Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
VC Secret Decoder Ring
Search
Calibrate
September 21, 2018
Business
0
70
VC Secret Decoder Ring
Marcy Swenson
Calibrate
September 21, 2018
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Calibrate
See All by Calibrate
(2019 - 1 of 10) Opening Keynote: The Product Triangle
calibrate
0
190
(2019 - 2 of 10) Making the Unknown Manageable
calibrate
0
79
(2019 - 3 of 10) Why Great 1-on-1s Are Like Perfect Formula 1 Pit Stops
calibrate
0
120
(2019 - 4 of 10) How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Grow High-Performance Teams
calibrate
0
100
(2019 - 5 of 10) Reshaping the Leadership Model - How Introverts Are Redefining What it Means to Lead
calibrate
0
170
(2019 - 6 of 10) The Platinum Rule: Manage Others as They Need/Want to be Managed
calibrate
0
170
(2019 - 7 of 10) Building Impact Through Essentialism
calibrate
0
210
(2019 - 8 of 10) Lessons From the Trenches
calibrate
0
84
(2019 - 9 of 10) How to Keep Up Your Technical Skills Without Annoying Your Teams
calibrate
1
87
Other Decks in Business
See All in Business
株式会社ファンコミュニケーションズ|会社説明資料 / Company Deck
fancomi_career
0
1.1k
ベタートラップと夏
mosa_siru
8
3.5k
Management Workflow
dskst
2
400
採用ピッチデック
macloud
3
76k
Morght 会社紹介資料_LAST UPDATED 2025.7
morght
1
3.9k
株式会社TableCheck - 会社紹介 Company Profile
tablecheckac
0
950
{{ Fix~it~Fast }} How to ReSolve QuickBooks Enterprise Errors via Phone?
likoxe
0
120
VISASQ: ABOUT US
eikohashiba
15
510k
[2025年度] 株式会社ROUTE06 (ルートシックス) 会社紹介
route06
2
440
株式会社10X - Company Deck
10xinc
89
1.5M
Leading Mark新卒採用資料
unno
0
2.5k
SlackでDMを使わない方が いい理由を説明してみた
walkersumida
1
1.1k
Featured
See All Featured
Automating Front-end Workflow
addyosmani
1370
200k
Stop Working from a Prison Cell
hatefulcrawdad
271
21k
Documentation Writing (for coders)
carmenintech
72
4.9k
Connecting the Dots Between Site Speed, User Experience & Your Business [WebExpo 2025]
tammyeverts
8
340
Visualization
eitanlees
146
16k
実際に使うSQLの書き方 徹底解説 / pgcon21j-tutorial
soudai
PRO
181
54k
Code Review Best Practice
trishagee
69
19k
[RailsConf 2023 Opening Keynote] The Magic of Rails
eileencodes
29
9.6k
Intergalactic Javascript Robots from Outer Space
tanoku
271
27k
The Illustrated Children's Guide to Kubernetes
chrisshort
48
50k
Cheating the UX When There Is Nothing More to Optimize - PixelPioneers
stephaniewalter
282
13k
How GitHub (no longer) Works
holman
314
140k
Transcript
VC DECODER RING VC Secret Decoder Ring
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS
1. VC secret levers drive many decisions 2. what is
required for next fundraise? 3. how will your company exit? 4. insider info is powerful & dangerous VC DECODER RING
1. VC secret levers drive many decisions GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS VCs Promise *their* investors 12% yearly invested
over 10+ years VC DECODER RING 1.12^10 = 3.10 12% annual return fund length 3x return
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS $100M 10 year fund must return $300M
(3x) for the VC to raise another fund from LPs VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Startup Outcomes dead or zombie: 50% acquisition:
45% IPO: 5% VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS given that 50% fail the other 50%
have to return $300M+ VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS VC DECODER RING >3x 5% 2-3x 10%
1-2x 35% < 1x 50% VC Fund Returns
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS VC job: raise money invest in companies
push CEOs to grow/exit pay investors back at least 3x {repeat} VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS CEO job: vision & strategy great team
enough cash VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Investment Stages: angel / F&F Seed A
B C, D, … IPO or Acquisition VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS CEO under crazy pressure to grow VC
DECODER RING
2. What is required for next fundraise? GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Why is my CEO asking for more
& faster revenue & more users? VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Why is my CEO asking me to
ignore tech debt & hack together features? VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Why is my CEO asking me to
cut costs *while* building more features? VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Why is my CEO asking me to
“make it social”? VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Why am I spending cycles on an
integration with this lame partner? VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS How do I explain all this to
MY team? VC DECODER RING
3. How will your company exit? GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS possible exits… dead or zombie: 50% acquisition:
45% IPO: 5% VC DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Does partner XYZ have “strategic value”? VC
DECODER RING
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS Diligence looks like: • meetings w/key staff
• senior people OOO • requests for tech docs • hiring freeze • no decisions VC DECODER RING
4. Insider info is powerful & dangerous GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS
GROWING YOUR HAPPINESS