VCs Leave Their Funds and Their Portfolio Companies Often Suffer [mini post]

It’s GP musical chairs season – more VCs are leaving (or being asked to leave) their firms. But what rarely gets discussed in this coverage, or their ‘greener pastures’ blog posts, is the impact upon their portfolio companies. My advice still generally looks like what I wrote in … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 7 hours ago

“Look, like, i don’t know if this company is going to be around in three to six months. But what i can tell you is it’s going to be the most memorable three to six months of your life”: Sequoia’s Roelof Botha with YouTube’s Steve Chen

I tend to advise folks that “anyone says you need to sacrifice *everything* for a startup is dangerous, but anyone who says you don’t need to sacrifice *anything* for a startup is naive.” And the early story of YouTube is about an amazing small team, coming together and throwing … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 10 days ago

Duct Taping Your Org Chart, How to Use ‘Code-Yellows’ at Your Startup, Do AI Meeting Assistants Make You More Present, and MORE+++ [link blog]

Eat the leftovers, read the blog posts. Oh and follow me on Bluesky. The Art of Taking It Slow [Anne Wiener/The New Yorker] – Profile of Grant Petersen, founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works. Petersen has become famous for making beautiful bikes, using materials and components that … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 24 days ago

“I think viewing your board as an audience to be ‘sold’ to instead of a partner in your journey will orient your board to be less trusting and collaborative.” Five Questions with Nilam Ganenthiran, Former President of Instacart

For startups, a good Board is better than no Board, but a bad Board is worse than anything. One component of a good Board is a high value add Independent Board Member, which in my experience, often doesn’t get added early enough (for a variety of reasons). But sometimes the CEO t … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 1 month ago

Winning at Seed Investing Isn’t Just About When to Buy, but Increasingly Also When to Sell

“What’s one thing you stress to new VCs now that wasn’t as important, say, 10 years ago?” That was the question put to me last week by a senior leader at a large university endowment during Screendoor’s yearly Convening [part annual meeting for our LPs, part community event, part … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 1 month ago

“I actually thought I’d stay at Flexport my entire career.” Ben Braverman’s Path Into, and Out of, His Dream Job and Then Founding Saga, a New Venture Firm

Ben Braverman and I went to a women’s college. Not at the same time (I’m older), and after it went coed. But Vassar itself is a small school, so that plus its liberal arts focus means you don’t find many of us in Bay Area tech. Ben and I started to hang out because of […] | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 2 months ago

My Goal is to NEVER be on the VC Midas List

The best podcasts are conversations which take you places you weren’t necessarily planning to go. My chat recently with Molly O’Shea of Sourcery (great newsletter, you should subscribe) covered more than I was expecting! This short clip is pretty self explanatory. I’ll never be o … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 2 months ago

“Sanzo is at its best when we serve as a bridge across cultures for both AAPI and non-AAPI.” CEO Sandro Roco on building a beverage startup, what to avoid in influencer deals, & protecting the brand.

I’m a Sanzo drinker. I’m also a Sanzo angel investor. The order is important because I fell in love with the product before I even knew about the company, and the hustle of its founder/CEO Sandro Roco. Over the last few years he’s been a diligent company-builder, brand steward, a … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 2 months ago

Are Bookstores a Waste of Space, Can Scientists Change the Weather, Future of AI Agents, and Curing Loneliness Is Tough [link blog]

Sunday reads for you from a too hot SF Why Is the Loneliness Epidemic So Hard to Cure [Matthew Shaer/New York Times] – The Loneliness Epidemic as a cultural trend stared pre-COVID but the pandemic mirrored the effects of a weightlifter shooting HGH – immediate and noticeable diff … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 2 months ago

I Once Feared Professional Irrelevance. Now I Embrace It.

The failure tiger stalked me for many years. The beast’s ferocity was intensified by my sense it was inevitable I’d be caught. Unescapable because merely the act of *aging* was going to make me vulnerable. To not being as current or ‘native’ on whatever new technology platform or … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 2 months ago

“One Thing You Wish People Better Understood About Venture Capital” – Part V, featuring Ethan Kurzweil, Lily Lyman, Ashley Mayer, and Leshika Samarasinghe.

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 3 months ago

“One Thing You Wish People Better Understood About Venture Capital” – Part IV, featuring Diana Kimball Berlin, Jake Gibson, Jesse Middleton, Adam Nelson and Nikhil Basu Trivedi.

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 3 months ago

“One Thing You Wish People Better Understood About Venture Capital” – Part III, featuring Maya Bakhai, Paris Heymann, Nakul Mandan, Eric Tarczynski, and ANONYMOUS.

