Will Clive

The Information just broke news that Marc Benioff is back to his #M&A shopping way with a $1B purchase of Own Company. While that seems like a lot of money it is actually a ~66% decrease from Own Company's last private round. One has to wonder, with the election so close, is this a bet that the Republican National Committee/party, with its business history and policies, will come out on top? Or is it simply a valuation too good to pass up and risk the regulatory headaches if the Democratic National Committee remains in power? What do you think? #management #venturecapital #privateequity #capitalmarkets #cybersecurity https://lnkd.in/ghKMJKTu

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Don't call it a comeback - growth equity deals on the rise again per PitchBook. From the attached article: "According to PitchBook’s latest US PE Breakdown, PE growth investments were on the rise in the first half of 2024, accounting for about 23% of all PE deals and surpassing leveraged buyouts, which made up 19%. That reverses a long-time trend. Growth investments in the first half of 2024 are already exceeding those from the whole of 2023, when they accounted for 20% of all PE deals." The heightened cost of capital is obviously driving a lot of this dynamic. However... it is interesting to note that PE funds are seemingly more willing to take minority stakes - a dynamic that is historically more from the VC playbook. The hard truth is that, even in a challenging funding and valuation environment, growth stage companies - both PE-backed and VC-backed - still offer large institutional investors a compelling return profile. A growth-potential profile not often available in the public markets. This dynamic alone will push PE and VC private market investment through and beyond the current challenges... Endeavor Colorado Zeb King Tegan Stanbach Kathryn Dickson #privateequity #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #innovation #founders #startups #investing https://lnkd.in/gKZKwXct

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The Information is out with breaking news about Bolt finalizing a $450M round at a whopping $14B valuation for their Series F. This is complete with Ryan Breslow returning as the CEO. While this fundraising is obviously impressive, the ultimatum is that existing investors "Have to buy at twice their existing positions at the higher valuation." Most egregious is their written threat of forcing the existing Preferred Shares into $0.01 common shares if they do not." It will be interesting to see how BlackRock and General Atlantic respond to this direct threat. #management #venturecapital #privateequity #fintech #capitalmarkets https://lnkd.in/eZZec5kT

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Rolling into another day of the Primary Summit. Hit me up if we should connect onsite. Kudos to the Primary Ventures team so far, as yesterday’s Pre-Seed Summit was on point. Mar Hershenson, Benjamin Sun, Chris Douvos, Zach Weinberg, and Graham Pingree all dropping helpful nuggets for fund managers. Some paraphrased highlights: - Chris Douvos (AHOY Capital) - Most fund decks are terrible. Start with your people (not your strategy) and know you have about 6 slides of his attention. - Zach Weinberg (Curie.Bio ) - beleives SF’s AI talent is a significant advantage over NY, wouldn’t build AI in NY. Also questions if VC exits can keep up with VC expansion (generally hilarious and smart Twitter follow) - Mar Hershenson (Pear VC) - VC is so much more competitive now. It’s not enough to be an ex-founder with a great network and domain expertise. Have a better “why you are different” or do something else! - Benjamin Sun (Primary Venture Partners)- still sees arbitrage in going long NY venture (vs. SF). Do the work to keep various influential networking nodes aware of what you’re doing and how you think.

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Interviewing hundreds of PE CEOs/execs over the last 15 yrs has taught me a lot about effective executive communication. The most effective communicators I've seen: 🔹Use short sentences and small words 🔹Adapt the message to fit the audience 🔹Lead w/ headline & support w/ details 🔹Answer closed-ended Q'swith a Y / N / # 🔹Use story strategically but don't overuse 🔹Recognize the power of metaphor (but don't overuse) 🔹Are comfortable being repetitive to drive home key ideas 🔹Check in with the receiver to see if the message is landing 🔹Understand how you say something is as important as what you say. 🔹Read the room, and know when they're selling past the close I'm working on making better use of a few of these learnings right now.

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Catch another episode of This Week in Startups where Upfront Managing Partner Mark Suster interviews Max Altman and Ben Braverman, two of the three co-founders of Saga Ventures. With Saga’s new $125 million fund, the trio talk about: ➡ Fundraising challenges the co-founders faced as a first-time fund and the playbook of how referrals can be the best leads for increasing the chances of success ➡ Nuances of determining a fund size to maintain competitive advantages in deal strategies ➡ Ben’s learnings from working with Ryan Peterson at Flexport as well as Max’s experience and unique advantages working with his brothers Jack and Sam Here's a short clip below about the attributes of successful founders that they look for, including those willing to take unconventional risks 👇

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It always blows my mind how... a tiny idea can spark a multi-billion dollar empire. This is the wild story of two students who took out a $4K loan to sell bagels & ended up founding a $70B software titan: Meet Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar - the unlikely billionaires behind Atlassian. In 2002, these two computer science graduates from the University of New South Wales had a simple idea: Create software to help students collaborate on university work. With just $4000 from a credit card, they transformed an old gas station into their first office. Their big plan? Sell bagels and beverages to fund the software dream. But the bagel business flopped, and they nearly went broke. Undeterred, they doubled down on software, creating tools for developers and IT teams. They trimmed the fat, focusing solely on their core software products - Jira for project management and Confluence for team collaboration. This lean, simplified approach allowed them to solve key customer problems with powerful yet user-friendly tools that developers loved. Their big break came in 2004 when Scandinavian company Autoliv decided to use Jira. Revenue hit $1 million - all from that single customer. From there, growth exploded: • 2007: 10,000 customers, $30m revenue • 2010: 20,000 customers, expanding to the US • 2015: IPO valued at $4.4 billion Fast forward to today: • Over 200,000 customers • $2 billion+ revenue • $70+ billion valuation The keys to their mind-boggling success? • Relentless drive and belief in their mission • Laser focus on solving real customer problems • Building core tools developers genuinely love using From a $4000 loan to global software titans. It's a neat story. Remember: relentless focus, simplicity, and smart use of limited resources can transform even a tiny investment into the next big deal. Join the 12,000+ leaders who get our weekly email newsletter.  https://lnkd.in/en9vxeNk

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