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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The venture capital industry could face a big contraction in the near future.</li><li>Thats's according to Scott Stanford, cofounder and partner at ACME Capital, an early-stage VC firm.</li></ul><p>It's no secret: Venture capitalists are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lps-are-defaulting-firm-buying-up-their-stakes-2024">hurting</a>.</p><p>A slowdown in VC deal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capital-funding-crunch-will-continue-2024-2023-12">activity</a>, which started in late 2022, has continued into the first quarter of this year, accounting and advisory firm EisnerAmper <a target="_blank" href="https://www.eisneramper.com/insights/financial-services/venture-capital-q1-vc-blog-2024/#:~:text=The%20slowdown%20in%20VC%20deal,was%20invested%20across%2015%2C580%20deals.">wrote</a> in an analysis published on June 16.</p><p>You've heard this story before: inflation, interest rate uncertainty, and low M&amp;A volume are having <a target="_blank" href="https://www.inc.com/sam-blum/the-state-of-venture-funding-in-2024-so-far-anemic.html">chilling effects</a> on the investing environment.</p><p>Venture capital has cyclical fluctuations, but Scott Stanford, a cofounder and partner at ACME Capital, an early-stage VC firm, thinks something more meaningful is underway.</p><p>"It's not crazy to think half the VC firms that were actively investing in the last decade will be sidelined and eventually collapse," he wrote in an email to BI.</p><p>The first wave will die off in the next five years. Ten years from now, the damage will be evident, he said.</p><p>Some simple back-of-the-napkin math paints a grim picture.</p><p>In a chart compiled by Stanford and shared with BI, by 1990, there were 300 VC firms overseeing $17 billion in assets. Over the last two decades, those numbers went through the roof. Now, there are 3,000 VC firms overseeing $1.2 trillion.</p><p>By contrast, the increase in exits is modest at best. By 1990, VC-backed IPOs totaled $12.7 billion. By 2021, that increased to $60.1 billion. And it's a similar story with VC-backed M&amp;A deals.</p><p>The venture industry got ahead of itself, in other words: The proliferation of firms and the money they're managing is not supported by the financial value they're creating.</p><p>"As the venture capital industry matured over the past several decades, euphoric momentum investors, not technologists, drove the creation of funds and the deployment of capital, blind to the nuances and challenges of timing innovation cycles," Stanford and ACME cofounder Hany Nada told investors in a recent letter shared with BI.</p><p>"Just as investors mistime specific investments or funds, the venture industry as a whole got as much as a decade or two ahead of reality, leading to an overcrowded, overcapitalized, and overvalued market," they added.</p><h2 id="03af2507-6311-43f3-ae85-0c2bb24e15b1"><strong>VC backers have other options</strong></h2><p>Other factors will serve to cull the herd in VC, per Stanford.</p><p>Limited partners (LPs), or investors who put money into venture firms, have other options thanks to higher interest rates, Stanford added. Low-risk investments like investing in Treasury bonds, for one example, are commanding a decent return.</p><p>Tech, meanwhile, is "no longer an elusive sprite commanding irrational M&amp;A premiums or IPO exuberance," Stanford said.</p><p>Once upon a time, a startup claiming they were a tech company somewhere in their pitch deck might command a billion-dollar valuation. That era is long gone.</p><p>Finally, AI isn't necessarily the next panacea, Stanford said.</p><p>The jury is out on whether it spawns the next generation of unicorns — when leaders like OpenAI are providing the tech openly, and anyone can use it to spin up decent products.</p><p>All told, in this environment, investors without deep expertise, powerful networks, or mega-funds to deploy will be hard-pressed to raise money and build enduring franchises, Stanford said.</p><p>"A VC without capital is like a tennis player without a racquet," he said. "They can give interviews and make headlines but they aren't invited on the court."</p><div type="image" title="The ACME Capital team." height="4002" width="6000" msid="111124353" hostid="261" sizebytes="1317914"></div><h2 id="73f0b2e9-ab0b-4b58-a988-7c2cd0c879b8"><strong>VCs will have to take risks again</strong></h2><p>Stanford believes today's challenges will give way to a new — or, rather, an old — era of VC investing.</p><p>Tons of startups that went to market in the last handful of years had a similar strategy: Backed with millions in funding, they launched an app that was slightly<strong> </strong>better than someone else's.</p><p>In the past, you could get away with making social features, apps, and incrementally better software in this fashion, Stanford said.</p><p>Nowadays, incumbents can do all that themselves.</p><p>So, investors that survive the contraction will have to back companies that are actually inventing things and therefore come with a sizable risk profile.</p><p>When those companies get it right, they generate outsized returns. When they get it wrong, they go to zero.</p><p>Maybe these VCs can be part of what Stanford describes as a renaissance of technology, "where systems work for us versus us working for them," he and Nada wrote to LPs.</p>