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 3 months ago

“One Thing You Wish People Better Understood About Venture Capital” – Part II, featuring Victor Echevarria, Chris Neumann, Micah Rosenbloom, Alex von Tobel and Roseanne Wincek.

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 3 months ago

“One Thing You Wish People Better Understood About Venture Capital” – Part I, featuring Andre Charoo, Bill Clerico, Ryan Hoover, Amy Saper, and Dan Teran.

I asked some investor friends to share, as the title suggests, one thing they wished people better understood about venture capital. There were no ground rules other than to specify that ‘people’ could be founders, politicians, LPs, etc and that it would be default attributed but … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 3 months ago

30 Years Ago I Said ‘No’ to Working for Phil Donahue, and ‘Yes’ to Conan O’Brien. No Regrets, But Only Now Do I Understand How Amazing Donahue Was.

“You see, I was hoping to work on Saturday Night Live.” That was my request of the NBC Human Resources department when making my case for a 1994-1995 internship. Enough years have passed that I don’t recall whether I received an actual verbal response or just an extended eye-roll … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 3 months ago

“I will say that a lot of tension arose from Googler’s expectations that the company’s culture had to be exactly the same as what it was when the company was one fifth the size” Former GOOG & MSFT executive (and multiple time founder) Javier Soltero on Career Advice, Big Company Culture, and Startup Hiring Tips

I am reluctant to call someone a ‘friend’ unless the relationship has crossed the threshold honoring the depth of commitment behind the designation. By that framework I started out as a ‘fan’ of Javier Soltero way before we became friends. It was his mobile productivity startup A … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 3 months ago

A Hollywood Director on Whether AI Will Replace Him, What It Takes to Raise a Series B in 2024, Don’t Hire an Executive If They’ve Never at a Job for at Least Five Years, and +++ [link blog]

Sunday reads (and a listen) for you What It Takes to Raise a Series B [Ted Wang/ICONIQ] – Ted Wang, now investor and previous lawyer (creator of the Series Seed doc template), tackles what he looks for in a Series B investment. B Rounds are the toughest financings right now IMO f … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 4 months ago

Email Introductions 101. And Why a Strong Cold Email Always Beats a Weak Warm One.

A product executive colleague at Google once joked he was basically an email router; that most of the problems they solved were largely about sending or forwarding a message with a small amount of value added. Certainly my life as an investor has me doing a bunch of this as well. … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 4 months ago

What Do VC Returns Actually Look Like? Here’s a Screenshot from my AngelList account

Your lemons tend to ripen before your cherries. That was the advice an experienced seed investor gave me when we founded our own shop Homebrew. It’s a colorful (and delicious) way of describing what’s commonly known as the performance ‘J curve.’ Sometimes you get lucky and have o … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 4 months ago

The Best of the New VCs Will Outperform Most of the Legacy Ones. That’s Why We Created Screendoor to Back Them.

The commitment to do “the hard thing when there’s not instant gratification waiting for you.” That’s how Screendoor’s Managing Director Lisa Cawley measures competitive spirit. David Zhou recently featured Lisa on his Superclusters Podcast, and it’s a great listen for anyone in t … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 4 months ago

Thank You Susan

Thank you Susan. I owe a lot to you. Many people do. I’m thinking mostly about your wonderful family right now, but I did want to share two of my favorite memories of our time together. If someone were going to ask about my time with you at Google, I’d tell these stories. The fir … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 4 months ago

Why Company Communication Breaks at 50 People; a VC Notices What Happens When a Startup is Down to their Final $250k; You Are Almost Certainly Mispricing Your Product; and MOOOORE

Back in my day, we had web pages and URLs. And you had to look for stuff. “Who needs to know about this?”: Communication as you Scale [Molly Graham/GlueClub] – People forget all the time that your company values can stay the same as you grow but the activities and practices requi … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 4 months ago

Building Your First Exec Team; Avoiding Micromanagement; Skilled Immigration Should Be Prioritized; Spielberg is a Genius; and More [link blog]

Summer reading for you. Manage the What, Not the How [Molly Graham/Glue Club] – Molly always has great management essays, riffing off her own experience at learnings at places like Facebook and CZI. This one focuses on finding that right level of direction but not micro managemen … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 4 months ago

Traits a VC Looks For In Founders, Are Plants Actually Intelligent?, How Duolingo Streaks Work, and +++ [link blog]

It’s a holiday week. Here’s some stuff to read. Inside Danny McBride’s Lowcountry Comedy Commune [Sam Schube/GQ] – Incredibly talented dude, operating within his comfort zone, with people he cares about, and enjoying his life. Left Los Angeles and set up a production studio back … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 5 months ago

