Editor's Note: Our annual Vator Splash Spring 2016 conference is around the corner on May 12, 2016 at the historic Scottish Rite Center in Oakland. Speakers include Tom Griffiths (CPO & Co-founder, FanDuel), Andy Dunn (Founder & CEO, Bonobos), Nirav Tolia (Founder & CEO, NextDoor), Mitch Kapor (Founder, Kapor Center for Social Impact); Founders of Handy, TubeMogul, VSCO, Vinted; Investors from Khosla Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Kapor Capital, Greylock, DFJ, IDG, IVP and more. Join us! REGISTER HERE.
With the number of startup investments hitting a four-year low, the venture capital industry isn't exactly off to an exciting year.
In the U.S., startups raised $14.8 billion according to the Q1 2016 Venture Pulse Report from CB Insights, an 18.6 percent decrease from the $18.2 million invested in the year ago quater. There were 1,035 deals in Q1; not only was that down over 17 percent year-to-year, its the lowest number of investments made since the first quarter of 2012.
And, at the current rate, 2016’s figures might actually wind up being lower than 2011.
Things are also rough for workers. There were 250,061 jobs cut through the first four months of 2016, a 24 percent increase from the 201,796 in the first four months of 2015. It is the highest January-April total since 2009, when 695,100 jobs were cut.
At Vator Splash Spring on May 12, we will be holding a series of panels on the state of the current venture capital landscape, how it is evolving and where it is going.
Just to be clear: we will not be cheerleading for the venture capital industry. We know that things are rough right now, for both startups and investors, and we are going to ask the tough questions. It's important to know how VCs see the landscape and how their investing criteria and outlook have changed as a result.
Here are some of the things we want to know: how much belt-tightening is really going on? How is this changing the way they look at startups? What are the tough questions they'r asking startups? What do the VCs want to see from companies now to invest their money, and how have those metrics changed since the market began to slide?
Ultimately, what does a down market mean for the companies that want access to that funding, and to the firms that are in charge of giving it out?
Come check out the sessions on May 12 to learn more!
"Pitching to social impact VCs: Demystifying what it takes to attract their investments, and deliver social and financial returns"
Anthony Heckman (Investor, Kapor Capital), Carolina Huaranca (Entrepreneur in Residence, Kapor Capital)
"Surviving an evolving venture biz, and finding deals as an emerging VC fund"
Moderator: Alastair Goldfisher (Editor, Venture Capital Journal and peHUB); Panelists: Eva Ho (Partner, Susa Ventures), Paul Willard (Partner, Subtraction Capital), Zach Ware (Partner, VTF Capital), Matt Oguz (Partner, Palo Alto Venture Science)
"With the market slide, what’s the outlook for venture?"
Moderator: Jules Walker (Venture Director, KPMG); Panelists: Tianxiang Zhuo (Karlin Ventures), Jules Maltz (Partner, IVP); Alex Rosen (Partner, IDG Ventures), Erik Rannala (Partner, Mucker Capital)
"With VC investments slowing down, are Post Seed rounds more prominent?"
Moderator: Ari Levy (Reporter, CNBC); Panelists: James Conlon (Partner, Bullpen Capital), Shruti Gandhi(Managing Partner, Array Ventures), Chad Byers (Partner, Susa Ventures), Jenny Lefcourt(Partner, Freestyle VC), Jim Andelman (Co-founder and Managing Partner, Rincon Venture Partners)
"VC money is pouring into FinTech: What’s hot and what’s not and how do you get your startup funded?"
Moderator: Jackson Gates (Founder & CEO, Sweep); Panelists: Jay Reinemann (Partner, Propel.VC), Alex Davidov (Partner, Core.VC), Ben Savage (Managing Director, Clocktower Ventures), Todd Kimmel (Managing Partner, Montage Ventures)
Hope to see you there!
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Angel group/VC
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Subtraction Capital is an opportunistic venture fund that works hard to support great entrepreneurs. We believe that we have an eye for spotting valuable companies early in their lifecycle, but we also invest in mid and late stage companies that have proven track records and more established teams.
Angel group/VC
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Kapor Capital invests in seed and early stage startups whose success in business generates positive social impact.
Angel group/VC
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Bullpen Capital is second round investor who invests in companies previously seeded by the Super Angel funds.
Angel group/VC
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We partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who have deep domain expertise, principally in the greater Los Angeles area, to provide their earliest institutional funding and work side-by-side to help launch and scale their new ventures. But, it is our conviction that we must provide more than just capital. As operators and entrepreneurs ourselves, we roll up our sleeves and work with entrepreneurs in all parts of their businesses that need additional resources.
Angel group/VC
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Venture/Science is a venture capital firm located in San Francisco. The firm deploys decision theory, quantitative and stochastic models to venture capital. The firm's inaugural fund was launched in 2015 and closed later that year. The founder Matt Oguz is an investor and a columnist for TechCrunch.
