Key insights from Laura Tadvalkar

On recent advancements toward human health: “We’re seeing the incredible impact of GLP-1 drugs not only for weight loss and diabetes, but across multiple disease areas, including cardiovascular, fibrosis, liver disease and even, potentially, neurodegeneration.”

On the outlook of later-stage private rounds: “Today’s late-stage private rounds might be the last round before IPO but are often intended to fund the company through one or more significant data catalysts, so investors are looking for lower valuations to make sure they get paid for taking data and market risk.”

On her approach to identifying promising founders and companies: “We always look for the ‘killer application’ that a technology is uniquely positioned to solve – and make sure that companies are funded to meaningful value inflection points, plus some buffer – because science takes time!”

Read full commentary from Laura Tadvalkar

Key insights from Chris Ahn

On the significance of up rounds representing 65% of deals: “I think we’re still making our way through the impact of 2021 and early 2022, when there were low interest rates, high liquidity and, as a result, higher valuations.”

On his approach to risk management and mitigation strategies when investing: “Because each situation is unique, and there are no predetermined answers to these questions, it is paramount that founders and investors have a shared vision for the company to help guide them.”

On his perspective on the most effective monetization models for community-based ventures: “The tried-and-true method for monetizing open source has been to create a hosted version of the open-source project, build a sales team around this product and sell it as a subscription service.”

Read full commentary from Chris Ahn

Key insights from Bobby Yazdani

On underwriters’ ongoing hesitation to invest: “[C]oming off of 2022 and 2023, I think people are just gun-shy to underwrite investments. It’s an emotional reaction to two years of brutality. So, it’s not the lack of available capital – it’s more the emotions of the capital that’s involved.”

On growing as a leader and an investor: “Experiencing failures over the past 30 years, I had the opportunity to learn a lot. And that has helped me establish a methodology in terms of my selection and underwriting processes.”

On adding value to a professional environment: “I don’t want to occupy a room because I have the loudest voice. I want to occupy a room because I have something worthwhile to offer in terms of my knowledge and my know-how.”

Read full commentary from Bobby Yazdani

Key insights from Genevieve Kinney

On the initial public offering (IPO) markets as we look ahead to 2024: “We think some of the larger enterprise companies will wait on additional clarity in the economic environment to make moves on an IPO … we expect to see more significant activity in the early second half of 2024, as companies seek to go public in advance of the 2024 election and when we have another two quarters of economic data. Performance of public companies and the broader equity market will be key factors in companies’ willingness to go public; however, public investors will need to grapple with investment opportunities in undervalued stocks with proven track records and new issues that have – unfortunately – had spotty trading records when looking at recent IPOs. We think the bar is very high for companies that are looking to maximize value at IPO and maintain consistent trading performance, and those that aren’t in a rush will continue to wait it out until Q4 2024 or, more likely, 2025.” 

On the less-than-positive changes in the software as a service (SaaS) industry: “The democratization of the SaaS business model has enabled tech ecosystems to form and flourish around the world, but increased competition and investor sophistication has continued to make funding more difficult to obtain. The positive is that many companies in this newer SaaS cohort are stronger, more efficient and more profitable than those before them.”

On the trend of mid-stage rounds being down: “Market uncertainty over the fundamental stability of the economy, direction of monetary policy and outlook for corporate earnings have made mid-stage growth (particularly Series B) challenging to underwrite over the last six months. With limited execution proof points in the businesses, and a longer path to exit with an unclear view on where multiples stabilize, we have seen investors move in a barbell fashion to earlier, founder investments, or enter into later-stage businesses that may be doing down or structured rounds or offering secondary at a discount. In both cases, investors have been looking to mitigate their risk in either capital invested or valuation.”

Read full commentary from Genevieve Kinney

Key insights from Steve Harrick

On public financing in Q3 and Q4 2023: “There is still a lot of capital available that has been raised by venture funds, but it is a difficult deal environment when the last round prices were as high as they were in 2020 and 2021.”

On investor attitudes toward AI: “Our belief is that the value from artificial intelligence and machine learning will be enormous, but it will play out over the next several years.”

On investor reactions to market contraction: “What is different from some other cycles is – although the tourists have left, as they usually do when markets contract – the consistent venture practitioners raised a lot of money that will eventually need to find a home.”

Read full commentary from Steve Harrick