The Future of Fashion Commerce Is a Designer’s AI Bot Saying You Look Great and Your Personal AI Bot Sifting Through the Bullshit

Maybe I should be more worried about Artificial General Intelligence but these days it’s the probability of Artificial General Bullshit that leaves me wondering about AI-powered everything. Given that the enshittification of the web is largely driven by economic incentives, why d … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 6 months ago

A Guide to VC “Congrats” Tweets, From 🤑 to 😐

Tweet Translation “Excited for [Startup] to continue its mission at [Acquirer]” It was an acquihire and I lost money “They never gave up and I’ll miss working with them (hopefully will do so again). Congrats to [Startup] on their exit!” It was a journey but we at least got our mo … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 6 months ago

An Operating Manual for Cofounders, Why It’s Silly to Say Your Funding Round was “Oversubscribed,” Space Weather Forecaster is a real job, and more… [link blog]

Links to read When the growth slows, and, You and your Co-founder [Harry Glaser/Cofounder, Modelbit] – More good repeat founder wisdom from Harry. In the former he has practical advice for how to handle speedbumps post-hypergrowth period. The latter is a good articulation of true … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 6 months ago

Backing New VC Firms With Screendoor: Welcoming OGs from First Round Capital, Pear VC, Reach Capital, and Refactor to the Cause

Darwin moves at half-speed in venture capital, allowing mediocrity and outdated ‘best practices’ to persist, much to the detriment of founders and LPs. The long time horizons, risk aversion incentives, and opaque flow of information all contribute to this stasis. What’s one possi … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 7 months ago

Textio’s Founder Kieran Snyder on the Two Advantages Startups Have in AI (While Remaining Skeptical Of The Funding Gold Rush)

“Admirer from outside of the cap table” is how I approached Kieran Snyder, Cofounder of Textio. That is to say, I DMed her on Twitter in 2016, impressed by the work she was doing but without a preexisting relationship. Thankfully the interest was mutual and we’ve had the chance t … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 7 months ago

The Airline Chatbot Lied and a Passenger Sued, Why You Shouldn’t Care About Your VC Being ‘Founder Friendly,’ and Will AI Slop Kill the Internet? [link blog]

URLs. Fresh hot URLs. Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up [Ashley Belanger/Wired] – Air Canada’s chatbot gave a customer incorrect information about bereavement fare policies, and a court held the airline accountable. Unclear whether the chatbot was truly … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 7 months ago

Are Startup Stock Options Like ‘Lottery Tickets?’ A CEO and Former Employee Discuss. And My POV.

The good stuff on the Internet really does occur in the comments! I thought all that would happen is a few ‘likes’ and a comment or two. But then a CEO jumped in to point something important out…. while it technically might have been the recent recap which officially lowered the … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 7 months ago

He Sold His Startup for $130 Million, Here’s What He Learned, and Questions to Ask When Considering Whether a New Job is a ‘Fit’ for You, Plus Other Great Reads [link blog]

More stuff for you to enjoy…. What I Learned Selling My Company [Harry Glaser/then: Periscope Data, now: Modelbit] – Harry sold Periscope Data for $130m and is back building again with Modelbit, an ML engineering platform. Here he provides actionable advice for founders who are b … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 7 months ago

Taylor’s Typewriter Boom, How Nvidia Handles Failures, and Matt Mullenweg’s Open Source Philanthropy [link blog]

Links! Get your red hot links here! There Are Plenty of Power Publicists. But Only One Works for Taylor Swift [Allie Jones/WSJ] – Tree Paine (as the owner of what I think is also a great name, I salute you Tree) seems incredible competent. It’s amazing how compelling that is thes … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 7 months ago

When to Tip $$, Andrew Huberman-ization of America, Jelly Roll Owns 100% of His Masters, and More [Link Blog]

My favorite links goes multimedia this time with two podcasts, among the other articles. Jelly Roll: The Popcast (Deluxe) Interview [Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli/New York Times] – The guy with the face tattoos from the Super Bowl Uber Eats commercial. I’d known he was also a … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 9 months ago

Seven ‘Pivots’ Later, Warmly Finally Found Its Stride. CEO Max Greenwald Covers What He Wishes He Knew At The Beginning, and More…

I met Max when he was in undergrad and visiting SF as part of Princeton’s annual TigerTrek. Then years later we reconnected at Google (where he was a Product Manager) for a GV BBQ. It was so much fun catching up that soon after as he started Warmly I was fortunately given the opp … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 9 months ago

Every time OpenAI cuts a check for training data, an unlaunched competitive startup dies. Without a ‘safe harbor,’ AI will be ruled by incumbents.

