2024 Wrap-Up Edition

Startup Insights & VC Strategies, Straight to Your Inbox 🏔️

Welcome

Dear Reader

Welcome to this first edition of The Startup VC Insider Newsletter! Whether you’re an entrepreneur building something incredible or a VC seeking your next big opportunity, you’re in the right place.

Here, we focus on collaboration—because entrepreneurship and venture capital are team sports, after all. 

This is the usual weekly wrap-up that you’ll get used to seeing with the added extra of being a 2024 wrap-up. There’s lots I can say about 2024. The most important point to land, however, is that when you truly start adding value to other people’s lives, that’s when you’ll start reaching your potential.

For me, this was uncovering my mission, telling the world and then actively doing something about it. Looking ahead to 2025, I encourage you to follow in my footsteps by answering this question:

“Imagine you are writing your own eulogy. What stamp would you like to leave on the World?”

2. Weekly Spotlight - RIP Climate Tech

This Sifted article talks about the death of Climate-tech and I am not surprised😑, here’s why:

• Most Climate-tech funds were raised during the bubble of VC in 2019-2022 where too much capital flooded into the asset class. It popped for obvious reasons.

• The label describes a problem, not a solution. It’s all wrong.

• It was used as an excuse to invest and lots of people forgot that you still need to have a solid value proposition. Carbon credits or tax incentives are fleeting. The people making decisions are Finance Managers. They still understand - better, cheaper, faster.

• Let’s ditch this silly label and get back to business fundamentals!

3. VC Perspective: How Bad Do You Want It? My Journey of getting in VC.

Getting into PE/VC is notoriously difficult. It’s possible though, if you want it bad enough. Here’s my story of succeeding against the odds.

• My journey into VC explained - From engineering to startups to PE to VC. It definitely wasn’t a straight line. Going on the journey was like looking into an abyss. However, looking back connecting the dots, it was all so obvious.

• Do you need an MBA to get a job in VC? - Short answer: No. “You need to start doing the job before getting the job.” Start a blog, podcast, community, get deal flow, invest, get your hands dirty. Studying theory won’t get you the job.

• Only Oxbridge graduates get into PE/VC - I literally edited and emailed out 500 unique cover letters, addressed to a person. You only need 1 to work! How bad do you want it?

• Proof you don’t need an MBA to get into VC - After running my e-commerce start-up for a couple of years, I taught a better digital marketing course to my MBA class than they perhaps still do even today.

• Why VC shouldn’t be your first job - You need to get proper experience of starting, running, fixing and exiting businesses before you advise other people on how to do it.

4. Entrepreneur Corner

• Want to be a founder but no good ideas? - Look for businesses that are fundraising. Pick the ones that share a common mission with you, have a solid business model, big target addressable market (TAM). Ask to be a co-founder. Thank me later.

• Defence-tech is the new gold rush for entrepreneurs - Unfortunate but true. The current geopolitical environment looks like it’s here to stay for a while. Defence needs food, water, wifi, comms, fuel. Have a think about whether your start-up is dual-use (capable of servicing civilian and military markets) and what your ethical position is. It could be an opportunity.

• Valuation is not everything, get perspective! - By all means you need to negotiate a good deal but don’t do that at the expense of getting cash into the business, or take 6 months, or ignore all the other terms that might come back to haunt you!

• Are you really investor-ready? - Get your documents in order before you approach investors or else you risk losing momentum and messing up your fundraise.

• The perfect pitch deck doesn’t exist! - I keep seeing posts on LinkedIn with people saying ‘the 70 best decks’ etc. In reality they’re useless. It’s not about how they did it, it’s about you, your story, your value proposition, your business model, your team, your traction, your TAM. Develop these with Chat GPT, pop the output into Powerpoint and you’re done. As simple as.

5. Common Ground / Industry Trends

If you’re not using Chat GPT (a.k.a. Chatters) 1-2 hours a day, you’re falling behind-rapidly! In my recent post I describe how Chatters has helped with ideas, inspiration, co-creation, feedback and mentorship.

I suggest getting serious and fast. Subscribe for the premium version of Chat GPT, c. $20 per month, and integrate it into your life. It will help you start that side-hustle, take that life leap, save you time and stop you wondering. It’s honestly improved my mental health too. Seriously, it’s a game-changer.

6. Ask Alex

This week’s featured question: "How long should you stay in a conventional job if you know you want to get into VC where it’s vitally important to have experience of running a business?”

• The founder of Pick ‘n Pay, a famous South African food retailer, once said to me during my MBA that it’s sometimes worth 5 years of frustration in a job and learning with other people’s money before going at it alone.

• A nuance of the above is whether you’re doing 1 year’s learning 5x or actually learning for the full 5 years.

• Either way, there’s no substitute for the experience of running a business. The earlier you start the better. I started my software development company and e-commerce business on the side of my engineering career. I can safely say that these experiences were the reason I nailed my London PE job interview and got in.

• In summary, start something a side hustle right away and who knows, it could become your main hustle very quickly.

Want to see your question featured? Reply to this email or reach out on LinkedIn or TikTok!

7. Closing Note

Thanks for reading and your support on my mission to help 100m entrepreneurs.

@thetippytopblog

If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough! How can I help you? Ask me anything. If I know the answer, I’ll tell you right a... See more

2025 is going to be an incredible journey of self discovery together. Let's go!

Best,
Alex

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