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- No GPs Allowed ⚡ #10
No GPs Allowed ⚡ #10
Zehra Naqvi
June 12, 2024
TLDR from Z
I started No GPs Allowed ~3 months ago with the goal of finally creating a value-add and fun-to-read VC news newsletter. We started with 1000 subscribers, and we now have over 10,000. Thanks for being part of the journey! Your support means everything to me!
We’re in the last few weeks before the GPs head to Europe for their summer vacations throughout July & August (maybe not all of them, but most of them). Based on what I’ve observed, these next few months are critical for the Series A’s that’ll happen in the fall. I, for one, am locking in during this time and deepening my consumer tech theses/philosophy.
VC News
Most important! 🚨 Photo-sharing app BeReal acquired by Voodoo for €500mn
Consumer is actually thriving, says Glossier, Away, Farmer’s Dog-backer Forerunner Ventures
Vinod Khosla, Marc Andreessen And The Billionaire Battle For AI's Future from Alex Konrad
Adapt or die: Is the future bright for business amidst the AI boom?
Continuation funds have roughly doubled their quarterly exit activity, enduring as a viable liquidity solution for PE firms. The rigid exit environment has prompted GPs to launch continuation funds to provide more flexible timing for portfolio company exits, offer liquidity to existing investors, and grant secondary access to new investors. Exits increased from 13 in Q1 2023 to 27, according to PitchBook’s Q1 2024 Global Private Market Fundraising Report.
Shopify acquires Threads (no, not that one)
Lyft CEO David Risher has a turnaround plan for the company—and Minneapolis’s new wage minimums are not part of it: a year into the job, the rideshare CEO shares how he turned the company cash-flow positive and why he may pull out from Minneapolis.
The workers are not alright: Most employees are quiet quitting and it’s costing the global economy nearly $9 trillion a year
How Urvashi Barooah broke into venture after everyone told her she couldn’t
OpenAI promised to give us ‘Her.’ Apple’s AI is giving us Gary from ‘Veep’
ZN’s POV: I like Deel!
What ’80s movies got right and wrong about living with AI: the decade that brought us ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Terminator’ had a lot of ideas about how AI would factor into our lives. Some of them proved more accurate than others.
Fundraising News
Mistral secures €600mn funding as valuation soars to almost €6bn
Greylock Leads $36 Million Financing for Cybersecurity Startup Seven AI: new company uses artificial intelligence to help enterprises combat cyberattacks
Ex-Struck Capital investing head Greg Stofman pursues $30M seed fund
Anterior grabs $20M from NEA to expedite health insurance approvals with AI
VC Sheel Mohnot leads $4.3M seed in automated financial reporting fintech InScope
Griffin Gaming Partners targets $500M for downsized fund III
YC grad, RetailReady raises $3.3M for an AI warehouse app that hopes to save brands billions
Foresite Capital raises $900M sixth fund for investing in healthcare and life sciences companies
Consumer-Specific News - this section is starting to get too long so I’m going to focus on the top 5 pieces of info re: consumer news going forward. If you’d like ALL of the consumer news, subscribe to my other newsletter Fan Behavior.
Regulate the Runway? Maxine Bédat on Fashion’s Excess and the Future
ZN’s POV: yuck. Art will always be human-led. How boring will it become if we could just use AI to generate any type of media we want and have no unpredictability, no sitting at the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next, no raging at the end of the movie if you aren’t satisfied? LMK if you disagree.
more: Ashton Kutcher Is Getting Dragged For His Comments About Making Whole Movies With AI
The Delicate Art of Turning Your Parents Into Content: gen Z creators are learning the lessons of Scorsese and Akerman: putting mom and dad in your work brings pathos, complexity, and a certain frisson.
How CoComelon Captures Our Children’s Attention: the animation juggernaut is now streamed for billions of hours each year, including on Netflix and its own YouTube channel. Should we be worried about that?
New York Passes Bill to Make the Restaurant Reservation Black Market Illegal
ZN’s POV: download my friends’ app TableOne. It gives you insane notifications for resy’s at hard to get restaurants in NYC.
Who Is a ‘Rodent Man’? A new term has cropped up to describe the faces of certain Hollywood actors, prompting many conversations — especially among the Styles team.
