VC Theses #76 | Analyzing & Prepping for the Market Downturn, Next Web3 Biz Models, & more

May 15th–21st | Insights from Redpoint, Founders Fund, Craft, Lightspeed, and more.

Ali Afridi

May 22, 2022

Hi Everyone 👋,

Given the recent developments in the public and private markets, much of the content this week is around the current downturn. As such, we’ve re-organized the categories temporarily to better showcase the latest analyses from VC firms.

Best,

Ali

On the Downturn and Navigating the Times

The 4 Startup States During a Recession (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Redpoint)
Contextualizing the Consumer Correction (Meera Clark, Principal @ Redpoint)
The Fortune of Failure (Rick Zullo, GP @ Equal)
Reversion to the mean: the real long COVID (John Luttig, Principal @ Founders Fund)
How This Ends (Fred Wilson, GP @ USV)
Operating during a downturn – Video (David Sacks & Jeff Fluhr, Craft)
The upside of a downturn. (Lightspeed Team)
All According To The [Terrible] Plan (Kyle Harrison, Partner @ Contrary)
YC Message to Founders (YC Team)
Questions you should ask as the market melts down (Micah Rosenbloom, Partner @ Founder Collective)

Investment Themes & Industry Analyses

The Next Business Models of Web3 (Jake Tauscher, VC @ G2VP)
Introducing the 2022 State of Crypto Report (A16Z Crypto Team)
Field Study: Global Supply Chains — Part 1 (Aubrie Pagano, Partner @ Alpaca)
Influencer Marketing 2.0 🤳 (Rex Woodbury, Partner @ Index)
Your guide to a new PLG era (Kyle Poyar, Partner @ OpenView)

Guides, Case Studies, and Best Practices for Operating

So You Want to Improve Your Sales Efficiency (Tomasz Tunguz, MD @ Redpoint)
Four sales truths that B2B founders need to learn ASAP (David Frankel, MP @ Founder Collective)
35 Impactful Questions Managers Should Ask Themselves Regularly (First Round Review)
How To Create a Candidate Sell Deck and Use It To Win Talent (Alex Maas, Sr. Manager @ OpenView)
A Startup’s Guide to Launching College Ambassador Programs (Jacob Westphal, Partner @ A16Z)

Additional Reads

Newton's Alchemy (Packy McCormick, GP @ Not Boring)
Trying Too Hard (Morgan Housel, Partner @ Collaborative Fund)
Rule of 40 Rules All (Kevin Stevens, Partner @ Energize)
How do you know when to leave a company? (Erik Torenberg, Partner @ Village Global)
What Does It Mean To Be A “Good-Faith Skeptic” & When Is “Bad-Faith” Warranted (Hunter Walk, GP @ Homebrew)

Did we miss something?

We’re now pulling posts from over 650 Medium writers, Substack newsletters, and blogs (full list here). Let us know if you notice someone we’re missing and we'll include their content starting with our next digest! Just respond to this email with their URL if that’s the case.

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