No.15: I quit my job, new thing & startup foie gras
Curated news and insights about entrepreneurs building real businesses and the investors who want to finance them.
Good morning people,
No, I didn’t forget you. Over the past weeks, I have been busy with some professional changes: I left my investment job to found a data analytics company for alternative investments called Betterfront. Together with 2 talented software engineers (Pung and Sergi), we are building an investment analytics platform which helps institutional investors (i.e. asset managers, pensions, endowments, family offices, etc…) complete due diligence of alternative investments 10x faster and with better data quality control. Want to know more? Check out www.betterfront.io. If you want to work with us or just share your feedback, feel free to reach out to me at michel@betterfront.io.
So what does it mean for Mereo? Well it means…
Publications will go from a weekly to a monthly basis. Good writing takes time and I can’t dedicate as much as time to it as I used to. I hope to be able to publish bi-weekly in the near future.
Expect some behind-the-scene about how we are building and running Betterfront.
Topics are the same same: bootstrapped entrepreneurs and the investor who want to finance them.
And now, back to our show…
The Foie Gras’ing Of Startups: Does Raising More VC Lead To Bigger Outcomes?
In a world of mega-rounds ($100m+), CB Insights looked at the relationship between the dollar amount a startup fundraised and its exit return. Its results challenge the generally accepted idea that more funding leads to better financial outcome.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
After IPO, the most highly funded startups tend to underperform those who raised less.
In fact, the companies that raised the most almost uniformly struggled to create long-term growth.
Plenty of companies that raised <$100M have seen top exits.
The biggest exits, backed by the deepest-pocketed investors, are returning less and less as foie gras’ing becomes more common — and more extreme.
Exceptions like Facebook (both lavishly funded and successful) tend to get most of the attention due to survivorship bias.
Notion Labs raised a $10m angel round … at $800m valuation
No typo here. Notion Labs, the collaboration and productivity app, raised an “angel round” of $10m to support its strong growth. Interesting decision to put in perspective with the CB Insights’ foie gras’ing of startups research. Notion COO Akshay Kothari per the NYT:
“We’re not anti-V.C.,” said Akshay Kothari, the company’s chief operating officer. “We’re just thinking for ourselves, rather than for them or other peers.”
Paul Graham on Twitter
And that is coming from YC’s cofounder. Just saying.
About Mereo
Mereo is a newsletter-driven publication about entrepreneurs building real businesses and the investors who want to finance them. Mereo is written by Michel Geolier, an entrepreneur and former venture investor based in Munich, Germany.
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