia announced (after Primack scooped them) that they are revolutionizing their firm into a new sort of vehicle.
We also discussed the unicorn traffic jam, which gave Alex a chance to jump atop his favorite hobby horse one more time.

With more money than ever bouncing around startup-land, the question of whether the sums, and their resulting valuations, make any sense is a conversation that we are not done with. But we hope that after this short podcast, you are at least up to speed.

Bon voyage, Danny. We love you. And a regular shoutout to the folks who have helped host Equity in the past: Kate Clark, Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and Connie Loizos. You are very much still in our hearts.

Here's the next few million downloads!

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

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