The checks being cut to ‘owners’ of training data are creating a huge barrier to entry for challengers. If Google, OpenAI, and other large tech companies can establish a high enough cost, they implicitly prevent future competition. Not very Open. Model efficacy is roughly [techni … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 10 months ago

The Introvert Economy, the Case for Longer Founder Vesting Cycles, What Happens When Your Product Goes Viral on TikTok, and More [link blog]

Winter Break week for my kid more time with her, and when she’s with her friends, more time with New Yorker magazines. Here are a few essays, articles, blog posts, etc that I’ve enjoyed recently. What Happens When TikTok Is Your Marketing Department [David Segal/New York Times] – … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 10 months ago

Incentives in Venture Capital, Why You Should Avoid Your Competitors’ Investors, China’s Malaise, and More [link blog]

I read a lot of stuff and here’s a few worth passing along to you! China’s Age of Malaise [Evan Osnos/New Yorker] – A loooong read but essential stuff if you are interested in China from an sort of view (cultural, economic, geopolitical, startup). When I return to China these day … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 10 months ago

The Fonz on Leadership Lessons He Learned From Happy Days

Great interview with surviving cast members of Happy Days, which was a number one TV show itself, as well as producing FIVE spinoffs. Worth reading the whole interview but one particular part stood out for me involving the producer Garry Marshall and star Henry Winkler. WINKLER H … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 10 months ago

VCs Are Leaving Their Firms But It’s The Founders They Backed Who Often Get Hurt

Lots of venture capital transitions underway. Here’s what I predicted in Allocate’s 2024 Outlook Last week Pitchbook asked me (and others) for background on how a VC actually gets fired (or more often ‘transitioned’) Darwin moves slowly in venture, but these investor changes can … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 11 months ago

“It takes a year to find great executives so you must always look down the field.” Proof’s Pat Kinsel on why he believes a VCs most critical task is to make sure the WRONG person doesn’t get hired into a startup.

Regret. That’s the emotion I most associate with Pat Kinsel and his startup, Proof (fka Notarize). Because I remember hearing about their seed round and thinking it sounded a lot like a Homebrew company, but yet Pat didn’t seek us out, and we didn’t have him on our radar. Fast fo … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 11 months ago

2024’s First Link Blog Post (Because Happy Birthday Matt Mullenweg)

When the founder of WordPress/Automattic says all he wants for his birthday is for you to blog, well, you blog. I’ve known Matt for, gosh, 15 or more years, and although I don’t see him as much as I’d like, I do admire what he’s built here and the spirit with which he lives. Here … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 11 months ago

Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait on how AI is changing human resources and weaning his company off venture funding via private equity

I *think* Daniel and I met at a VC happy hour many years ago. But outside of the history, he’s one of my favorite people to chat about the roller coasters of company building. He’s founder and CEO of Greenhouse, a ‘hiring operating system’ for companies which spans recruiting and … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 1 year ago

Why ‘Fairness’ Matters in Techno-Optimism, How To Successfully Take Time Off Between Jobs, and Why ChatGPT Changes the Lives of Indie Developers [linkblog]

I love to write. And don’t maintain a ‘schedule’ per se, but have always said that ‘if two weeks go by and I haven’t posted, it means something is amiss.’ Well, something is definitely amiss in the world so maybe easing back in is best done by sharing others’ work. Tech is a Tool … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 1 year ago

Lemonade Stand for Rent

A local shipping business set up a Lemonade Stand next to their retail store that’s reservable (for free) by community kids. Love stuff like this. More kindness and generosity in our world. | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 1 year ago

How You Actually Feel Selling Your Company, Is It Worth Tolerating a Toxic Employee, & TechCrunch’s Former Editor in Chief Reflects on His Decade at the Helm [linkblog]

For your weekend pleasure When It’s Over & Helpful Boards [Jared Hecht/GroupMe, Fundera] – Two more great posts from one of my favorite founder bloggers right now. The former is about deciding to sell your company and the emotional journey accompanying the pragmatic one. After se … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 1 year ago

Startups Fail All The Time, But Many Could Fail Better By Thinking Beyond the VCs and Founders

According to the laws of aerodynamics a bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but no one told it, so it does. This oft-repeated fact is, well, absolutely incorrect, but serves as a nice metaphor for ambitious startups. Probabilities suggest they should fail, but, hey, why not succe … | Continue reading


@hunterwalk.com | 1 year ago