📶 the VC talent wars

More big-name VCs are leaving their funds, a16z sets up in Japan, and Grok 2 goes anti-woke

August 16, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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Good morning 👋

The VC talent wars are heating up, and this summer has had a ton of movement at top firms.

In just the past two months, we’ve seen Alex Cook leave Tiger, Lauri Moore leave Bessemer, Spencer Peterson leave Bedrock, and Amanda Robson leave Cowboy.

We’re not time travelers, but we expect this trend to continue (partially why we started our talent business).

Let’s get into the rest of the stories you need before you head off to the weekend.

P.S. Another deal flow report is going out Sunday night …

If you want to start seeing all the startups we are looking at plus our thoughts on why we like them …

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HEADLINES
The war for VC talent 🔫

From Lauri Moore to Vic Singh, venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs (TechCrunch)
General Catalyst Invests $120 Million Into Startup Focused on U.S. Manufacturing (WSJ)
NEA leads round for ex-Google AI exec Anna Patterson’s stealth startup (Pitchbook)
Andreessen Horowitz to open Japan office for funding startups (Nikkei)
Elon Musk’s xAI defies ‘woke’ censorship with controversial Grok 2 AI release (Venturebeat)

LINKS

🎓 Emerging VC Fundraising—The Influence of Educational Backgrounds: An analysis of 25 US-based firms that closed Fund I in 2023-2024

🧐 Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Octopus Ventures invited a group of CEOs to discuss this “taboo” subject

♟️ How to Hire World-Class Talent When You Don’t Have Facebook’s Budget: Top-tier talent doesn’t require deep pockets if you have the right strategy in place

🕵️‍♂️ Strategies for Optimal Follow-On Investments: Data-driven VC brings the best practices from hundreds of fund managers

🏁 Your Definitive Guide to Annual Planning, Part I—Where Do I Start?: The data you need to start the annual planning process

☀️ Persist and a Break Will Come: When the path seems darkest, you may be closer to breakthrough than you think

📶 Amir Kabir (Partner @ AV8 Ventures) On the 4 Things That Matter to VCs: Listen to how Amir Kabir finds product-market fit as an insurtech business and looks for honesty when evaluating founding teams

"If it hurts to hear it, look for the truth in it.
If it comforts to hear it, look for the lie in it."
@naval
— Navalism (@NavalismHQ)
7:11 AM • Aug 10, 2024

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FUNDS

Name	Fund Size	Fund Number
Stonepeak	$3.15b	I
TPG	$580m	I
Flint Capital	$160m	III
Thrive Capital	$1b	IX
Thrive Capital	$3b	III
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners	$3b	V

P.S. 👉 If you’re looking to get a new VC job …

We’ve found the best way to do that is to find the jobs before they become available. In our opinion, the best way to do that is to a) find who is raising funds and b) find who is the right person to contact at each of those funds.

Lucky for you, we’ve already collected all of that information for you.

Here’s how to see all the information we have on funds (plus contact info)

RECS

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