Benchmark Strategies’ Post

The venture capital landscape has transformed since Jeff Clavier founded Uncork Capital in 2004. What started as a one-man operation writing six-figure checks has grown into a thriving firm with billions in assets under management. To mark our 20th anniversary, Jeff Clavier and Andy McLoughlin sat down with Connie Loizos at TechCrunch to reflect on the industry's evolution and the changing rules of the game. Read the full article on TechCrunch to learn more about our journey and insights into the ever-changing world of venture capital. ⬇️   

The easiest way to obtain venture capital investment is to build something VCs want to invest in, starting at Day 0. These are businesses not typically started from the founder’s passion for a specific industry but rather deep, unique insight into a specific problem or are businesses that share the same meta-characteristics across industries. These meta-characteristics are derived from our "big data" analysis of 100s of deals made by VCs we have worked with, corroborated with public investment memos and blog posts from Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Initialized Capital, etc. ➡ Scroll through the carousel to discover a research methodology for business ideas with billion-dollar potential and build something VCs want to invest in, starting from the back-of-the-napkin stage. P.S. Special thanks to Max Pog’s research on venture studios, highlighting their success in obtaining venture funding compared to non-venture studio startups. ------------ ♻ Repost to help founders in and out of your network! 👉 Click the "Learn Our Process" link in my bio for exclusive information on what it takes to raise from top-tier VCs and spot and fix your investment blindspots to strategize, accelerate, or close your fundraising round.

Week 2 Recap: Last week, the UCI Venture Capital Society took an exciting dive into the world of venture capital. We kicked off with an interactive workshop that demystified the essence of VC—what it is, why it matters, and how it fuels innovation. We touched upon the history of venture capital, diving deep into the legacies of visionaries like Arthur Rock and Don Valentine, whose contributions were instrumental in shaping the startup landscape. Powerful comparisons between venture capital and other investment types were also drawn, highlighting the unique benefits and challenges associated with VC. Finally, the various stages of venture capital funding—from pre-seed and seed rounds to Series A and Series B—were discussed, providing a comprehensive roadmap of the funding journey for startups. This left our members with a deeper understanding of this niche industry, equipping them with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the complexities of venture capital. Huge shout out to Ayaan Dhir, our VP of professional development for hosting this workshop! Stay tuned for more insightful workshops as we continue to empower the next generation of venture capitalists!

My Top 5 → Venture Capital Starter Guide This week Last Money In Media put out the venture capital resource guide for those new or growing in the VC ecosystem. The goal of this guide is to provide a resource list for accredited investors, venture capitalists and anyone interested in the VC asset class. Check out my top 5 from getting started in VC below. If Only Five (Alex) … If I only had five resources to restart my VC journey, I’d “start” here: 1) Sydecar & AngelList - these platforms facilitate the administration of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and traditional funds and other software tools. Joining syndicates on these platforms can further your education in the venture capital domain and provide access to active deal flow. These are the platforms where tons of SPV deals are getting done for participation by individual accredited investors without the requirement of being a VC. 2) Angel by Jason Calacanis - a comprehensive guide authored by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Jason Calacanis, specifically designed for aspiring angel investors. This was one of the first books I read that 1) provided meaningful amounts of VC/angel investor context and 2) led me to syndicates :) 3) Crunchbase - a great tool to leverage as kind of a directory of previous fundraising activity. I am constantly engaging with Crunchbase to find recent companies a VC has funded and which VCs are on a companies’ cap table. I use this daily. 4) The Hard Things About Hard Things - written by Ben Horowitz, co-founder at Andreessen Horowitz, provides an amazing founder perspective, much of which contributed to the launch of a16z. Fwiw, this is my favorite book ever. 5) TechCrunch - leading publishing platform dedicated to covering the venture capital ecosystem, providing timely news and insights to stay informed about the latest developments in the industry. Really keeps you in the know on new deals being funded and macro changes in VC. -- Powered by Sydecar, Last Money In Media is the most actionable venture capital newsletter. Written by Zachary Ginsburg and Alex Pattis who have deployed >$200M across 750+ SPVs. Looking to invest into the VC asset class? Check out Deal Sheet, a paid product for those seeking the best private market SPV opportunities, and all at discounted carry. DM me to learn more.

