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 be very disruptive to the founders who were backed by the exiting partner. Since writing “ Oh Shit, Your VC Just Quit Her Fund! What a Good CEO Should Do Next “ in 2019 I’ve seen plenty of startups get effectively stranded within a firm. We had one of these early in our existence that in hindsight I wish we were more aggressive in helping the founder recognize the purgatory. Now we’re much quicker and more direct to help resolve the situation (even if the result is clarity that startup has likely been orphaned by the other investor).

So while there’ll be a lot of continuing coverage of investor transitions, the real ongoing story is the impacted founders. If you’re a founder and find yourself in this situation feel free to reach out in confidence — if I’ve got time and ideas i’ll share them with you.

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Originally published at https://hunterwalk.com on January 28, 2024.