Aileen Lee, Somesh Dash and Andrew Reed on the vacuum startups can fill, what's happening in venture and whether the IPO market is dead.
VCs on challenges and opportunities during coronavirus
In our Virtual Meetup, we covered:
1:12 What's changed in your role as venture capitalists amid the coronavirus pandemic and what hasn't?
5:00 When you've been working with your existing companies, what is the baseline scenario that you're advising them on? How much are you advising revenues dropping or when this will reopen?
8:45 What metrics are kind of the new gospel that you're paying much closer attention to now than you were previously?
11:37 As you're talking to these entrepreneurs about funding and doing your zoom dinners and happy hours, what are some new questions that you're asking entrepreneurs during this time as part of your diligence process?
14:02 What questions should founders be asking investors during this period as they are doing similar diligence on firms?
15:37 As you are looking to the future and new companies to invest in, are you taking the long view that things will essentially go back to the way they were? Or are there new trends that are emerging that you think will actually last through this and that our world has changed forever?
17:43 Have your views changed on investing in fully remote startups or startups that are outside coastal cities?
19:24 Do you expect to see more investment in areas like biotech and clean tech and less in things like marketing or sharing economy companies going forward?
22:11 Do you anticipate your investing levels to be lower in this year as you're kind of testing the market? And will valuations also be lower as a result?
23:05 Is IVP more interested in investing in the public market?
24:11 What about the IPO and M&A market windows? Are you guys seeing a lot of activity on the m&a side? And do you expect any of your companies to IPO this year?
27:35 How are you approaching investing in new companies, which are being hurt by COVID right now, but did have a strong team and before COVID had best in class traction and growth?
30:00 What is a problem you'd like to see startups solve?
For more on the VC and startup community each Saturday, sign up for my newsletter Protocol Pipeline. Join us again for Protocol's next Virtual Meetup on May 21 for a conversation with Rep. Will Hurd.