This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.
TWIST VC Roundtable: Startup Valuations, Secondary Markets & the YC Revenue Illusion | E2137
Today’s show: Alex moderates a TWIST VC Roundtable with Jason, Paige Doherty (Behind Genius), and Altimeter’s Megan Reynolds about the state of early-stage venture capital. They break down the rise of secondary markets as a key liquidity path for VCs, analyze the resurgence in M&A activity from major players like Meta, Databricks, and OpenAI, and question whether inflated ARR figures from YC startups are distorting valuations. Jason shares his year-zero investment thesis and offers tactical advice on secondary structuring and identifying high-quality revenue. Whether you're raising, investing, or building, this episode delivers essential insights into the evolving early-stage landscape.
Key Points
- The Y Combinator strategy of startups selling to other Y Combinator companies can create inflated revenue metrics that may not reflect genuine market demand.
- The secondary market for venture capital is maturing, offering an alternative liquidity option as M&A and IPO activities remain subdued.
- Seed valuations are being driven up by mega funds seeking large-scale investments, which can complicate portfolio strategies for smaller, early-stage investors.
Chapters
| 0:00 | |
| 0:23 | |
| 0:53 | |
| 1:28 | |
| 4:23 | |
| 7:27 | |
| 12:26 | |
| 20:06 | |
| 21:37 | |
| 25:17 | |
| 28:11 | |
| 30:10 | |
| 33:27 | |
| 37:14 | |
| 43:31 | |
| 52:00 | |
| 59:42 | |
| 1:06:41 | |
| 1:09:25 | |
| 1:10:58 |
Transcript
Loading transcript...
- / -