Help.

Less than 1% of new businesses started each year in the U.S. receive venture funding, and total VC investment accounts for less than 0.2% of GDP.

But, venture backed companies:

create 11% of all private sector jobs
generate annual revenues equivalent to 21% of GDP
make up 12/12 of the largest tech companies, worth more than $20 trillion

Outliers happen when the right ingredients come together at the right time: cutting edge teams, market shifts, business strategy, and of course, the capital to fuel growth.

An overlooked aspect of VC that remains controversial is the wide range of amenities that funds offer their entrepreneurs.

How can I be helpful?

no free clout

Influence is currency in the Internet economy.

VCs have adjusted to deploy influence alongside the capital as a "value-add" service.

Two ways of thinking here:

Funds Deploying Influence Through LPs:

Animal Capital: early stage consumer fund with access to 150M+ consumers around the world. LPs and advisors include TikTok stars, actors, musicians, athletes, and more with outsize social media influence. The fund selectively activates LPs to accelerate growth for breakout portfolio companies
Night Ventures: venture arm of Night Media, a creator agency managing YouTube / TikTok / Twitch stars. Invests in consumer / consumer tech, and gives startups access to creator audiences when interests align.

Funds Deploying Influence Through Media:

Not Boring Capital: generalist early stage fund that invests in companies with a story to tell, then helps tell them. Built on the back of newsletter, Not Boring, which has grown to 300,000 subscribers in under 5 years. Not Boring gives its portfolio founders the ability to build a narrative in front of a few hundred thousand investors, operators, and potential customers.
20VC Fund: early stage fund built on the back of the 20VC podcast, with millions of listeners across the tech ecosystem. Harry of 20VC leverages his wide reach to bring attention and influence to the founders he works with.

Which approach is more effective?

influence through media

influence through LP connections

platform teams

As venture has grown bigger and bigger, the fees have become bigger and bigger, and some funds are getting smart about re-investing management fees to develop an edge that serves the founders they partner with.

Take Ben Sun of Primary Ventures.

Jeff Bezos has this famous saying, 'Your margin is my opportunity.' Well, guess what? Some of these funds are big enough where there's real margin and fees, and it's really profitable for the GPs that run that firm. There's a commitment you have to tell your partner, 'Hey dude, we're not going to get rich off fees. We're going to put it on the field and win. And we're going to play for carry. If we get great funds, it's going to be much better than the fees.'

Ben Sun, Primary Ventures

that's tuff jeff

The Primary Ventures platform team is known as Primary Impact:

full time operators that outnumber the investment team 2:1 (33 platform roles)
led by C-Suite executives and help companies make hires, sign customers, and raise follow-on rounds
credited for Primary's portfolio wide Series A success rate that is 2x the industry average

Platform roles in VC aren't talked about nearly as much as investment team roles.

For some VC-backed startups, their first large customers are won through platform teams, their hardest working hires are won through platform teams, and their next fundraising rounds are closed by investors introduced to them through platform teams.

The special part about Primary Impact isn't the sheer size - many later stage firms have platform teams with well over 100 members - as much as the size at that stage. Primary is a seed fund with <20 investors on their roster. Larger investors in the late stage game are able to invest more dollars into platform roles because the fund sizes are much bigger, so the checks are much bigger, so there's more at stake.

Investing such a large % of management fees into helping seed stage startups find product-market-fit is a key value unlock for the Primary fund.

Should seed-stage funds have platform teams?

Yes, it gives an edge

No, it's not their job

Depends

Headlines

Bill Ackman makes a bid for Howard Hughes Holdings, says he wants to create a "modern-day Berkshire". Barron's article here
Boardy AI raises $8M seed round months after closing pre-seed. TechCrunch article here
JP Morgan's Jenn Piepszak replaces Daniel Pinto as chief operating officer. FT article here
Sixers ditch downtown dreams, partnering on South Philly arena. FOS article here
How 10 private credit firms came to manage 1/3 of the industry's capital. Pitchbook article here
Goldman Sachs creates new division to focus on lucrative private credit market. Reuters article here
Starbucks pulls back access for people who don't pay. Axios article here