Charting Form Ds to roughly see the state of venture capital “fund” raising

VCs were literally pitching to startups to take their money during the pandemic (there were several articles about that at the time). That nonsense will now come home to roost as companies that took money at those hyper-inflated valuations will now need to face reality.

LPs that let their money get tied up in such nonsense are also about to head into a world of pain. I fear the present AI bubble will only exacerbate the pain as both sets of bad investment decisions come crashing down around the same time.

>VCs were literally pitching to startups to take their money

LMAO, true. A "friend" from that space was making money introducing VCs to "entrepreneurs", lol. He was fully booked!

Geeze, I had a product with real users and a path to monetisation and I got ignored… is it because I was in Europe?

Yes

> and I got ignored

Socializing our losses here, aren’t we? If it works out you did it, if it doesn’t, it’s the others that didn’t see the value :)

I had some VCs try and pitch me on joining a few companies as an advisor. When I didn't bite they pivoted to me just making a company. "What idea" I asked. "I'm sure you have some good ones, let us know." They said. "Money is cheap right now, ideas aren't".

I doubt they'd return my call today.

Money was so cheap then, I remember a VC fund which would match ideas to founders and get them to success because of how versatile and multifaceted the VC team was. :D

In part it'll be Europe, though VC in the "throw money into a fire" style does/did exist.

But VCs, especially in those days, bordered on antipathy for sensible business plans. They didn't want small businesses that would turn profitable quickly and grow sustainably. They wanted something with infinite growth ASAP that they could pump-and-dump on Big Tech or IPO suckers.

Hah, fair enough! Also you’re more likely to hear about startups that get funded vs not.

>"Money is cheap right now, ideas aren't"

Decades of programmers scoffing at the "idea man" with his new app idea and now this...