TLDR from Z

I curated the top 5% of New York Tech Week events that you have to attend earlier last week in The Z List. You can check out the list here. (32 of the 590+ events hosted).

After visiting SF a few times, I can safely say the epicenter of consumer investing, building, and opportunity is 90% in NYC.

IMO: OpenAI did to Kumon what Netflix did to Blockbuster with its various announcements over the past few days.

Last (but not least) if you’re based in Chicago, LMK! I’m going to be spending some more time there in the next few months and hosting a few get togethers for investors + founders.

VC News

• Why investors are starting to take Pinterest seriously (written by my friend Anita)

• Andreessen Horowitz partner says Google is an ‘amazing example’ of employing people in ‘BS jobs’: ‘Half the white-collar staff probably does no real work’

• Two rival hacker houses, both claiming the name “AGI House,” have attracted the attention of Silicon Valley’s biggest names. Now, their estranged owners are fighting to unseat one another in a brutal battle for supremacy.

• 2024 return forecast calls for venture capital to deliver annual returns of 9.2% over [JP Morgan’s] 10- to 15-year investment horizon, up from 8.5% in last year’s edition. Read the report here.

• Venture capital firms enjoyed a windfall in 2021 and 2022, with assets under management swelling 58% from $2.4 trillion to $3.8 trillion. But one of the principal drivers of that growth, fundraising, isn’t projected to recover to recent highs until well after 2028, according to a recent PitchBook analyst note.

• How Venture Capitalists Are Using Podcasts to Lure in Founders: Instead of performing the usual courtship rituals, newcomers and veterans alike are tapping into their audio fame to land the next unicorn. “The product becomes the people,” says one venture insider. “It’s a very different way of looking at the world.”

• AI Startups Are Making Their Home in New York. Can They Turn It Into an AI Powerhouse? A new class of startups is setting up shop in NYC instead of Silicon Valley, hoping to tap its concentration of businesses ready to buy AI applications

• David Sacks reveals Glue, the AI company he’s been teasing on his All In podcast

Fundraising News

• GV’s youngest-ever partner, Terri Burns, launches her own firm (Type Capital) that aims to avoid one of venture capital’s most common pitfalls

• Autonomous, AI-based players are coming to a gaming experience near you, and a new startup, Altera, is joining the fray to build this new guard of AI agents which raised $9 million in an oversubscribed seed round, co-led by First Spark Ventures (Eric Schmidt’s deep-tech fund) and Patron (the seed-stage fund co-founded by Riot Games alums).

• Paris-based VC firm Blisce launches climate tech fund with a target of $160M

• PitchBook is tracking over 10,000 funds currently trying to raise money, and 45% of them are emerging fund managers, defined as a firm with less than three funds. Those funds are duking it out for a mere 16% of the total capital that limited partner investors will spend on venture capital, according to PitchBook, down from about 23% for the decade that ended in 2019, before the pandemic-era VC frenzy years.

• Accel has a fresh $650M to back European early-stage startups

• B2B food e-commerce startup Pepper nabs $30 million led by ICONIQ Growth

• Meesho, an Indian social commerce platform with 150M transacting users, raises $275M

• ’Hopefully by 2025 the IPO market is ‘back to normal’, says JPMorgan’s Jennifer Nason, Global chairman of Investment Banking.

Consumer-Specific News

• TikTok and ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the federal government challenging the constitutionality oft the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Apps Act, known as PAFACA or just “The TikTok Ban Bill.”. The bill, which was passed by Congress and signed into law last month, requires ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations by January 19, 2025 or face a ban of the app in the United States.

• High-Income Consumers Lead Surprising New Data on Side Hustles:

  • 47% of Gen Z consumers sold a used item in the 12 months.

  • 74% of Gen Z consumers bought a resale item in the 12 months.

• The grocery store of the future is using AI to feed Americans healthier food: Hungryroot has built a $300+ million online grocery business by shopping for its customers.

• Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd says your dating ‘AI concierge’ will soon date hundreds of other people’s ‘concierges’ for you

• Investors are rethinking how they assess celebrity brand pitches

• The Information reports on Tiktok’s growing list of rivals

• Hinge will stop letting you like new matches if you have too many unanswered chats: The Match Group-owned dating giant is testing a new feature that requires singles with eight or more unanswered messages to either reply to a match or end a conversation before they can make any new connections.

• Met Gala 2024

  • Ariana Grande was the most visible attendee at the 2024 #MetGala with $20.5M EMV (earned media value)

  • OpenAI was at the Met Gala? An exquisite wedding dress worn in the 1930s by Jazz Age New York socialite and actress Natalie Potter will be brought to life with an interactive interface specially designed for the show by OpenAI.

• The Re-Reinvention of Television: Streamers Dust Off Some of the Old Broadcast Playbook for a New Era TLDR Comcast is bundling with Netflix, Peacock and Apple TV+ whilst Disney + Warner bundle up Disney+, Hulu, and [HBO]Max.

• Nintendo nominates 3 women to its board of directors

• Everyone hated the iPad ad: Apple ad obliterates the tools of human creativity with a hydraulic press to hype its ‘thinnest product yet.’ Offended consumers flipped it to make a less ‘horrific corporate nightmare’

• ‘The Idea of You’ Nabs Nearly 50 Million Viewers in Two Weeks, Marking No. 1 Rom-Com Debut for Amazon MGM

  • This movie stemmed from a Wattpad fan fiction written about Harry Styles — a lot to unpack here.

