Consumer fintech is in transition.
Consolidation is taking place. Value accruing to larger players. We’ve hit peak fragmentation.
Where does consumer fintech go from here?
VCs have so much dry powder. In 2022 funds didn’t deploy at expected rates at all. Pressure to invest will increase in 2023. So founders - sounds crazy, but now is a very smart time to start a company.
web3, crypto & blockchain are making waves in art, music, and fintech today
How will web3, crypto, and blockchain affect edtech & learning?
Here's what I'm seeing so far 🧵
remembering that time a founder sent a investor update (email merge) but instead of the name field, they inserted their CRM notes. Mine:
“Hi Has deck. Seems kinda stuck up. Didn’t accept my LI request but boss did. Stanford grad. Paints a picture,
Updating you on a few.…”
Was on a call w/a 16-yr old talking career advice. The best advice i shared (& have not 100% followed) was:
Don't email someone asking for a job. Start doing the job and email asking for feedback on what you built. (more👇🏾)
You've heard a ton about web3/crypto + wonder where to get started. Or like us, you've spent days, weekends, nights diving down the rabbithole
Here's what we've been reading + how we're immersing ourselves in this incredibly vibrant ecosystem
Venture capital has been trapped in a prisoners dilema game where investors don’t like how expensive later stage rounds have become so they go earlier, with less sensitivity to check size, valuation. Rinse and repeat
Happy 3 yrs in VC to me🥳
i’m corny as hell but yr3 really showed I’m living my purpose
had my 1st early co Stori go unicorn🦄 & Marlene became 1st Mexican woman tech unicorn founder
grateful Lightspeed gave newbie a shot🥺
more underinvested founders/geos will return big $$
VC is really a job of self-exploration & introspection. With so many great startups, you have to ask:
what do i care about?
how do i gain conviction?
how am i different / unique?
what's my purpose?
When answers are clear, VC is straight forward. Just execute.
One of my absolute favorite topics is how people learn
Improving your speed of learning is also a top professional skill in a world that ain't changing any slower
Here's how to improve your speed of learning:✌️🏾
1/ New post! Investing in the
#ExperienceEconomy
A new gen of companies are:
- Discovered via Instagram 📸
- Designed as anticipated, sharable memories, documenting your best life ✨
- Creating a sense of belonging
- Benefiting from cheap real estate 🏨
Conclusion: Women are the most absent group in all of Crypto.
We need more women in this space. And we need them now.
Let's get more
#WomenInWeb3
Female founders, enthusiasts and Web 3 dreamers please feel free to reach out to me directly.
TG and email DMs open. [6/6]
I did a quick review of founders the 2020 scout fund have invested in (5 mos in, 30 deals) & was OVER the 🌙 to see...
>50% of founders appear to be from underrepresented (in tech) racial/ethnic backgrounds 😄
Multiplier effect works. diverse investors = diverse founders
Men are leaving college at highest rates ever: 1.5M less students went to college in 2021 than 5 yrs prior & 70% of those were men
The trend started in 1970s & today 60% of college goers are women
Where are all the men going? 🧵
people ask me who invests in learning/edtech a lot so i did like any good vc and made an airtable list 🙃 enjoy
i'm sure i've missed many people so my apologies 🙏🏾 pls message if want to be added
i'm seeing more web3 startups raise very large seeds & As on back of a successful NFT collection sale, but are still pre-product. new form of funding or very 1999?
We can all agree that the metaverse is having its hottest year yet
I used to work in VR and thought that was the path to the metaverse
Here's why I was wrong and why this time is different 🧵
Latin America now has at least 23 unicorns, which collectively have raised $15B+, 15 have raised money this year; 40% of all VC money in 2020 went into fintech (
@jglasner
/ Crunchbase News)
Yesterday was my 4 year anniversary
@lightspeedvp
! 🥳 It's been a wild ride. To quote
@jmj
who said it perfectly:
"Wild vintage to [invest]. Cycles since starting in Q3 2019:
1. Pre Covid (2019)
2. Covid Depression Scenario (Q1 2020)
3. Covid Bull (Q2 2020)
4. Megafund Mania
The one good thing about being mansplained Web3 at these crypto conferences is it gives me more time to eat those fried macaroni balls.
If I toss in an "ok, but obviously none of that can happen for 50 years" I can squeeze in a mini dulce de lece & gaspacho shooter as well.
great quote I heard today:
"Why does every kid love recess? It’s one of the only times they can make tons of choices for themselves all school day"
I continue to believe children crave self-direction and the love of learning stops when they stop feeling agency
News that TopGolf is eyeing $4 billion IPO reminds me that if you combine our favorite childhood activities with drinks 🍹 magic can happen ✨
#experienceeconomy
Most of "getting into venture" is luck & networks. That aside, a few other tips:
- i had no $ to angel invest. practice anyway
- everything is a funnel: recruitment & startup sourcing
- be fearless w/cold outreach
1/ One of the things I look for in founders is whether they’re “learning animals”: Do they constantly pursue learning? Do they effectively scale themselves?
A few years ago
@Stanford
I set out to unearth how founders learn
Here’s what I learned (thread)
today i'm celebrating that the new majority is building wealth on crypto:
30% of black & 27% latino investors own cryptocurrency ✨🤑 (compared with 17% of white investors in the US - recent Harris Poll survey and 10% of the overall population)
1/5 When
#Covid
forced everyone schools to close, it accelerated
#edtech
trends & the future of
#education
.
Some habits will stick. Others will revert.
