???????? Hi friends!
Can someone burn some sage for me because this has been another painful week! We finally got our Tesla back hopefully in tip top condition as I’ll be driving it down to Italy next week – send your thoughts and prayers that we make it all the way without the car falling to bits ???? but, I also got hit with a bunch of fraudulent transactions when my Hostgator account got hacked with someone acquiring domains like billionairehacks and lord knows what else.
So sadly I’ve been spending the last couple of days on a series of increasingly frustrating calls with both Hostgator as well as HSBC whilst I try to get this all resolved.
Anyone else longing for the days of cold, hard cash?
Anyone?
In other news, I was super excited to receive this recently. Pumped me up to keep putting out great podcasts with incredible guests ????
This week on Nothing Ventured Antonio Avitabile, MD Europe for Sony Ventures Corporation.
Here’s what you can expect:
➡️ Moving from off balance sheet investing to raising a fund.
➡️ Launching a fund and training school in Africa and investing in African creativity.
➡️ The cultural barriers that hinder Italian and European startups from truly scaling.
➡️ The high risk and high reward stakes that come from investing in deeptech.
Check it out!
This week there have been a few things that have caught my eye in the tech and venture ecosystem and what we’ll be talking about this evening, namely:
???? AutogenAI raises ~$40 from Salesforce Ventures and others
???? OpenView Venture Partners changes its view
☠️ Founders who have decided not to raise from VC
Also, if you have any feedback, or if there’s something you’re desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online – I’m very open to conversations.
If you like what I’m putting out, do give me a follow on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Lowdown” and, more importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect ????????)
Don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe to Nothing Ventured on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, it really helps more people see what we’re doing – you can find links to these (and more including my Office Hours) right here!
Now let’s get into it.
This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.
EmergeOne provides fractional CFO support to venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B and beyond.
Join companies backed by Hoxton, Stride, Octopus, Founders Factory, Outlier, a16z and more, who trust us to help them get the most out of their capital, streamline financials, and manage investor relations so they can focus on scaling.
If you’re a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.
If you’re a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale ????
The Lowdown
Autogen Goes from Strength To Strength
Another amazing result for one of our portfolio client, Autogen AI, who, after having raised >$20m over the summer have closed just under $40m from Salesforce Ventures and other investors further cementing their place in the AI driven bid and proposal sector.
It’s been incredible watching their progress over the last year and being part of their journey ????
The View from OpenView
After some swift departures amidst the senior leadership, OpenView has laid off 50% of their team and suspended new investments.
The reality is that I think we will see more of this sort of upheaval into the new year as firms either shut down or rethink their strategies in the new (old) world where interest rates matter and capital as a weapon is no longer assumed to be the way to build generational businesses.
Bootstrapping is Back
Similarly, founders are also starting to clock on to the fact that they don’t need to go through the venture factory model of raising round after round to build their businesses as this article from Sifted highlights.
I think we are going to see more founders pursuing capital efficient growth and maintaining ‘healthy’ cap tables where they don’t have to take significant dilution to get the outcomes they are looking for.
Does this mean that VC is dead?
No, but I think it will be re-imagined and maybe, just maybe, we’ll see a return of venture backing businesses that really need the capital to innovate in sectors such as hardware, bio and deeptech.
And finally, with all the turmoil in venture right now, thoughts and prayers to all those analysts trying to hit their numbers…
Junior VCs trying to ramp up the CRM statistics before Christmas
— Said A. Haschemi (@SaidHaschemi)
Dec 7, 2023
????And that’s a wrap for this edition of The Lowdown – I’d appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if you’ve got something you’d like to say.
???? And if you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,
???? Finally, if you’re a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please don’t forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods – it really helps us spread the word.
That’s it from me so until next time…
Stay liquid 🙂
Aarish
