VC POV

The “VC view” of our top 500 value drivers list – with IPOs valued six months out, when lockups often expire – doesn’t improve the odds of outsized startup exits.

Funds over $1 billion took nearly three quarters of US venture dollars this year, all chasing outcomes only about a dozen companies have reached in 25 years.

My own colleagues ask me this all the time. So I went through my whole portfolio, more than 75 companies over a dozen-plus years, and looked as hard as I could.

The world holds more randomness than we admit. Default Yes to showing up.

Strategy matters, but it can become a substitute for the unglamorous work of finding the next great company.

The feedback used to hit immediately and I carried it home every night. As a VC I can be wrong for a decade before I find out.