Latest Blogs

Public markets are getting crushed. How about your VC investments?

Mostly not good. But there’s a silver lining for VC.

May 5, 2025

So, What Are Your VC Holdings Actually Worth?

The data is in on 2024 secondaries. What does it mean for your liquidity options?

February 20, 2025

The Buttered Popcorn Index suggests IPOs will fix everything. Can we trust it?

IPOs (and M&A) may not be the liquidity solution. Secondaries and tenders might be.

January 21, 2025

Corporate investors tap $30B secondary market to exit startup holdings

The lack of exit options including M&A and initial public offerings is pushing corporate investors to sell VC assets in the growing secondary market.

November 22, 2024

Four Takeaways From The VC Secondaries Meltup

Secondary transactions are ripping. Here’s what it means for institutional VC investors.

November 15, 2024

That Time The CVCs All Shut Down

CVCs have repeatedly been washed out by liquidity crunches. The difference now: new liquidity options.

November 7, 2024

Your Three Best Liquidity Options

For your PE and VC investments, you’re writing checks, but you’re not cashing them. You want liquidity. But how?

June 20, 2024

Time to Join the Strip Club?

The awkwardly named strip sale is an increasingly popular option for CVCs who want to generate liquidity from their portfolio, while keeping their upside and their portfolio company relationships.

June 17, 2024

Why Your Next Investment Will Be In A CVC Portfolio

Empirically, CVC portfolios perform better than “regular” VCs in some key measures. That’s why investors are increasingly buying in.

May 20, 2024

Most VCs make these mistakes. Don’t be like most VCs.

Two common myths about your next investment.

April 19, 2024

Takeaways from the unicorn extinction

The term “unicorn” was coined only 11 years ago. Fast-forward to 2024 and we can learn a lot about the future of VC.

April 2, 2024

Tell your boss: The software recession is over

Software is the bellwether for VC. How’s it doing? (Bonus discussion for your next cocktail parties: inverted yield curves.)

January 23, 2024

Let’s all overreact to the state of VC and PE

There are very good reasons to feel very bad about the outlook for VC and PE. Should we?

January 11, 2024

Your VC investments are about to get smoked (Right?)

Signs are everywhere that VC is in for a world of hurt. But, this isn’t the first time we’re being told we’re in a bubble. (It’s not even the tenth time).

December 12, 2023

How to avoid an OpenAI-style trainwreck

Improbably, Microsoft emerged from the high speed train wreck at OpenAI in a much stronger position. But Microsoft dodged a $13 billion cannonball.

November 27, 2023

How the world’s best VCs torched $1.9B

We were once aggressively pitched to invest in a sports beverage firm. The frontman was a twitchy but smooth-talking CEO from Newport Beach.

November 22, 2023

The strip club solution to a rough VC market

It may be time to join the strip club. That may not be good for our spam filters, but it’s true.

November 17, 2023

CVCs aren’t wasting a good crisis

The last three quarters have been rough for VC. Very rough. Are corporate venture arms heading for the door?

October 17, 2023

3 Takeaways on the “Down Round IPO”

We noted last month that IPOs are back – but that we shouldn’t get excited. Yes, the IPO window has opened.

October 3, 2023

IPOs are back. Don’t get excited.

Hidden in the euphoria: there may be a time bomb ticking for the broader VC market.

September 19, 2023

You hate the company. Should you invest?

Of course not. But wait. It’s more complicated. You already invested. You wrote a check with high hopes.

September 14, 2023

Should you kill your darlings?

It’s great advice for writers. Mercilessly analyze what you’ve written. And be willing to kill your darlings the prose you fell in love with.

September 11, 2023

Should you get medieval on your VC investments?

The market is improving. But the environment remains tough And deal terms are getting tougher.

September 11, 2023

VC is having a horrible, no good, very bad year. That’s great news.

Yes, there are bright spots. Yes, 2021 was by all accounts a batsh*t year of massive volumes and massive valuations.

August 24, 2023

Why would an LP engage VO2 Partners? Answer: Counting peas

Institutional LPs engage us on their VC and PE portfolios to support them in three ways. But they mostly come down to counting peas.

August 14, 2023

Are cognitive biases killing your returns?

We’re wildly, exuberantly irrational organisms. That’s true in our lives generally. In investing specifically, we’re even worse.

August 2, 2023

Why Microsoft’s Insane Deal with ChatGPT Might Be Brilliant

Is Microsoft nuts? They violated every convention of VC deal-making by investing $10B in OpenAI.

July 7, 2023

There’s a massive arbitrage opportunity in VC

We made the case just a month ago that clickbait stories warning of a crippling recession that would hammer.

July 5, 2023

Should we believe recession clickbait?

Recession has been a month away, for the last 18 months. How should we think about that as private market investors?

June 26, 2023