The folks at Andreesen Horowitz and Benedict Evans put together this great presentation on The State of US Tech Funding. It is embedded below and a lot of it rings true for what I am seeing.
I also agree strongly with Slide 39, that more smaller rounds are happening
With the companies I advise, I have seen more of them raising a higher quantity of rounds at the so called “seed” stage. The synonyms and nomenclature behind these rounds are also changing. What was before a seed round is now a friends and family round. Some even call these activities genesys rounds, or pre-seed deals. Whatever the language, they are happening more frequently at smaller amounts – to my knowledge.
I also agree that while creating and scaling a software business is getting cheaper, reaching a larger online market is a growing challenge. There are more SaaS tools and mobile marketing programs to use to “make it easier” but these end up adding to the burn of these Companies. I jokingly referred to this trend as a re-distribution of funding via expensed $20, $50, and $100+ monthly SaaS plans happening between each company (no, thats not really happening but it is on a very small scale).
Great presentation to dive into to get a nice comparison between now and then, and to form your own opinion.