Angel group/VC
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IDG Ventures is a global network of venture capital funds with approximately $3.6 billion under management and a portfolio of over 220 companies built over the last 15 years. The IDG Ventures network is comprised of five independent partnerships managing funds in North America and Asia. Each partnership makes investments on behalf of its limited partners, including International Data Group (IDG), the world's largest IT media company. By combining the IDG platform – an unparalleled combination of global publishing, market research (IDC), and conferences and exhibition resources – with years of hands-on experience in early-stage company building, each IDG Ventures fund helps companies understand their markets better and penetrate them faster than their competition
Angel group/VC
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Freestyle Capital is a seed stage investor and mentor for Internet software startups. We’re the ones you come to when you want more than just a check. Our community of veteran entrepreneurs offers real-world experience and business finesse without stuffy investor baggage or hidden agendas. We’re candid, we’re real, and we’re ready to help you change the world. (You might even have fun while you’re at it.)
Angel group/VC
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Karlin Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Los Angeles. They are value-add partners helping entrepreneurs who take contrarian approaches to create impactful solutions to big, interesting problems. Karlin Ventures is an affiliate of Karlin Asset Management, a private investment firm managing over $1.4 billion of unleveraged equity capital.
Angel group/VC
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With $7 billion of committed capital, IVP is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 106 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 36-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. IVP investments include such notable companies as AppDynamics (CSCO), Business Insider (Axel Springer), Buddy Media (CRM), Casper, Compass, Datalogix (ORCL), Domo, Dropbox, Dropcam (GOOG), Fleetmatics (FLTX), GitHub, HomeAway (AWAY), The Honest Company, Kayak (PCLN), Klarna, LegalZoom, LifeLock (LOCK), Marketo (MKTO), Mindbody (MB), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Omniture (ADBE), Personal Capital, Pure Storage (PSTG), Slack, Snap (SNAP), SoFi, Supercell (SoftBank), Tanium, Twitter (TWTR), Yext (YEXT), ZipRecruiter, and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit www.ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.
Startup/Business
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Sweep helps you get ahead of your bills, expenses and savings goals so you never have to budget again. Unlike other finance apps, Sweep gives you a complete forward-looking view into your cash flow and makes it easy to take control of your money, grow savings and spend confidently.
Service provider
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KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International. KPMG International's member firms have 137,000 professionals, including more than 7,600 partners, in 144 countries.
KPMG's Venture Capital (VC) Practice was created to provide the unique guidance and insights our clients in the VC community need to ensure success in the marketplace. Our services are specifically designed to help venture-backed companies navigate each stage of development—from inception to market leadership. Our seasoned VC professionals are dedicated to assisting clients through the many challenges faced in founding and growing a new venture.
Just getting started? Closing that big growth round? Contemplating an IPO? KPMG’s Venture Capital Practice can help prepare you for the opportunities as well as the obstacles that lie ahead. KPMG developed its service suites to align with the interrelated needs of growing companies on their journey to leadership. Each service suite draws on KPMG’s
knowledge, experience, networks, and commitment to quality and can help deliver significant benefits to growing companies. The Venture Capital Practice includes a large network of professionals who have experience working with new and established companies.
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I've worked as a business reporter and an editor since 1994, with the last 10+ years focused on venture capital, covering everything from startup to exit, including fundraising, data and tech trends, personnel, M&A, IPOs and entrepreneurs.
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Zach is the managing partner at VTF Capital, an seed/A venture fund focused on the future of retail and commerce. He was Head of Product at Zappos.com and later developed its LEED Gold campus. He has eaten the same thing everyday since early 2015.
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Jim Andelman is Co-founder of Rincon Venture Partners. Before Rincon, Jim led software investing at Broadview Capital, a $250mm Bay Area VC firm. Before BCP, Jim was with Alex. Brown's Tech Group and boutique strategy consulting firm Symmetrix.
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Two decades of investing in, and working with, software and consumer companies.
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Co-founder and CEO of Sweep (acq. Affirm). Previously VP of BD and Corp Dev at Pandora. Former VC Associate/Analyst.
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Jules re-joined KPMG in September 2011 to help take the Emerging Technology practice to the next level. We work with pre-IPO companies providing audit, tax and advisory services locally and globally.
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Jules Maltz is a General Partner at IVP and led IVP's investments in Buddy Media (CRM), Checkr, Dropbox, Indiegogo, NerdWallet, Oportun, RetailMeNot (SALE), Slack, SteelBrick, TuneIn, Zendesk (ZEN), and Zenefits
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General Partner @Karlin Ventures. Worked at McKinsey & Co, Innovation Endeavors and founded online textbook retail company. Stanford GSB MBA.
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Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Mucker Capital
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Partner at Subtraction Capital, investing in early stage enterprise software companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Serial entrepreneur turned investor. Data junkie. @fikavc, @Susaventures, @Factual, @Google, @Youtube, Applied Semantics, Navigating Cancer. Sit on board of California Community Foundation. Harvard BA, Cornell MBA. Avid traveler, photographer.