A top VC predicts the industry is heading for a massive and enduring contraction

<br />Investments by <keyword id="34499" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="private-equity" source="Orion">private equity</keyword> (PE) and <keyword id="6357097" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="venture-capital" source="Orion">venture capital</keyword> (VC) funds to homegrown companies declined to $27.9 billion across 697 transactions this year (as of December 20), compared to $47.62 billion across 1,364 deals in 2022, according to a new report. <br /><br />2023 saw more money being pulled out from the country by private equity players, with overall exits reaching $19.34 billion from 248 companies, in comparison to 233 exits worth $18.45 billion in 2022, according to data from Venture Intelligence and industry body IVCA. <br /><br />Meanwhile, venture <keyword id="989750" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="capital-funding" source="Orion">capital funding</keyword> for <keyword id="6362513" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups" source="Orion">startups</keyword> declined by 72 per cent this year compared to last year. The new-age companies in the country received $7.5 billion across all stages (as of December 15), compared with $25 billion last year, according to the data. <br /><br />The fall in <keyword id="6357455" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="funding" source="Orion">funding</keyword> this year is chiefly attributed to slow late-stage deals (Series D and above), which more than halved to $3.5 billion from $11.70 billion in 2022. <br /><br />The early-stage funding deals slowed down. The number of deals declined to almost half to 414 rounds from 871 rounds in the year-ago period, according to the report. <br /><br />Growth-stage funding rounds dropped to $1.9 billion via 99 deals, compared with $6.84 billion from 230 deals in 2022. <br /><br />Making a dent in India's startup growth story, the country slipped to fourth position in the global ranking among the highest-funded geographies in 2023, as it recorded lowest funding in five years. <br /><br />After grabbing the third spot globally in 2021 as well as in 2022, India ranked fourth behind the US, the UK and China this year, receiving only $7 billion in total funding (till December 5), according to recent data by global market intelligence platform Tracxn. <br /><br />In the third quarter (Q3) this year, India even slipped to fifth position among the highest-funded countries -- behind the US, the UK, China and France.<br />

PE, VC investments in domestic companies drop to $27.9 bn in 2023

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Jack Dorsey said Twitter's board — and its activist investor — prompted him to plan an exit from the firm.</li><li>"I was happy to see it end," Dorsey said of the board when Elon Musk took Twitter private.</li></ul><p>Jack Dorsey, the cofounder of Twitter, slammed the board that oversaw the social media firm during his tenure at its helm, saying the group had "always been a problem."</p><p>"I was extremely challenged by my board," Dorsey said during an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.piratewires.com/p/interview-with-jack-dorsey-mike-solana">interview published Thursday</a> by Mike Solana, the head of marketing for VC firm Founders Fund and editor of digital media brand Pirate Wires.</p><p>"The board has always been a problem at that company, and I was happy to see it end," Dorsey continued. "But there was only one way for it to end, which is going private. And I think that's the greatest act."</p><p>Twitter was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-reach-agreement-to-close-acquisition-deal-2022-10">sold for $44 billion</a> in October 2022 to Elon Musk, who took the platform private, radically changed its approach, and rebranded it to X. By then, Dorsey had already stepped down from the company, leaving <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-stepping-down-position-cnbc-reports-2021-11">it in 2021 to its new CEO, Parag Agrawal.</a></p><p>Dorsey told Solana that earlier on, he'd tried to bring Musk onto Twitter's board but was stopped twice. That was partially why he decided to ditch the platform, he said.</p><p>In April 2022, Musk joined Twitter's board of directors after taking a 9.2% stake in the company.</p><p>But Dorsey said he was also unhappy with the board because of an activist investor seeking to boot him, he said.</p><p>"I didn't want to be on a board with an activist," he said. I didn't want to run a company like that. It's just a Wall Street mess. It's not creative, it's diminishing."</p><p>That investor was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-jack-dorsey-ouster-ceo-elliott-management-paul-singer-2020-2">Elliott Management,</a> an investment firm led by Paul Singer that wanted to replace Dorsey because he was spending time on his other venture, Square, while running Twitter as CEO.</p><p>Dorsey said he offered to step down, an offer that was rejected by the board. Still, he said Elliot Management's presence took a toll on his relationship with the firm.</p><p>"So at that point, I'm like, okay, I have to plan an exit," Dorsey told Solana. "It's not going to be right now, but it has to be over the next two years, because I just don't want to live this way."</p><p>His comments align with reports that a fed-up Dorsey was receptive to Musk buying Twitter and revamping the platform.</p><p>During the interview, Dorsey didn't address allegations that he was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-x-jack-dorsey-ceo-book-kurt-wagner-2024-2">practically an "absentee"</a> at both Twitter and Square because he was split between companies. He was accused of being more of an advisor at either firm than the decision-maker and CEO he needed to be.</p><p>Dorsey made his recent remarks just after <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-jack-dorsey-elon-musk-acolyte-2024-5">quitting Bluesky</a>, a social media platform he helped create with an open-source protocol. He then urged users to use X, calling it <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/1786773074232107424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1786773074232107424%7Ctwgr%5E10c41fdff91da5b8bb748913cd1b37b6629e199c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fmeet-jack-dorsey-elon-musk-acolyte-2024-5">"freedom technology."</a></p><p>Since taking over, Musk has pushed for X to become an ideal "digital town square" free of censorship, reversing prior bans on controversial figures such as former President <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-said-donald-trumps-twitter-account-will-be-reinstated-2022-11">Donald Trump</a> and white supremacist <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-white-supremacist-nick-fuentes-back-on-x-again-2024-5">Nick Fuentes.</a></p><p>The billionaire's repeated controversial remarks eventually <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-personality-attitude-problem-advertisers-x-meta-facebook-instagram-2023-12">led to major advertisers leaving X</a>, though Dorsey has also said he believes that the path forward for the platform is to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-dorsey-explains-elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-free-speech-advertisers-2024-5">ditch advertising</a> as a main revenue stream.</p>

