In looking at the portfolio recently, I was surprised to see that our DTC portfolio – ranging from baby toys to cat food, furniture, skin care, and more – will do over a billion dollars in sales this year. A billion in sales!
Think of each funding round as part of an ongoing strategy—a multi-stage game, where every decision has ripple effects on the long-term trajectory.
The next year will be challenging for startups. Promising companies will struggle. Many will fail. The only consolation is that the “era of indifferent capital” is coming to a close — may it never return.
Even for strong startups, fundraising is a marathon that requires near constant attention for 8–12 weeks. The process is punishing, and riskier than you might imagine. You need to prep for it as seriously as you would a race.
The “Series A crunch” sometimes still feels real. It dooms many startups that could otherwise have easily survived if they had been more strategic about their seed-stage fundraising.
There’s no good way to tell your board that you’ve blown a quarter, or your superstar head of data science is jumping ship to Google. Still, breaking bad news is a key skill for founders and delivering it well is often what keeps a company alive.