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👋 Hey, Sahil here! Welcome to this bi-weekly venture curator newsletter, where we dive into the world of startups, growth, product building, and venture capital. In today’s newsletter -
Deep Dive: How to Handle the Exit Strategy Question in VC Meetings.
Quick Dive:
How Emergence VC Evaluates AI Potential in Financial Services.
17,784 Hours Later: What Startup Life Looks Like?
Knowing When to Sell - Insights From Top VCs.
Major News: Former intel CEO joined Playground Global VC as GP, Apple ordering $1B worth NVIDIA AI servers, OpenAI reshuffles leadership as Sam Altman pivots to technical focus & Meta faces $1B EU fine over ‘pay or consent’ model.
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📜 TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
How to Handle the Exit Strategy Question in VC Meetings.
A lot of pitch decks I review have a slide that really shouldn’t be there: the exit strategy slide.
Your slide deck should only have an exit strategy slide if you’re running a very late-stage company that’s about to IPO, and even then, you probably wouldn’t have it as a slide on a funding deck but as a whole, separate IPO plan. As an early-stage startup, it’s downright nonsensical, and it shouldn’t be part of your pitch deck at all.
To a lot of founders, an exit — or a “liquidity event,” as the legal buffs tend to refer to it — is the big pot of gold at the end of a very long and arduous journey. The same goes for investors; when there’s an acquisition or a public listing, that’s how everyone gets paid.
Moreover, some of the old pitch deck templates that are floating around on the internet have an exit strategy slide on them, so it makes sense that people are still making this mistake.
Two things are true:
One is that the best companies are bought, not sold. It’s unlikely that you know in advance exactly who will be interested in buying your company.
Second, your job as a founder is to build the best company you possibly can.
Making decisions early on to help shape the company into something someone might want to buy simply doesn’t make sense; it makes you blind to some of the other options and opportunities that might present themselves.
Unless you’ve had a ton of exits with previous companies, the truth is that you probably have a very limited view of how this process works and how liquidity events come to pass. Do you know who has been through quite a few of those, though? Experienced investors.
Using your precious pitching time to explain to your investors something in which they have more expertise and better market insight than you do is a waste of your time.
A better place to focus your attention is your competition slide. If you do have thoughts about who a potential acquirer might be, it might make sense to include them here. Is there an incumbent or a large competitor who can’t beat you, so they might have to invite you to join them?
The other thing to keep in mind is that if you try to predict how an exit is going to play out, you’re extremely likely to be wrong. Hilariously, I’ve seen startups try to predict who might buy them, and they ended up being right but for completely the wrong reasons, which made the startups make some daft mistakes in the early product decisions they made.
If you do include an exit slide, the best-case scenario is that you’ll have thought of all the same things as your investors have. In that case, pat on the back, well done. Except you haven’t moved the conversation forward. Worst of all, this rarely happens.
Instead, what I see from time to time are startups that introduce exit scenarios that don’t make sense to your would-be investor. They’ll either challenge you on them (which is a waste of precious time) or they’ll make a mental note that you don’t know your market and be less likely to invest as a result.
In a nutshell, the truth is that you just don’t know. At the earliest stages of a company, your exit is likely to be a decade away. In that decade, you’ll learn more about the competitive landscape, your customers and the market dynamics than you’ll ever imagine today.
The final point worth considering is the way that venture capital works in the first place. Especially with inexperienced founders, VCs often lose money when a company exits too early. Selling for $10 million might sound awesome to a founder, but a VC is looking for a startup that might potentially return an entire fund. If they invest $5 million for 20% of the company, they’ll want the option to get a $50 million return. ,
If they still own 20% of the company at that point (unlikely, given dilution and later rounds, but let’s keep it simple), the company needs to sell for at least $250 million to turn that $5 million investment into a fund-returning exit.
Put simply, investors don’t want to hear that you’re thinking about exits at the earliest stages of your startup — it suggests that you might be willing to accept a small return or exit early. Put it out of your mind; it’s not part of the conversation at this stage.
Removing the exit slide from your deck means that at least you’re not the person who brings it up. But what do you do when an investor asks?
There’s only one correct answer: “I am building this company to eventually IPO. If reasonable acquisition offers come in, I’ll take them to my board for discussion.”
That does two things:
One, you show that you understand that this isn’t just about your bank balance, but that there are a lot of stakeholders involved with an exit. Two, it shows that you’re open to having a dialogue with your investors about a potential liquidity event, so they can at least speak their piece when the time comes.
We’ve also built multiple guides and frameworks that can be helpful to early-stage founders:
Excel Template: Early Stage Startup Financial Model For Fundraising.