Jack Dorsey said Twitter's board 'has always been a problem' and that he plotted his exit from the firm because of its activist investor

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=e8301967eccb9d27ea678ca38d34e3a99a325637d02ba4ff553204f209cc0b15&amp;postID=651484a4d34cd129df390ced&amp;postSlug=life-of-startup-founder-no-vc-funding-money-2023-10&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fposts%2Fmelissakwan_we-made-5-wrong-hires-that-ended-up-costing-activity-7085241513718231040-lGhM%2F"><strong>Melissa Kwan</strong></a><strong> is the CEO and co-founder of eWebinar. </strong></li><li><strong>She says she doesn't have to answer to anyone else because she's bootstrapped. </strong></li></ul><p>I've built three startups over the past 13 years and consciously chosen not to raise venture capital for any of them, also known as "bootstrapping."</p><p>I chose bootstrapping because it lets me live a life that puts my happiness ahead of maximizing profits, which for me, is the life/work balance that makes building a startup sustainable.</p><p>Currently, I'm the co-founder and CEO of <a target="_blank" href="https://ewebinar.com/">eWebinar,</a> an automated webinar platform that helps companies run hundreds of webinars without needing to be there to host them live.</p><p>Here are 8 unconventional ways I get to live my life because I didn't take VC money:</p><h2>1. I'm able to make my own schedule</h2><p>I start my day at noon, go out for dinner, and work until midnight. I don't wake up with an alarm. I run errands when I need to and take naps when I feel like it. I take time off whenever I want, including every birthday.</p><h2>2. I don't have to justify anything to anyone</h2><p>My life partner is my cofounder. We travel nine months of the year and work on the road. We give everything for this company, but externally, it looks like we're always having fun and doing very little. I don't have the stress of needing to justify our relationship and how we spend our time to a board.</p><h2>3. I don't have VC's telling us what to do</h2><p>No VC can tell us to get an office and hire locally to prove their money is well spent. We have a team of contractors who set their own hours. We believe people are most productive when they choose where they live and when they work. Also, I prioritize lifestyle over revenue and don't attend events I don't want to. I don't attend networking events, conferences, or booths. I have a zero-call policy; no sales calls, no support calls — no exceptions. All communication is through email or chat.</p><p>We optimize for happiness, not dollars.</p><h2>4. I'm able to grow slowly – the way that I want to grow</h2><p>It took us 36 months to hit $1 million annual recurring revenue. We spent time listening to feedback and built something customers love so they'd stick around because we didn't need to manufacture growth for investors. And because it was the only way to build a sustainable business.</p><h2>5. I don't have to worry about backlash</h2><p>Since I don't have to worry about keeping up my public image for fear of negatively impacting fundraising, I can share my honest opinion with anyone I want without worrying about backlash. My answer to how things are going doesn't always have to be "I'm killing it!"</p><h2>6. I don't need anyone else's approval to make major decisions</h2><p>As the sole director and board member, I can make decisions around hiring and firing execs, budgeting, compensation, investments, corporation structure, stock options, dividends distribution, selling shares, exiting – as I see fit for the business.</p><h2>7. I can raise capital on my own terms</h2><p>A common misconception with bootstrapped companies is that they raise zero capital. In truth, they often choose to raise capital or sell a portion of their shares much later when there is significant revenue. If we ever take this path, it'll be on our terms.</p><h2>8. I can sell the company when I want</h2><p>This is the most important yet most underrated item on this list. I wouldn't have been able to sell my previous startup if we had VCs because the price would be too low for venture-level returns. I can't imagine working years towards a life-changing exit, only to have someone who never spent a day in my business tell me I can't. If that happened, I wouldn't be living as freely as I do now and wouldn't have cofounded eWebinar.</p><h2>There was a time when I thought I needed venture capital to be a "real startup"</h2><p>I was living in New York, and every startup founder I knew was raising money, so I thought that was the only path to success.</p><p>Ironically, because nobody would fund my last company and we had to sustain our own growth, we became laser-focused on generating revenue and eventually hit profitability. I realized then how liberating it is to not rely on someone else for survival. As it turns out, the only "funding" we needed was from paying customers.</p><p>As I was building a company on my terms, my VC-backed founder friends were constantly stressed over growth rates and how they were going to raise the next round of funding. I had complete freedom and they had very little.</p><h2>While I enjoy the benefits of bootstrapping, it doesn't come without many obvious challenges</h2><p>Growing a company with limited resources means you're constantly making tradeoffs between where you can and cannot invest in your business. And as a founder, you may not be able to pay yourself for years. That kind of sacrifice is not for everyone, and sometimes I do wonder whether it'd just be easier to raise capital.</p><p>But then I think about the way I get to live everyday as a result of having no boss, and I know I made the right decision.</p><p>Many people think bootstrapping is a financial decision. For me, it was an intentional lifestyle choice. I asked myself, "What kind of life do I want to live if I am going to build this company for the next 10 years?</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissakwan/&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1695843459730032&amp;usg=AOvVaw2NXDDlF0OdJL2XnSN4SxK6"><em>Melissa Kwan</em></a><em> is the CEO and co-founder of eWebinar.</em></p>

