No GPs Allowed ⚡ #9

The Midas List, a $3B valuation, and the future of consumer is gaming

Author

Zehra Naqvi
June 05, 2024

TLDR from Z

I went from only hosting 1 event at NYTW to somehow impromptu planning around 10. Most, if not all, are small curated sit-down meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner with reservations as small as 8 to as large as 25. All are not sponsored. It’s been eye-opening to witness how much more fruitful these smaller events are vs. the large networking where you have to scream to hear each other at 9AM. Expect more curated smaller events from me going forward. I like this structure a lot!

  • Having a perspective in VC is so overwhelmingly critical. You could be a seasoned an investor or a novice and if you don’t have a POV on the sector you invest in, you’ll be making questionable investments with minimal strategy. If you’re a junior VC and you haven’t figured out your edge or POV, figure it out ASAP.

  • All the consumer-y deals raising their Series A’s right now are successfully raising because their seed rounds were valued somewhat conservatively. On the other hand, all the consumer-y deals that had aggressive valuations at the seed stage are raising extensions and not A’s given everyone’s turning away from consumer.

  • Pretty much all consumer products are gamified at this point — there’s truly no other way to get a consumer’s attention without it. Gone are the days when one would spend hours setting up their MySpace and Facebook pages with unwavering precision.

I’ll be sending out a Sunday edition of No GPs Allowed this week to recap more of the news + theses that investors are sharing!

VC News

Fundraising News

Consumer-Specific News

Tweets to Think About

43North Offers $1M Investments for Seed-Stage Startups

43North, an accelerator program in Buffalo, NY is offering seed-stage founders $1 million investments in exchange for 5% equity for a limited time! Apply now for your chance to secure $1 million in funding, expert mentorship, and invaluable connections.

VC & Startup Theses (or tips)

  1. Sequoia's Leaked Investment Memo on YouTube 💫 In 2005, Roelof Botha, a partner at Sequoia, proposed a $1M seed investment in YouTube, followed by a $4M Series A. A year later, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65B, netting Sequoia $500M—a 57x return.

  2. It's time for AI to reinvent the phone call - enter conversational voice agents

  3. In Defense of the New: the future is being crafted out on the edge. Are you paying attention?

  4. Why everything looks like a game: On gamification, the eternal status game, and the psychology behind games and consumer apps.

    1. ZN’s POV: just met Robin for the first time IRL yesterday! love his POV on the space. his newsletter is a must-subscribe.

  5. For anyone who wants to get a job in venture capital. There are three core pillars to venture:

    1. Sourcing (finding great companies).

    2. Selecting (picking great companies).

    3. Servicing (helping companies be the best they can be).

  6. Robin shares his thoughts on how to stand out in the VC application process

Submit Investor Feature Requests!

This week, I wanted to ask the community to share their feature requests for either this section of the newsletter or for 1 GP Allowed.

Coming in June! 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!

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!

Dragonfly is hiring an Investor. Apply here!

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

Full-time Platform

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

Union Heritage 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: Senior Associate

  • Fund Size: $100-500M

  • Base Salary: $175,000

  • Cash Bonus: $15,000

  • Carry: 0.25%

Events (for VCs)

wednesday 6/5

thursday 6/6

Resources: Discounts + Tools

wednesday 6/12