In this discussion, Alex Konrad, a senior editor at Forbes and co-founder of the Midas Touch newsletter, joins to dissect the current venture capital landscape. He highlights the staggering 157% surge in fundraising, while expressing concerns about sustainability. The conversation delves into funding disparities affecting diverse founders and the need for intentional media coverage. They also explore how startups can stand out amidst an overwhelming influx of funding news, emphasizing effective media relations and compelling storytelling.
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insights INSIGHT
Q2 VC Funding Explosion
Q2 2021 saw $156B in VC funding, a 157% YoY increase.
This represents over 7,700 rounds, an all-time high.
insights INSIGHT
Unicorn Stampede
Over 130 new unicorns were created in Q2 2021, more than one per day.
Alex notes that he is even struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of IPOs.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Funding Round Numbness
Natasha describes becoming desensitized to large funding rounds early in her career.
What once excited her, like a $2M seed round, now barely registers compared to $20M pre-seed rounds.
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Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
For this week’s deep dive, Alex and Natasha and Danny decided it was time to chat about funding rounds. Yep, everyone's favorite topic, just in time for the return of our wonderful producer Chris.
To help us navigate these particular waters, we had our friend and friendly competitor Alex Konrad on the show. Konrad is a senior editor over at Forbes, and part of the founding duo behind the Midas Touch newsletter. We like him - and his puppy!
With four of us around the Zoom table, here's what we got into:
An overview of the venture capital market in Q2. You can read TechCrunch's coverage of the global numbers here, and our further exploration of the US market here. TechCrunch has more coming on the matter, so stay tuned.
While the show includes the staggering statistics on the current funding frenzy, we soon broadened the conversation to why it all matters.
Consider this a peek into the reporter's notebook! We spoke about the supply and demand for covering funding rounds, the imbalance in who receives what money, and how an overall reader ad writer numbness to that $2 million pre-seed impacts the headlines.
Which landed us into our final section: how to stand out in the overall deluge of funding rounds. Here we all had a take, because all reporters find different things interesting. Here we answer questions about what metrics to pay attention to, how to be more than a number in your pitch, and the value of talking about topics other than your startup's success.
Chat with everyone on Friday, a show that is already coming together to be a scorcher. A bit like the weather. Except in San Francisco. Natasha is cold!
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.
Equity