Knowing the difference will be crucial for founders, educators and parents. What might we see? 🤔
As a consumer VC i stay on the swivel for consumer cultural carriers.
Consumer cultural carriers are the tastemakers, entertainers, celebs, artists, tiktok/youtube creators. They're often young, female, POCs.
They know where world is moving b/c they're moving it. Watch them.
for international women's day I went on
@cnbc
today to talk about the gender investing gap
the gap is very real: women make up 35% or less of users at many retail investment products, and women save less on avg for retirement (also due to wage gap)
what's going on?
i just have to say. founders in LATAM are realllly prepared for fundraise processes.
nearly 100% are *extremely* prepared w/datarooms, models, cohorts, customer files, unit economics, charts. even at the seed sometimes! i'm not sure how so many are so ready, but love to see it!
Big news alert! I have a new weekly column with
@BusinessInsider
that will be running for the next few weeks 🗳️
1st topic: how top startups are using behavioral science to win 👇🏾
Nearly all my investments have an immigrant, woman or other underrepresented founder on the team
Why?
Because - if you didnt know - Marginalized. Folks. Are. Really. REALLY. Good. At. Making. Money.
Lightspeed consumer team 🤗
Consumer investing is high risk, high reward. Not for the feint of heart. Not for the culturally unaware. Not for the brand oblivious. Not for everyone.
I believe it's critical for founders to lead every board meeting, every townhall, w/ the mission & vision
Vision is the world you want to see 🌍
Mission is how you there 📈☝️🏾
Your north star metric derives from them. It's often a product kpi & drives a corresponding sales kpi
Founders used to time their fundraises based on burn rate. Now I see founders timing raises based on achieving milestones.
IMHO this a better model: from cost-based to valued-based fundraising.
the simultaneous surge of the creator economy & retail investing isn't a coincidence
they both reflect consumers' desire to join the ownership economy & declare independence
the next gen of consumer entertainment experiences are being built on web3
in web3, consumers become co-creators
Here’s some of the most exciting Entertainment X Web3 I’m seeing and where there's opportunity 🧵
.
@lightspeedvp
recently launched a new job board to help talent discover over 3,000 open positions at our portfolio companies. We hope this is a helpful resource, especially for those impacted in light of COVID. Check it out here:
The three most important things investors can give new founders:
1. Space & capital to execute
2. Freedom to change their mind = scale yourself attitude
3. Hard truths and empathy
US edtech is having a blockbuster year. there are so many billion$ companies, many on the cusp of exit
I threw together these edtech/higherEd multiples for my founders recently so wanted to share
With Duolingo, Instructure up next I can’t help but wonder what they’ll trade at!
@StuartBlitz
same happened to me, founder said "you're all the same i don't need your intro" after i suggested an intro 😂
first 3-5 min of every call i just assess does this person want this to be a relationship call or a transactional call. the rest flies by smoothly
Crypto-native, wallet to wallet messaging is broken.
and yet, messaging is the highest daily use consumer product. it's a huge opportunity.
Crypto's "You've Got Mail" moment is coming.
Let me explain ⬇️
yesterday was
#WomenInCrypto
day
so we curated a list of projects + communities you should know, built by women. what'd we miss? dm us :)
curated with
@JaneSorkin
and
@kassenq
whirlwind few days in London. Launched our office. Interviewed Multiverse about edtech 🙌🏾 Laid awake in bed all night 😫 Met some amazing founders. Witnessed history. Broke bread with the BEST team.
@lightspeedvp
🏴🇫🇷🇩🇪
Creators are building longevity by turning platforms into marketing channels. But not all platforms support success equally.
My 2-cents on how creators are the new, leaner generation of startups, and why traditional corps are even more on watch to retain employees👇🏾
The creator economy is booming and the majority of the US workforce will be freelance by 2027. A VC says current creators must think about the future and these 3 next steps. ( via
@mercebent
)
1/ Excited to share how our fintech team views the intersection of AI + finance….
First off, AI is not exactly new in finance…it’s been used since the 90s.
But something big has changed with the newest generation.
Generative AI is distinct compared to conventional or
One of the strangest transitions from Operator to VC was hearing investors say they were interested in business models (marketplaces, saas, subscription) instead of missions (problems, sectors, customers, product)
15k people at ETH Denver. i just returned from the largest year EVER as crypto goes mainstream
people still ask, why all the hype? what does blockchain actually solve?
7 problems that blockchains actually solve 👇🏾
New post on the
#FutureofWork
🤓
While we’re geeking out about the latest developments in AI, ML & VR (I’m guilty 🙋🏾♀️), we can’t forget how these changes affect workers 👷🏾♀️👨🏼🏭🧕🏼👨🏻💼👩🏼🔧
The
#CareerJourney
is evolving. Let’s talk groom & bloom not doom & gloom
new record! "Women controlled 28% of board seats among S&P 500 companies"
only up 1% point from last year, up 8% since 2009
another glimmer of hope, lets do this ladies 💪🏾
Social “armies” are creating David v Goliath scenes & driving pop culture moments across multiple industries:
- Reddit wsb takes on hedge funds
- BTS fans take on racial injustice
- TikTok teens take on Trump rally
where else are social armies making their mark?
The real question is average net price & signal value
70% of Harvard students get fin aid, most pay ~$12k
30% pay ~full price
$23k weighted avg net price
Is Harvard worth $23k / year in signal?
imho, many 30% full pricers would pay more than $49k/year to maintain signal
JUST IN: Harvard announces all course instruction will be taught online for the 2020-21 academic year.
Undergraduate tuition of $49,653 remains the same.