Johan de Wit’s Post

Accelerating Innovation, One Venture at a Time Whether you’re co-creating with startups or engaging in corporate ventures, we help you accelerate growth. https://hubs.ly/Q02PWSvg0

When it comes to exit strategy, an IPO is the ultimate goal. But startups are 16x more likely to get acquired than go public, and in many scenarios, acquisitions can be a more favorable outcome. TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 held a panel assessing when to know the right time to sell your company. General partner of Battery Ventures, Dharmesh Thakker created a framework to analyze your startup's positioning. When contemplating the right time to sell, Thakker says it's essential to evaluate your exit strategy in the context of your funding options. Understanding when to sell and how to navigate funding can position your startup for success - whether you’re aiming for an acquisition/exit or planning your next steps. Learn more about navigating startup funding rounds and how they relate to your exit path below 👇 https://lnkd.in/gAAQPwmJ Watch the Tech crunch panel here👇: https://lnkd.in/dHevJTdN 

I had a fantastic time at Startup Grind Global, joining Cristina Apple Georgoulakis and Aidan Madigan-Curtis for a conversation on entering the venture capital industry. I like reflecting on my journey into venture capital because it still inspires the way I work with founders today. Before I became an investor, I scaled teams, infrastructure, and products on the other side of the table, raising a total of 16 rounds of funding across several startups before being asked to run the fund at Microsoft. Having a long background as an operator prepared me to be a valuable advisor to my portfolio companies. And one of the most important lessons that aspiring venture capitalists should know? Don't get in your founder's way - let them succeed. #StartupGrind #VC #womeninVC #womenintech

🚀 Most Active VC Firms Based in San Francisco San Francisco has long been a hub of innovation, where cutting-edge startups flourish and venture capital firms provide the fuel for their growth. Home to some of the world's most prominent venture capitalists, this iconic city boasts a diverse landscape of firms that have been instrumental in shaping the global startup ecosystem. From funding groundbreaking technology companies to nurturing future unicorns, these firms represent the pinnacle of venture capital activity: - 500 Global - Bain Capital Ventures - Benchmark - Bessemer Venture Partners - First Round Capital - Founders Fund - Index Ventures - Initialized Capital - Liquid 2 Ventures - Matrix - Menlo Ventures - Right Side Capital Management - Slow Ventures - Soma Capital - Spark Capital - SV Angel 📧 For more details on each investor, check out our article in Startup Researcher NAI, and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter. #usa #sanfrancisco #venturecapital #vcfirms

A few months into building Roots, it became clear that we needed to fire our 3rd co-founder in order to move forward. It was one of the hardest things we had to do. The thing that made it easier? Our Managing Director/Partner from Forum Ventures, Whitney, was in the room with us and held our hand every step of the way. Since joining Forum last month, people have been asking me what makes us different from YC/Techstars/other accelerators. It's this emphasis on the Managing Director <> Founder relationship and how close you become with one another. Whitney was someone who had built and scaled startups before, who knew the challenges we would face, and she was in the trenches with us every single day helping us navigate more than just GTM and fundraising. Former founders helping founders - that's Forum down to its core. The experience inspired me to become a MD, and a MD for Forum specifically, because I wanted to give founders that same level of support that Douglas and I received back in 2018 - when we were sitting in a conference room stressing about the most difficult situation we had faced to date (both personally and professionally). If you're an early-stage founder and you're looking for an investor that will be there for you when shit hits the fan, I cannot recommend Forum highly enough: https://www.forumvc.com/ #startups #founder #accelerator #hardthings #startupstories

Zendesk has launched Zendesk Ventures, a venture capital initiative led by Ben Barclay, Zendesk’s Senior Vice-President of Strategy, Corporate Development, and Transformation. Tom Eggemeier, CEO of Zendesk, indicated substantial funding from the company’s balance sheet for this initiative. Zendesk Ventures focuses on investing in AI startups that enhance Zendesk's customer service platform. The initiative targets seed-stage investments, typically ranging from $500,000 to $1 million per deal. The portfolio includes Zuper and Observe.AI, alongside recent additions like PolyAI and unitQ, reflecting Zendesk's commitment to advancing AI-driven customer service solutions. #ZendeskVentures #AIStartups #CustomerService #VentureCapital #Innovation #startup77

Discover why SaaS startups receive high valuations and how to determine startup valuations from veteran angel investor KRS Jamwal, Executive Director at Tata Industries Limited . Gain valuable knowledge on navigating the evolving landscape of angel investments. Watch the full webinar here: https://lnkd.in/gyFDVne4 #TataIndustries #KRSJamwal #AngelInvesting #IANGroup

Do VCs truly invest in early-stage companies or just advertise it?   #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #VCBehavior 🤔 Stupid question: VCs behave differently than they advertise? So, I recently had a confusing encounter with a VC partner who seemed to be interested in pre-seed/seed stage startups, but brushed off our pitch when we mentioned we were raising a seed round. Has anyone else experienced this disconnect between what VCs say they're looking for and how th... Source: https://lnkd.in/gur4cyjS #mymetric360

Only 1% of VC-backed start-ups become unicorns like Uber, Airbnb and Slack 🦄 VCs focus on identifying startups with the potential for extremely high returns. These investments might be riskier but offer the possibility of becoming extremely valuable since a single "home run" investment can return the entire fund, offsetting losses from less successful portfolio companies. But Venture Studios focus on entire portfolio success. 📈 Out of 10 Studio startups, 8-9 become dragon companies and the 1-2 slow runners don't fail but pivot. This allows Venture Studios to minimize capital waste and bring steady and long-term growth, enhancing the investment value of the entire portfolio. This is why at Venturerock we don’t chase unicorns – we build dragons. 🐉 #VentureStudios #StartupStudio #Venturerock #VentureBuilder #DragonCompanies #Unicorns #investment #StartupEcosystem #StartupSuccess

How early-stage startups are raising capital and takeaways for the future. HubSpot for Startups surveyed 500+ early-stage startup founders across Europe and the US to share their real-world experiences with fundraising. The data and insights include: ▪ Investor criteria detailing what investors are looking for in startups ▪ Successful strategies used by startup founders to connect with, track, and manage investor relationships ▪ Top tech stacks used by startups to manage investor relations ▪ Data on leading funding sources based on funding stage ▪ Most impactful metrics used by investors when making investment decisions based on funding stage ▪ Fundraising benchmarks by stage ▪ Insights from in-depth interviews with VCs, independent investors, and startup founders #stateoffundraising #techentrepreneurs #business #startup #techstartups #saasstartups #aistartups #startupfounders #entrepreneurs #funding #startupchallenge #startupgrowth #fundingstrategies #startupsuccess #earlystagestartups #scaleups #techfounders #fundraisingchallenge #startupjourney #startupfunding #venturecapital #vc #investors #fundraising #seedinvestment #seriesa #seedfunding #seedround #seedcapital #angelinvestors #investmentstrategies #stateofthemarket #investmentopportunities #investorawareness #venturefunding #venturecapitalists #angelinvestment #bridgeloans #2024trends #2025outlook #preseed #seed #marketsnapshot #fundingnews #fundingoptions #foundersadvice #foundersinsights #venture #vcinsights #marketstats #startupworld #capitalraising #vcfunding #globalvc #venturestats #vctrends #hubspot #researchreport #2024report #startupecosystem #techstack #startupfinancing #privateequity #scalingbusiness #scalingup #scaleups #keymetrics #gtm #gotomarket #gtmstrategy #benchmarks #investorpitch #investorrelationships #surveyreport #businessandmanagement #foundersjourney #venturemarket #startupcapital #annualreport