This Week in VC Podcasts

Sep 22 – Sep 28, 2025

10 top clips from 2 episodes across 2 shows

Trending this week

seed investingnew valuation disciplinenew due diligencenew growth equitynew

Clip of the week

Venture Unlocked· Mercedes Bentcontrarian take

Why seed VCs are walking away from hot AI deals

23:39 / 24:16

But even still, you know, if you take your random person of the mill who comes out of OpenAI or Anthropic and wants to raise, you know, $1,520,000,000, I'm not in those either. Let's bring it down even to the ones who are doing raising 8 to 10,000,000. I at 40 to 50 post, which is becoming very common. I probably don't wanna be in those either. So I do think there's a question of why would you, as a seed manager, compete for these things? I think most people have gotten very

23:39 - 24:1637sRead the episode →

Top clips

Venture Unlocked · Mercedes Bent

market insight

Large VCs have simplified venture to one question about billion-dollar bets

A discussion of how the venture landscape has changed, with large funds focusing on massive investments that can return billions quickly, while seed funds compete for deal flow as consensus founders increasingly skip seed rounds. The conversation touches on how AI is accelerating investment timelines and changing fund dynamics.

21:09 - 21:5041s

fund-strategy seed-funding ai-investing

Venture Unlocked · Mercedes Bent

contrarian take

Why seed investors are getting lazy about founder evaluation

A VC argues that seed managers shouldn't compete for oversubscribed rounds at high post-money valuations. They critique how the explosion of both investors and founders has led to lazy evaluation processes that rely on superficial signals rather than substantive founder assessment.

23:58 - 24:3638s

seed-investing founder-evaluation valuation-discipline

Riding Unicorns · Rupert West

contrarian take

VCs need financial skills AND founder skills to generate actual returns

Rupert West argues that venture capital teams need a mix of both financial expertise and founder-type profiles to succeed. He pushes back against the idea that VCs should only hire one type of person, emphasizing that the industry must get better at generating actual returns, not just paper gains.

14:29 - 15:2254s

vc-team-building venture-returns fund-management

Venture Unlocked · Mercedes Bent

contrarian take

VCs reveal the career-killing risk of making non-consensus bets

A discussion about the internal pressures VCs face when making contrarian investments, exploring the concept of 'gifted TVPI vs earned TVPI' and how consensus investing is safer for VC careers. The speakers reference Martin Casado's viral tweet about the tension between playing it safe and making bold, non-consensus bets that may not pay off immediately.

26:04 - 26:4238s

consensus-investing vc-career-risk non-consensus-bets

Venture Unlocked · Mercedes Bent

market insight

PE-like duration with venture-like IRR but high cyclicality creates exit challenges

A discussion of investment strategies that combine private equity duration with venture capital returns, but face significant cyclical risks. The speaker explores how the real challenge isn't finding growth opportunities but timing exits effectively, leading to questions about secondary markets and continuity funds as solutions for scaling entries and exits.

22:30 - 23:0535s

exit-timing irr-analysis secondary-markets

Riding Unicorns · Rupert West

tactical advice

The leadership skills that got you to 20 people won't work at 100

Rupert West explains how founders must honestly assess which of their current leadership strengths will scale and which will become limitations as they grow from 20 to 100+ employees. He emphasizes the importance of proactively identifying and addressing these skill gaps before they become growth blockers.

11:00 - 11:3434s

leadership-transition scaling-teams founder-evolution

Riding Unicorns · Rupert West

tactical advice

Why investment banking experience gives VCs a secret weapon in exits

A discussion about how VCs with investment banking backgrounds can provide unique value to portfolio companies during exit processes. The conversation explores how this experience translates into practical help for founders when selling their businesses, touching on the often overlooked but crucial DPI metric that matters to investors.

12:14 - 12:5339s

exits investment-banking dpi-metrics

Riding Unicorns · Rupert West

framework

Why confidence without self-awareness kills growth equity deals

Rupert West explains the critical difference between blind arrogance and informed confidence in growth equity investing. He emphasizes how thorough due diligence processes benefit both investors and portfolio companies, creating mutual trust while ensuring capital is deployed for maximum impact.

17:29 - 18:0334s

due-diligence growth-equity capital-deployment

Riding Unicorns · Rupert West

tactical advice

Growth equity investor reveals what later-stage investors really scrutinize during diligence

Rupert West from Puma Growth Partners explains how growth equity firms help portfolio companies become "next round ready" by identifying and fixing issues that later investors will scrutinize during due diligence. He emphasizes that addressing these concerns early makes future fundraising and exits significantly smoother.

18:36 - 19:1337s

due-diligence growth-equity fundraising-prep

Venture Unlocked(5)Riding Unicorns(5)

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