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Building Cap Table As A Founder: Template to Download.
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📃 QUICK DIVES
1. How Emergence VC Evaluates AI Potential in Financial Services.
Emergence has been investing in Industry Cloud software for over 15 years, backing companies like Veeva Systems (2008), Doximity (2011), and Federato (2022). Their belief remains the same: “Startups that go deep in one vertical build stronger customer loyalty and longer-lasting businesses.”
Now, with the rise of AI—particularly large language models (LLMs)—Emergence sees a new wave of opportunity across all Industry Cloud sectors. Financial services, they argue, may be one of the most promising areas of all.
Why Financial Services?
The sector is rich in structured and unstructured data, heavily regulated, and rapidly digitizing. Platforms like Plaid, Codat, Finch, and Argyle are fueling this shift—creating ideal conditions for a new wave of AI-first fintech startups.
Their Framework for Identifying AI Opportunities
To identify where AI could have the most impact, Emergence broke the financial services industry into major categories:
Financial Management
Lending
Insurance
Payments
Trading & Wealth Management
Risk
Within each, they zoomed in on specific functions—like insurance underwriting or fraud monitoring—to evaluate where AI can drive the most value. Then, they ranked opportunities based on three criteria:
1. Incremental AI Unlock - How much can AI improve the actual job-to-be-done?
Take underwriting: Could an LLM (Large Language Model, like GPT) help a startup CEO secure cyber insurance faster and help the underwriter make smarter, faster decisions?
2. Urgency of Customer Pain - Is this problem keeping you up at night?
Urgent problems often have faster sales cycles and a stronger willingness to pay. One example is fraud, which is only getting worse as bad actors start using AI themselves. The pain is growing, and solutions are badly needed.
3. Function Risk Tolerance- What happens if the AI gets it wrong?
Some areas—like KYC (Know Your Customer), AML (Anti-Money Laundering), or compliance—carry enormous consequences if done poorly. Others, like personalized product offers or customer support, are more forgiving.
“Low risk tolerance” means the buyer will move slowly—they want proof, accuracy, trust. But high-risk functions can still be great opportunities if you build the right solution.
Note: Sometimes, the most painful problems (like compliance) also carry the highest risk, which can slow down adoption—but still be massive opportunities for startups that build trust.
Near-Term Areas Ripe for AI Innovation
Emergence highlighted five areas where AI is already starting to make waves:
Fraud (KYC, KYB, AML, Monitoring, Compliance)
AI can help risk teams better handle unstructured data and spot fraudulent behavior faster. As fraudsters use generative AI for social engineering, next-generation fraud detection tools are needed. Startups in this space include Sardine, Alloy, Oscilar, and Sandbar.
Accounting
AI improves transaction categorization, anomaly detection, and financial reporting. New tools like Ramp Intelligence, Numeric, and Basis are showing how AI can streamline finance workflows.
Insurance
Insurance is highly data-driven, making it ideal for AI across:
Underwriting: Tools like Federato and Taktile use AI to support decision-making.
Claims: Companies like Hi Marley, Tractable, and EvolutionIQ are reducing processing time and fraud.
Distribution: AI is enabling hyper-personalized policies and outreach strategies.
Payment Risk
LLMs can better understand transaction metadata, improving risk detection in real-time payments. Startups like Slope, Sardine, Spade, and Coris.ai are already deploying models to reduce fraud and chargebacks.
Financial Research
LLMs can scan and synthesize huge amounts of financial data—from SEC filings to news articles—faster than humans. AI-first research startups include Hebbia, Brightwave, Brox, Fintool, Quill, Portrait Analytics, Alphawatch, and Stratosphere.
Open Questions for Builders
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in financial services, Emergence calls out a few open questions worth considering:
Infra readiness: Will demand grow for data providers like Plaid, Codat, and Finch?
Trust: How will AI tools prove they’re accurate, fair, and transparent?
Privacy vs. personalization: Can you personalize financial services without crossing ethical lines?
Regulation: What guardrails will regulators put in place? How will startups adapt?
The future of AI in finance won’t be built on hype. It’ll be built by founders who understand the real pain and apply AI to solve it—with care, precision, and trust.
If you're thinking about building in this space, now’s a rare moment where the technology is ready, the market is waking up, and the need is urgent.
This is a rare moment where the tech is ready, the market is waking up, and the need is urgent. If you are building in any of these spaces, I would highly recommend reaching out to them.
2. 17,784 Hours Later: What Startup Life Looks Like?
Let’s be honest — the founder journey is often romanticized. But the reality? It’s messy, unpredictable, and deeply personal.
