Good morning 👋
I have spent the past 48 hours reconfiguring a fund model to align portfolio construction to my vision.
In other words, my brain is cooked.
So instead of breaking down a middle-of-the-fairway venture article, I’d rather break down a more macro idea from one of the smartest people I have found on the internet.
Here goes …
ICYMI: 🎧 In lieu of spending dollars on paid ads … we’re giving away a pair of Airpods Pro 2 to one lucky reader.
Whoever refers the most new subscribers this quarter (ending June 30) will win a brand new pair of Airpods on us.
Today’s highlights
The distraction death spiral
Why the liquidity crunch is here to stay
AI bottlenecks
Figma is planning to IPO
TOP
Death by a thousand notifications 📵
Not a venture article, but this is the best thing I’ve read this week.
Here’s how this goes in our line of work:
Person locks themself away in order to focus and create something of value (software, content, ideas, etc.)
Once said thing becomes share-worthy, person shares it with the world
Person gets flooded with new opportunities in the form of feedback, flattery, criticism, inbound requests, and more
The new flood of inputs clouds the person’s mind and fragment their internal focus
The inputs that got the person the traction in step 1 (locking away and blocking distractions) are gone and replaced by the opposite (information overload)
Growth creates drag. Attention creates entropy.
Some of the brightest minds are the most isolated individuals.
There is a reason for that.
COMMUNITY
“70% of the deals I sourced last year came through investors I met through this community.”
Here’s a list of things tier-one investors have access to:
Good background knowledge and an understanding of how venture dynamics work
A source of good deal flow so that you see founders first
An elite investor network that you can share notes, deals, and other information with
Mental frameworks to understand company building, scale, and what makes a good vs. great investment
Connections to other high-quality people that become future co-workers or portfolio company employees
Usually that takes 5 years minimum (at least for us), but usually it takes even longer.
That’s why we built this - to speed up the onramp for private investors serious about giving themselves an advantage in the venture game.
2,500 other investors from places like Bessemer, Insight, Accel, and Founders Fund already use it, and we think you should too.
TWEET
HEADLINES
Why there’s no end in sight for venture’s liquidity crisis (Pitchbook)
Want to raise a new VC fund? That 10-year IRR better be in the double digits (Pitchbook)
Hans Swildens of Industry Ventures on the ways VCs are ‘manufacturing’ liquidity in 2025 (TechCrunch)
Figma ignores the fear, files paperwork for an IPO (TechCrunch)
RECS
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You can get started on their free plan at no cost, but if you’re looking for all of their best features …
LINKS
🌱 Seed-Strapping vs Boot-Scaling in the AI Native Era: Comparison of different approaches to building and funding a company and why AI has tilted the board heavily towards seed-strapping
🤨 Exceptional Management: The challenge for so many leaders is to stop being seduced into managing to the exception
⁉️ My Bottleneck with AI: Tomasz Tunguz says the structuring of ideas and questions in a way to succeed with AI is a limiting factor
🦄 What Sets Unicorn Founders Apart? It’s (Still) the Technical Chops: Technical expertise remains the biggest differentiator between unicorn founders and their peers
💬 Thoughts of Seedstrapping: Venture dynamics have changed and founders can do more with less
REFER
Win a free pair of Airpods Pro …
Refer more than other readers between now and June 30, and we’ll send you a pair on the house👇
MEMOS
Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.
Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.
- Clay
(Founder @ Confluence.VC | GP @ Outlaw)
