Happy August everyone! Here’s hoping you’re getting the chance to kick back and enjoy your summer, or, if you’re in this business, the chance to marvel at the growth of alternative funding platforms around the world (See the news section below!). 

I am consistently awed by the growth of the alternative funding market, embodied mostly by the launch of more and more RBF platforms. This proliferation of new kinds of capital will no doubt impact the traditional capital markets, and there is a lot of talk now about the effect it will (we will) have on VC in particular. Sam Lessin’s article “The End of Venture Capital As We Know It” (sorry, it’s behind The Information’s paywall, but it’s a great read if you can find a way to access it) makes the case that, except for early seed investments, VC is changed, that it has essentially been displaced in certain kinds of deals. You can see a good summary and analysis for free here. 

This aligns with what we as a community have always believed, and along the way, we have all long discussed the notion that VC is not the right fit for every capital need. The exciting thing is that we are now seeing that this idea is not only taking hold, but that the trend we as a group have started is now becoming a mainstream idea, something amplified by mainstream investors. I know, I know, I’ve said this before, but I will keep saying it. It’s a wave, folks. And it’s growing.

In fact, I think that one of the most exciting and daunting questions for any of us to consider today is this: What role will my firm play? When considering this question, I think it’s hard to imagine a better time to be in this market. So what role will you play? What impact are you going to have?

Oh, and to my VC friends: don’t worry, you will always be needed for the earliest stages of company development, and for really hard science deals like drug development, etc. So your place in those markets is secure. Well, for now at least.