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Good morning 👋
And happy Friday. What a week.
If you haven’t already done so, check out the P.S. link below.
We’re doing our annual VC comp survey in a few weeks, and we could use your help. If you’re an investor and you could take 35 seconds to answer, we would really appreciate it.
P.S. 💰 Are you a full-time investor AND do you want to get paid more?
Today’s highlights
Chemistry launches debut fund
The little tech agenda
A pet-focused VC fund
The genius way that Rolls Royce made its engineers accountable
Small talk bingo 🤢
TOP
Chemistry has officially raised $350 million for its debut fund, signaling the launch of a new player in venture capital. We wrote about the rumors a few months back, but now it’s official.
The fund is led by three veterans: Mark Goldberg (formerly Index Ventures), Kristina Shen (ex-General Partner at a16z), and Ethan Kurzweil (Bessemer Venture Partners alum).
The fund was 2x oversubscribed, and their investment focus will be on early-stage software across fintech, infrastructure, and developer tools. Each partner plans to lead 2-3 deals per year, with a promise that all three partners will be hands-on in every investment.
Why it matters: The fundraising market is still hot garbage, so any time a first-time fund like this gets raised, you should ask yourself “how?”. Here are a few takeaways we had from the news:
Track records >: LPs are putting more and more of an emphasis on distributions, and proven track records are making it a LOT easier for LPs to take you seriously.
Hands-on is the new hands-off: The pledge that all three partners will actively work on every investment bucks the trend of large, generalized funds with distant oversight. This model could appeal to founders looking for operational support without red tape.
Expect more combined spinouts: We’ve seen a few solo GPs spinout of established funds to start their own, but it is more rare to see multiple ex-partners spinout at the same time to launch their own fund.
What happens next: A few things to watch as Chemistry starts deploying capital:
More focus, fewer deals: With each partner only expected to lead a few deals per year, Chemistry will have to be selective and concentrated in its approach. This isn’t going to be a spray-and-pray strategy—it’s more about high conviction (and founders love working with high-conviction funds).
A test for the new normal: If they’re successful, Chemistry could set a new blueprint for future fund launches - smaller teams, sector focus, and hands-on involvement. This is a far cry from the traditional model of VCs spread too thin, and it could set a new standard for emerging managers.
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LINKS
🗺 Venture Market Maps: A collection of some of the best market maps from venture funds
🤔 11 Inconvenient Truths I Don’t Want To Forget: Dickie Bush is seeking inconvenient truths over comforting lies
🇺🇸 The Little Tech Agenda: Andreessen Horowitz makes the case for an American government that actually wants startups to succeed and new industries to flourish would drive enormous increases in the standard of living of regular Americans, and underwrite many more decades of American technology, economic, military strength
🧭 Navigating New Waters—10 Tips for First-Time Founder Success: Tactical advice from seasoned founders like Thumbtack’s Marco Zappacosta and Dropbox’s Drew Houston about the biggest mistakes to avoid as a first-time startup founder
🏰 How To Build an IP Fortress Overview: Pillar VC shares that the wrong approach can ruin your company and the right approach can be worth millions
TWEET
HEADLINES
General Catalyst announces Fund XII (GC)
DuckDuckGo will be making more early-stage investments in privacy-focused startups (TechCrunch)
Andreessen Horowitz is renting a bunch of Nvidia GPUs to its portfolio companies (TechCrunch)
Pet-focused Vetted Capital targets $150M+ first-time VC fund (Pitchbook)
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- Clay
RESULTS
Here are the results from our poll question in yesterday’s piece:
Does your boss dress better or worse than Zuck?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Better - it would be hard to work for somebody dressed worse (4)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Worse - why am I working this job? (1)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 You guys have bosses? (4)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Don't care - let me see (2)
11 Votes
