There is always a new wave
#73 Angelinvesting.it - From idea to Series A - Weekly Newsletter
Dear reader,
A personal and true story from when I was in high school with my yellow and blue Invicta backpack.
It was the late '90s, the year 2000 was just around the corner. Besides the usual passions of a teenager, my interest in entrepreneurship, finance, and computers was already developed.
I distinctly remember one day, coming back from school, talking with a classmate about how unlucky we were to be too young to take advantage of the internet revolution.
That reflection was as naïve as the boy I was. Three conceptual mistakes:
You are too young or too old to seize an opportunity only if you decide to be.
The digital revolution was just beginning, and the long wave would last for years.
Like the sea, with every wave of opportunity, another one arrives right on time.
Today, as the AI wave is pushing strong, I feel the maturity and the skills to fully embrace it.
🏄🏄 #SurfingTheWave
2 Tools to advance to pro
I met with a fund of funds that has a unique take on the VC power law this week.
This Monday, I met with the team from VenCap, a fund of funds with over 35 years of experience in the sector. They have a very peculiar investment thesis that has had me reflecting all week.
VenCap asserts that the implications of the power law are not well understood by many GPs and LPs. Get this: according to them, 1% of exits (about 30 companies in absolute terms) generate the majority of returns in the entire VC sector.
Based on this insight, they have built a portfolio of 12 funds selected from the 20 that have accumulated the most valuable exits over $2.5 billion in startups in which they invested in Series A and Series B rounds.
Here is the link to the interview with the GPs who launched the fund 35 years ago.
NO DPI NO PARTY !!!!!
Total VC funds raised globally between 2010 and 2015: 1,188
VC funds with DPI < 1X (unable to return 100% of the money back to their LPs): 615 (51.8%)
VC funds with DPI > 3X: 79 (6.6.%)
VC funds with DPI > 5X: 31 (2.6%)
Source: PitchBook
1 Reason to smile
Have a great weekend 😁😄😂
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For years I thought the same. I have tried to be a professional poker player but unfortunately it didn’t happen, I didn’t have the mindset (probably because I was too young). In any case, you’re perfectly right: there will always be opportunities out there, our job is to do our best to catch at least one of them.
Great post.