• At today’s Upfront presentation, The Walt Disney Company showcased its world class brands driven by powerful storytelling and culture-defining franchises. The event featured over 150 of the biggest and brightest stars, and leaned into the company’s unique ability to inspire nostalgia across generations, connecting consumers around the world.

There is an insane amount of critical entertainment, media business news coming out of the Disney Upfront and Cannes — you can subscribe to Fan Behavior where I’ll break it down in more detail + Disney’s brand broadening beyond family-friendly programming.

Tweets to Think About

Enhance your dealflow with Mercury

Mercury recently launched Investor Connect - a platform to connect active investors to vetted, high-quality, thesis-relevant founders.

Once approved to join, you’ll select your investment criteria in your portal. You’ll receive a curated, monthly drop of relevant fundraising founders, all pre-qualified by a panel of volunteer investors. With one click you can connect directly with the founder, or track the company over time.

• Request access to pre-qualified monthly company drops here.

• Learn more about Investor Connect here. 

VC & Startup Theses

1. Bryan Kim: in consumer, retention is 👑 and it used to be the hardest metric to move. Here are 7 battle tested strategies AI native consumer products can utilize.

2. Lucas Shaw (Bloomberg) and Colin + Samir’s POV on the intersection of creators x hollywood

3. URL to IRL and back again: A TLDR version of a longer thesis of mine (Zehra’s) about the breakdown of 2000s + 2010s social media and the opportunity for new platforms. This Business Insider article covers some of the companies that inspired this thought process: the loneliness epidemic has given rise to a new crop of startups aiming to help people connect in real life

Investor Feature: Connor Ling

How and why did you want to become a VC? I grew up in a small, under-developed town in northeast China and – perhaps because of that – have always been fascinated with the diverse human experiences and perspectives beyond my confined vantage point. Although my 18 year old self thought he’d become either a journalist or a therapist, being a VC allows me to not only empower people through the art of listening, asking, and analyzing with curiosity and compassion – the appeal of journalism and psychology – but also catalyze much-needed innovation that changes how we live, work, and care for one another. My first exposure to venture came from a cold email to the Gaingels team, which led to me becoming one of their first interns and helped me validate my interest early on.

What’s your investment philosophy in 5 words? scrappy, high-velocity, customer-obsessed

Strangest place you’ve met a founder? Equinox SF union street

#1 tip for folks trying to break into VC & new VCs? Identify your niche, build your own thesis, find VCs who spend time in the space (that you may want to work with), and send them deals / your writing to build the relationship / trust!

Investor you admire most? Alexis Ohanian 

🚨 Deal! 🚨

New section alert! Whenever I meet a founder who I’m close with and is actively raising, I’ll include some vague high-level details on their traction, sector, and industry in this newsletter. If you’re interested in connecting with this founder, please reply to this email and LMK.

I’ve known this founder for over a year now. He is truly so talented, remarkable, and all around an absolutely incredible builder. Details below:

• 40K users onboarded

• $500K ARR, expecting to end 2024 at $1.5M ARR

• 35% MoM revenue growth since launch

• $1M in marketing budget processed (GMV), and on track to process $500K/qtr in 2024

Raising a $3M seed at $16M to accelerate growth, with $750K already committed from existing investors. Closing the round end of June.

Break into VC: Jobs

Came across this comprehensive list of 150 funds that offer VC fellowships. 100% a great way to get experience in VC + start building out an investment thesis/category expertise.

Full-time Investor

Stripes is hiring a Consumer Investor. 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!

Dragonfly is hiring an Investor. Apply here!

Alumni Ventures is hiring a Principal. Apply here!

Entrepreneur First is hiring multiple Analysts/Associates. Apply here!

Full-time Platform

Draper University is hiring for multiple platform roles. Apply below!

• Program Manager, Early Stage Venture

• Program Manager, Global Startup Programs

• Program Manager, Crypto

Cowboy Ventures is hiring a Chief of Staff. Apply here!

First Round is hiring an Events Coordinator. Apply here!

Internship

Expanding Capital is hiring an intern. Apply here!  

igniteXL Ventures is hiring a Summer Analyst. Apply here!  

My fund Headline Ventures’ is bringing on scouts for our consumer team! If you’re interested 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: Analyst

• Fund Size: 100-500M

• Base Salary: $95,000

• Cash Bonus: $30,000

• Carry: 0.5%

Events (for VCs)

friday 5/17

• Female GP's - Emerging Manager Brunch ✨

  • for who: femme emerging managers

wednesday 5/29

• Creators + Curators + Cocktails @ Harvard Club

  • for who: creators, consumer founders, consumer investors & curators

  • hosted by: Pillar (Michael & Faisal) + Zehra 

monday 6/3

• For the Girls: Female Founder & Investor Breakfast

  • for who: femme identifying founders & investors

  • hosted by: All Raise & SVB

tuesday 6/4

• Early Stage VC & Investors Coffee Mixer with Antler & Headline at NY #TechWeek

  • for who: early stage investors

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!