Are you curious about the evolution of Venture Capital in the European market? Get ready to dive into insights like never before as we explore the future of VC with none other than STAR Ventures - a venture capital firm with a ravishing track record of nurturing over 180 category-leading technology companies since 1992! Our discourse offers an in-depth view through the lens of Star Ventures, acknowledged for creating value across a broad sector of emerging, early-stage and mid-stage companies. The brain behind this success, Founder Meir Barel, shares his own journey in shaping this powerhouse. Whether you're in Finance, Financial Services or Venture Capital, this close look at the crucial shifts and trends is bound to illuminate your perspective about the ever-changing landscape of VC. Dive in: https://lnkd.in/eVGqtEmX #VentureCapital #EuropeanMarket #Finance #StartUp #FutureTrends

Explore how Mantis Venture Capital, in collaboration with @TheChainsmokers, champions founders and leverages social capital to build a legacy in the Seed and Series A venture space.

The venture capital firm Cornerstone Ventures announced the opening of its second #fund, which has a $200 million target amount and a $50 million greenshoe option. According to a statement from Cornerstone Ventures, the fund would have a 12-year lifetime and offer customisable ticket sizes that range from $5 million to $15 million in a mix of early- to growth-stage #firms. With the most recent fund, it intends to invest in 15 to 20 firms. In 2019, the company launched its inaugural Cornerstone Ventures Fund-I, which had a $50 million budget. The capital was distributed among 21 portfolio businesses, with a primary emphasis on #business models involving B2B corporate software-as-a-service. Cornerstone Venture Partners (CSVP) Fund was founded by Abhishek Prasad and Rajiv Vaishnav, is a frontier enterprise SaaS VC Fund #investing in highly scalable enterprise technologies with a strong moat. The fund invests from pre-Series A to Series B. Nanika Kakkar Vatsal Bavishi Payal Punatar Doshi Shreyas Trivedi To share your startup story write us on - startup@viestories.com #cornerstoneventurepartners #venturecapital #investments

When launching Staircase Ventures almost two years ago, I foresaw a future venture capital landscape that would increasingly become a barbell, with mega funds able to write massive cheques at high valuations on one end, and small, focused funds that focus on adding significant value on the other end. The article below from The New York Times supports this thesis as it compares the Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark models. While Andreessen has $44 Billion under management and uses size to outbid other firms and get into companies such as GitHub and Clubhouse at rich valuations, Benchmark has raised the same size of fund for the past 20 years and wins the opportunity to invest in companies such as eBay, Cerebras, and 11x.ai based on its thought leadership, hustle, and hands-on involvement with its companies. These two different strategies require different team resources and skills, and can produce different results, both in terms of returns and stakeholder outcomes. I do not believe that one model is inherently better than the other, but it is important that venture capital firms make a clear choice as to where they want to play, as there will be limited room in the middle of the barbell. At Staircase Ventures, our strategy is to consistently raise the same size of funds and focus on investing in the very best companies, doing everything we can to improve their outcomes, and provide the very best returns for investors. We are not trying to raise successively larger funds; we are focused on investing in, and supporting, the very best companies, and delivering the very best returns for our investors.

How on Earth Does Venture Capital actually work? Are Venture Capitalists all mega- Billionaires ? (No, except for Dan Bowyer) Is VC only for caucasian men from Ivy League universities and Silicon Valley (No) Do you need to spend a lot of money to learn about Venture Capital? (No) What is an LP? (hint: it's not a vinyl record as rapped about by Ice-t) Venture Capital drives a lot of innovation- many of the companies you interact with every single day (including LinkedIN) were able to grow and thrive in part due to the support of VC. So how does it work? Fortunately the Newton Venture Program (supported by London Business School and LocalGlobe) have released a completely free online programme all about Venture Capital foundations. What is the catch? Just one- you need to put in the time to read, reflect, comment and learn. Sign up here and begin your journey into the exciting dynamic world of Alternative Capital: https://lnkd.in/dezSZDY8 Highly recommended. Strategy is Mastery. #strategy #venturecapital #alwaysbelearning