Kardashian-Endorsed Teeth Whitening Company Accused of False Ads
ZN’s POV: if you’ve been on Tiktok at all in the last year I’m positive that you’ve come across one of the aggressive ads from HiSmile promoting their purple-toothpaste technology for teeth whitening. I’ve always felt those ads push it a bit too far and lo and behold: a lawsuit and the Kardashians are involved, again)
Civilization 7 is launching in 2025: after a long wait, Firaxis has officially unveiled the next iteration of the Civilization franchise.
Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan Saw a Gap in Pop, and Filled It: two pure pop songs, “Espresso” and “Good Luck, Babe!,” may give the aspiring stars behind them a boost from music’s middle class to the big time.
ZN’s POV: two rising pop-stars you should know about!
Charli XCX Toys with Stardom on “BRAT”: the artist has often treated pop music as a game—something to play with so she doesn’t get bored, and something that reliably creates winners and losers.
‘Inside Out 2’ Eyes $135M Global Opening As Summer Box Office Rebound Continues
Rihanna’s Fenty Hair Care Collection: An Honest Review
Niche Internet-Lore
Marc Jacobs, yes fashion brand Marc Jacobs, has been hiring viral meme-creators to recreate their memes decked out in Marc Jacobs products. This started as a silly coincidence, with a few videos popping up every now and then but if check out the Marc Jacobs Tiktok page, every single video is a recreation of a somewhat (maybe niche) viral meme. Does this new marketing strategy really work on Gen-Z? Look at the comments on the videos, I think they do.
Tweets to Think About
BeReal was acquired for €500M by Voodoo, a leading hybrid / hypercasual games company, which at first glance seems expensive for a social app who’s downloads have dropped off. However BeReal has almost 20M DAUs, users who clearly are sticky. As Voodoo is transitioning away from… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Amy Wu (@amytongwu)
4:31 PM • Jun 11, 2024
Paul Graham on how writing enhances your thinking.
— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi)
1:29 AM • Jun 6, 2024
onchain social is better
— jacob (@js_horne)
4:56 PM • Jun 11, 2024
VC & Startup Theses (or tips)
Talia Goldberg’s: Valuing early stage companies - easily digestible TLDR on how Talia/Bessemer values an early-stage startup
Talia Goldberg + Alex Sukin’s: Distribution and conversion models for consumer startups.
“We often describe breakout consumer internet businesses as earthquakes that occur out of nowhere, and are so powerful they feel like forces of nature and movements that are bigger than the brands themselves. But what powers the tectonic shifts that create these earthquakes? Distribution and conversion. Success or failure for internet businesses is dependent on these two metrics.”
Pear VC’s Head of Talent Matt Birnbaum: How to structure startup equity for early hires
Generative AI tools for startup marketing via Signal Fire
How Limited Partner Scrutiny Has Changed Since 2021: a venture capitalist talks about what it takes to raise a fund now. One tip: don’t forget the case study
Investor Feature: Georgina McMillan
How and why did you want to become a VC? Growing up in San Francisco, I was fortunate to spend my high school and college summers interning at various startups. My first internship ever was at a crowdsourced shopping app called The Hunt where I learned about digital customer acquisition and fell in love with the science of consumer behavior. An early mentor of mine, Mary Miller, recognized this and gave me the opportunity to scout for TSG Consumer Partners where my job was to source and research emerging consumer companies for the firm. There, I got a glimpse into how investment frameworks were built, and from that point on, I became obsessed with the idea of a job that rewards high levels of curiosity. There are not many other jobs I can think of where you get to talk to and work with such a variety of domain experts and learning from them is truly a privilege.
What’s your investment philosophy in 5 words? Still learning, ask me later :)
Strangest place you’ve met a founder? On a dune buggy in Portugal!
#1 tip for folks trying to break into VC & new VCs? Growing up, my aunt had this quote by Dorothy Parker hanging in her kitchen: "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." It always stuck with me. Be a ravenous consumer of information and tech content from books to blogs to podcasts to newsletters. Share what you’ve learned but don't stress about proving what you know or having a distinct perspective right away. Building true perspective and taste takes time and should be an ongoing process of questioning and refinement. Instead, use curiosity as a tool. Approach every interaction and experience as a chance to learn something new. People love talking about themselves, so rather than focus on what people can do for you, use the information you gather to build a network and add value to your peers, founders, and partners. You’ll be surprised at how willing and proactive people will be in helping you.