Sam Corcos, co-founder and CEO of Levels, recently opened up about how he spent 17,784 hours over 5 years building his company — and he has the receipts to prove it. He tracked every 15-minute block of his time.
What did he find? Most of the assumptions we have about what it means to be a founder — from burnout to management to strategy — are either misleading or flat-out wrong.
Here’s what you should know if you're building something or thinking about starting.
Burnout Isn’t About Hours:
Sam regularly clocked 50 to 110 hours a week — and still didn’t feel burnt out. Why?
Because the hours weren’t the problem.
"Burnout is more tightly tied to energy-draining work than the number of hours you clock."
He learned that you can work fewer hours and still feel depleted if those hours are spent on misaligned, low-leverage tasks.
So it’s not about working less — it’s about working on what matters to you and to the company. Audit your energy, not just your calendar.
Stay Close to the Product:
In the early days, Sam was hands-on in the code. But as the team grew, he stepped back — trusting ops, product, and engineering leads to take over.
That distance nearly cost the company its product velocity and team clarity.
Eventually, he re-immersed himself in the engineering process, rewrote their approach, and anchored the team around hypothesis-driven development — something inspired by the scientific method and The Lean Startup.
Even if you’re not shipping code, stay close to how value is being delivered. When founders disconnect from the product, momentum stalls — fast.
Kill the Calendar Creep:
As the team scaled, Sam’s direct reports tripled — but his time spent on management? Barely changed.
How?
He deleted all recurring 1:1s.
Created shared docs for async updates.
Only met when actual decisions were needed.
"More people doesn’t have to mean more meetings — if your systems are tight.”
Meetings should be for movement, not maintenance. Over-communicate in writing. Align through clarity, not calendar invites.
Protect Time to Think:
Looking at five years of data, Sam only spent 5% of his time on strategy — not because it wasn’t a priority, but because real thinking requires space.
So he built in quarterly Think Weeks — no meetings, no distractions, just deep writing and reflection. And it changed the trajectory of Levels multiple times.
Your startup’s direction won’t come from inbox zero. You need a protected, structured space to zoom out and rethink. Don’t treat strategy like a luxury — treat it like a recurring obligation.
Investor Updates > Deck Design:
Sam didn’t spend months polishing pitch decks. Instead, he focused on building a solid business and sending honest, data-rich monthly updates to investors — whether he was raising or not.
That steady cadence turned future raises into warm conversations, not cold pitches.
You don’t build relationships at the moment you need money — you build them with consistency, trust, and clarity well in advance.
Family Doesn’t Kill Output — It Refines It:
Over these five years, Sam got married and became a father. His work hours dropped from 90–110/week to 50–60.
But he didn’t feel less productive. He just stopped doing low-leverage work.
"Productivity isn’t about how many hours you put in — it’s about how intentionally you spend the hours you have.
Big life changes don’t kill your founder capacity — they help you prioritize better. Let them.
The Next 5 Years: Less About How You Work, More About Why
Tracking every 15-minute block of time didn’t give Sam a magic productivity formula. It gave him honesty.
It made it painfully clear when his time wasn’t aligned with company needs — or his own values.
And that’s the point.
“The real job of a founder isn’t just building — it’s choosing. Choosing how to spend your time. And defending those choices.”
TL;DR – If You’re a Founder, Remember This:
Burnout comes from energy-draining work, not long hours.
Don’t give up product ownership too soon — stay close.
Meetings aren’t mandatory. Decisions are.
Strategy needs protected time, not just spontaneous thoughts.
Investor relations are built slowly, long before a raise.
Life outside work will force better prioritization — lean into it.
Track your time if you want truth, not just optimization.
If you’re early in the journey, let this be a prompt: Are you spending your time on what moves the needle — or just what screams the loudest?
I highly recommend adding this write-up to your weekend reading, it’s totally worth reading.
3. Knowing When to Sell - Insights From Top VCs.
An investor’s job doesn’t stop at writing a check—it’s about returning capital to LPs. But one of the toughest, highest-stakes calls a fund manager has to make? Knowing when to sell.
Markets shift fast. Valuations fluctuate. Public comps crash. Sentiment turns. That shiny paper markup can fade quickly. It's why timing exits is one of the hardest parts of a venture.
Recently, the team at Weekend Fund (founded by Ryan Hoover) pulled together insights from seasoned VCs who’ve been navigating these decisions for over a decade. I found it incredibly useful, especially for emerging fund managers, so I’m sharing a few standout lessons below, along with my own take.
Fred Wilson sums it up best:
“Your returns will have as much to do with selling as buying. And buying is a fairly rational decision. Selling tends to be emotional. And that is why selling is the hardest part of investing.”
