AI's impact on VC models, the state of pre-seed, the latest on unicorns and secondaries, trends in exits, and how top firms are evolving investment strategies.
A new update to the Unicorn Report dives deep into the top unicorn creators of the last few years spotlighting Sequoia, a16z, and YC—revealing that AI accounts for nearly half of 2024’s new unicorns, with GenAI representing 24.1%. California still leads the pack, but emerging hubs in Texas and Florida are growing fast.
With IPOs sluggish and M&A slow, venture GPs are turning to secondaries. NewView Capital’s Ravi Viswanathan argues this is more than a temporary liquidity fix. Citing the $3.8T backlog in venture AUM, he believes secondaries demand a lasting mindset shift toward active portfolio management and better stewardship.
How a 24-Year-Old VC Landed Cendana Capital as a Limited Partner
At just 24, Paige Finn Doherty convinced premier LP Sindana Capital to back her second fund. On How I Invest, she breaks down the strategy: building a standout media brand, displaying relentless grit, and executing with first-principles rigor. Now leading Behind Genius Ventures, Paige shares how media unlocks deal flow, why she’s bullish on AI in overlooked industries, and what it takes to scale a Gen Z-built institutional VC firm.
What the Last 20 Years of VC Exits Could Tell Us About the Next 10
David Clark analyzed Pitchbook data from 2005 to 2024, showing a striking trend: the 99th percentile exit value for U.S. VC-backed companies has doubled roughly every five years—from $1.4B in 2005–09 to $10.2B in 2020–24. If the pattern holds, today's investors could see $40B+ exits in the next decade.
An Unfiltered Look at Today’s Venture Market—Straight From Angular’s AGM
Angular Ventures just shared a 12-minute clip from their closed-door LP AGM in February, offering a candid, data-driven take on the current VC landscape. The excerpt touches on market bifurcation, the growing dominance of $100M+ rounds, the rise of five distinct “VC swimlanes,” and why the average Seed-to-Series A timeline now exceeds two years.
Lessons from the Top VCs, How Cendana Does Diligence, Portfolio Construction Best Practices, the 60x Rule and More
Michael Kim, founder of Cendana Capital, joins Turner Novak to share what he’s learned backing top-performing seed funds. They dive into high-DPI portfolio construction, why ownership-to-fund size ratio is key, and how secondaries now drive most early-stage VC returns. Plus: AI in VC workflows, the seed vs. multistage tug-of-war, and the early days of building Cendana.
AI Agents Will Supercharge the Future of VC with Tomasz Tunguz
Tomasz Tunguz, Founder of Theory Ventures, is widely recognized for his analytical approach to venture investing. Now, he’s building Theory with a philosophy rooted in research and data-driven decision-making. Tomasz sits down with Nick Chirls, General Partner at Asylum Ventures and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, to discuss spinouts and succession in established firms and the value of running high-risk, high-reward experiments at specialist firms like Theory. Tomasz also shares his belief that investors will need to adapt to a future where asking the right questions of LLMs will be critical for success.
Minisode: How Novel Strategies Become the Venture Industry's Standard
Nick Chirls and Beezer Clarkson unpack their conversation with Theory Ventures’ Tomasz Tunguz, discussing how strategies that once set firms apart, like pre-seed or founder-centric investing, have become industry standards over time. They dive deep on counter-positioning, adaptability, and the power of differentiation in today’s venture world.
VC Deep Dives
REPORT
State of Pre-Seed: Q1 2025
Pre-seed funding activity slowed again in early 2025, though startups that are raising are seeing higher valuation caps. SAFEs remain the dominant instrument at this stage, and emerging hubs in the South continue to attract a growing share of capital.
AI-Scaled Startups Are Poised to Disrupt Venture Capital—But VCs Say Don’t Count Them Out Just Yet
AI is making startups faster and cheaper to build, pushing VCs earlier into pre-seed and seed—but fears of venture’s demise may be overblown. Investors argue the AI boom will spark more innovation (and funding), not less.
How VC Funds Are Evolving And Stepping Away From The Classic Model
Venture capital is undergoing a major transformation as firms move beyond traditional early-stage investing. Driven by longer private company timelines, booming secondaries, and the rise of AI, VCs are evolving into broader investment platforms—blending venture, private equity, and public market strategies.
AI startup acquisitions are accelerating, driven by big tech’s push to stay competitive and startups facing fewer IPO options. Investors see this as a sign the AI market is entering a mid-stage of maturity, where efficiency and consolidation are becoming key themes.
Nothing presented within this article is intended to constitute investment advice, and under no circumstances should any information provided herein be used or considered as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund managed by Sapphire Ventures, LLC (“Sapphire”). Information provided reflects Sapphires’ views as of a time, whereby such views are subject to change at any point and Sapphire shall not be obligated to provide notice of any change. No assumptions should be made that any investment listed above were or will be profitable. Various content and views contained within this article represent those of third party guests, which do not necessarily reflect the views of Sapphire. Such views are subject to change at any point and do not in any way represent official statements by Sapphire.Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or the actual experience may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in any statement made. Nothing contained in this article may be relied upon as a guarantee or assurance as to the future success of any particular company. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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