Investor you admire most? Talia Goldberg - I absolutely love how she thinks about distribution across software and consumer internet. I reference her “Consumer internet: get rich or die tryin’?” piece at minimum 10 times a day.
Quick note from Z: I love Georgie! She’s my other half on Headline’s consumer team.
Coming in two weeks! 1 GP Allowed will be the monthly premium version of No GPs Allowed. This is a deeply intentional, focused interview.
Break into VC: Jobs
Full-time Investor
Stripes is hiring a Consumer Investor. Apply here!
FJ Labs is hiring an investor. Apply here!
Cowboy Ventures is hiring an Investment Associate. Apply here!
Compound is hiring an investor. Apply here!
Unshackled Ventures is hiring an Investment Analyst. Apply here!
Commerce Ventures is hiring a Senior Associate. Apply here!
Fin Capital is hiring an Investment Analyst. Apply here!
Fin Capital is hiring an Investment Associate. Apply here!
Capital Factory is hiring an associate. Apply here (Dallas)
Flourish Ventures is hiring an investment associate. Apply here!
Pear VC is hiring an Investment Associate - AI and Enterprise. Apply here!
Entrepreneur First is hiring multiple Analysts/Associates. Apply here!
Full-time Platform
Expanding Capital is hiring an intern. Apply here!
Northzone is hiring a Platform Summer Intern. Apply here!
igniteXL Ventures is hiring a Summer Analyst. Apply here!
VC $$$
You can drop your salary details here (anonymously) to be shared in future editions. VC compensation is an exceptionally opaque part of the “breaking into VC” process. This section aims to act as: a reference for you as you negotiate your salary and to showcase just how different compensation is across fund size, titles, and more.
Title: Senior Associate
Fund Size: $100-500M
Base Salary: $150,000
Cash Bonus: $0
Carry: 1%
Events (for VCs)
tuesday 6/18
for who: consumer founders + investors
hosted by: Zehra
monday 6/24
for who: founders + VCs celebrating pride month :)
hosted by: Zehra
tuesday 6/25
for who: b2b founders + investors
hosted by: Zehra
thursday 6/26
Female Founders & Investors Breakfast
for who:
hosted by: Zehra
post nytw later in june!
The Future of Consumer Social: Panel
for who: consumer social nerds
hosted by: Zehra
monday - wednesday 7/15 to 7/17
Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2024 Conference
for who: founders, investors, operators
hosted by: Fortune
I’ll be speaking on a panel at this conference! It’s in Park City in July :)
wednesday 7/17
hosted by: Madison & Claudia (The Room Podcast)
Wanted to dedicate this edition of The Z List’s friend’s section to the Inside Summit, happening on July 17th in NYC. As a part of The Room Podcast community, I’m super excited to extend 20% off tickets for a limited time (use code: ZEHRA20) Inside Summit is going to be the tech event of the summer - and very different from any other conference you've been to. Here's some of what you will experience at Inside Summit:
Founder & funder matching for those fundraising or looking to build their network
Founder-to-founder buddy matching for founders to make new friends and mentors (make founder friends that are a stage ahead of you)
Vendor & customer warm introductions
Small-group conversations & workshops oriented around tactical topics that aren’t happening anywhere else
Free headshots
Goodie-bag full of products from some of the hottest DTC brands
Consumer brand “market” access
After-party with open bar & bites
Resources: Discounts + Tools
Need an EA but can’t afford one? Howie is the fastest and most responsive scheduling assistant on earth. You can email him anytime to set up meetings and coordinate your calendar.
Wanna start a newsletter? I use Beehiiv for all three of my newsletters. Cannot recommend enough.
Wanna sell digital products that actually convert? I’ve been working with Michael and Faisal for a couple of months now. Pillar is an all-in-one creator store that actually converts. You can offer lead magnets, sell digital products + appointments w/ Apple Pay checkout, and even boost deal flow with their brand deal funnel. It’s like LinkTree, Calendly, Kajabi, and Clickfunnels in one. Click to get 1 month free + your 1st lead magnet made for you in Canva by their team!