Here’s how top managers approach the sell decision:
Harry Stebbings 20VC
Harry sees selling as a fiduciary duty—and a tool to de-risk while keeping upside exposure. For consumer companies in particular, he favors leaning out along the way.
“The best don’t just lean in. They lean out opportunistically. I often aim to sell 30–50% of a position, return the fund, then ride the rest. Especially in consumer and consumer social—those categories have shorter hype cycles than enterprise.”
Hunter Walk Homebrew
Hunter has one of the more structured approaches. Every time a portfolio company raises, he decides whether he’s a buyer or seller.
“We don’t always transact, but we always take a stance. What matters is being honest about what makes sense for our fund strategy. And when there’s a misalignment between what’s good for the company and what’s good for us, we address it head-on—transparently.”
He adds:
Never reprice the company on your own.
Never bring in problematic buyers just to get liquidity.
Know when alignment breaks—and be ready to act accordingly.
Semil Shah Haystack
Semil doesn’t follow a rigid selling strategy but emphasizes case-by-case decision-making and founder trust.
“Execution is way harder than the Twitter threads make it seem. Selling privately requires warm relationships—with founders, the board, buyers, and often brokers. The founder has to trust that your sale won’t spook others or create noise.”
Sheel Mohnot
Sheel uses funds from multiple targets to trigger partial exits—returning capital early where possible and being mindful of market timing.
“If a company hits 3x our fund, we try to sell 1/3 and return 1x the fund. Market context matters too—we recently returned capital at 25x in a bear market, and it built tremendous goodwill with LPs.”
Paige Craig Outlander Fund
Paige brings a data-driven process to selling. From fund formation, he sets liquidity expectations and tracks FMV quarterly.
“We show LPs the IRR tradeoffs of selling today vs holding. We also keep an active list of verified secondary buyers, so when we decide to sell, we’re not scrambling.”
Chad Byers Susa Ventures
Chad separates his strategy into two buckets: private and public shares.
“For private, we tend to hold winners. In a power law game, they move the needle. For public shares, our model is: sell 1/3 on lockup expiry, 1/3 six months later, and 1/3 at our discretion. That first third locks in a win; the rest gives flexibility.”
So how do you actually sell? Execution is its own challenge. Here are four options, with tradeoffs to keep in mind:
1. Secondary Brokers & Marketplaces (e.g., Forge, Hiive) - Best for hot companies with real inbound.
Pros: Aggregate demand, streamline legal/ops, get market feedback.
Cons: Price discovery is tricky outside a fundraise; buyers may be hidden at first; fees can be high; clearance needed from company.
2. Secondary Funds (e.g., 137 Ventures) - Great if you have relationships and they already hold positions in the company.
Pros: Fewer fees, easier diligence, smoother company approval.
Cons: Limited price competition; requires pre-existing trust; still needs founder/board approval.
3. Investors in the Next Round - Ideal during or around a new funding event.
Pros: Clear pricing, often easier to get buy-in from company.
Cons: You’re tied to funding cycles, which dry up in tough markets.
4. AngelList LP Transfers- For funds/SPVs on AngelList that want to give LPs liquidity but keep upside.
Pros: Clean execution, vetted buyers, legal/ops handled.
Cons: Only for AngelList funds; doesn’t count toward DPI.
There’s no single right way to approach exits. But avoiding the conversation—or delaying it indefinitely—can hurt both fund performance and founder relationships. Build your own playbook. Communicate early. Be transparent with all stakeholders.
THIS WEEK’S NEWS RECAP
🗞️ Major News In Tech, VC, & Startup Funding
Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has joined deep tech VC firm Playground Global as a general partner.
Emergence Capital, a San Mateo-based VC firm known for backing enterprise tech startups like Zoom, Gusto, and Salesforce, has closed its $1B seventh fund.
Nvidia is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Lepton AI, a startup that rents out servers powered by Nvidia’s own AI chips, for several hundred million dollars.
OpenAI expect $125B+ revenue and doesn’t expect to become cash flow positive until 2029, according to Bloomberg, due to high costs related to chips, data centers, and talent.
Apple is reportedly ordering around $1 billion worth of NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 AI servers, about 250 units at $3.7–$4 million each, to support its generative AI efforts.
Google introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a multimodal reasoning AI model now available in Google AI Studio and for Gemini Advanced ($20/month subscribers), with a 1 million token context window, soon expanding to 2 million.
The European Commission is preparing to fine Meta up to $1 billion for allegedly violating the Digital Markets Act with its "pay or consent" model.
Google introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a multimodal reasoning AI model now available in Google AI Studio and for Gemini Advanced ($20/month subscribers), with a 1 million token context window, soon expanding to 2 million.
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