My life as a startup founder is way better because I didn't take VC money. Here are 8 upsides.

<p>Hello, readers!</p><p>Happy Saturday, and welcome to Insider <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="finance">Finance</keyword>. Here's a rundown of the must-know stories from the past week:</p><ul><li>Insiders say <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-resumes-annual-investment-banking-trading-cuts-rif-2021-2">Bank of America is culling</a> traders and bankers again after pausing cuts during the pandemic</li><li><keyword id="6361649" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Goldman-Sachs">Goldman Sachs</keyword> CEO David Solomon wants <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-ceo-david-solomon-wants-people-back-in-office-2021-2">this year's summer analysts</a> working in the office </li><li>Four Goldman alums <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/purestream-fundraising-goldman-sachs-bank-of-america-alliance-bernstein-nasdaq-2021-12">have raised $14 million</a> to build a new trading venue</li><li>BlackRock's Aladdin and cloud-data storage firm Snowflake <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-aladdin-teaming-up-with-snowflake-data-cloud-partnership-2021-2">are partnering up</a></li><li>Check out our <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-hires-exits-week-credit-suisse-hsbc-goldman-sachs-2021-2">weekly roundup</a> of must-know Wall Street people moves</li></ul><p><em>If this email was forwarded to you, <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/click/22653302.34602/aHR0cDovL25ld3NsZXR0ZXIuYnVzaW5lc3NpbnNpZGVyLmNvbS9qb2luLzRucC9pbnNpZGVyLWZpbmFuY2U_bnJfZW1haWxfcmVmZXJlcj0xJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9U2FpbHRocnUmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1JbnNpZGVyJTIwRmluYW5jZQ/5cf970723f92a452082ea752B3f5606f6">sign up here to get your daily dose</a> of the stories dominating banking, business, and big deals.</em></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-ceo-david-solomon-wants-people-back-in-office-2021-2">Goldman CEO wants this summer's interns in the office and says remote work has had an 'enormous impact' on how the bank operates</a></h3><p>One of Wall Street's most influential CEOs has dumped a bucket of cold water on the idea of long-term remote work and a second year of virtual summer internships, as uncertainty looms about the threat created by the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>"This is not a new normal," Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said this week, adding that the nature of remote work was in conflict with his firm's "innovative, collaborative, apprenticeship culture."</p><p>"I don't want another class of young people arriving at Goldman Sachs in the summer remotely," he said.  </p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-ceo-david-solomon-wants-people-back-in-office-2021-2">Read more about Goldman's remote work outlook, and what it means for young Wall Street.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-resumes-annual-investment-banking-trading-cuts-rif-2021-2">Bank of America is firing people in its investment bank again</a></h3><p>Amid the uncertainty and chaos in the early days of the pandemic, Bank of America committed to avoiding layoffs for the year. For staff in trading and investment banking, that provided a reprieve from the annual culling of underperformers that's common across Wall Street. </p><p>But now the reprieve is over. While some employees are already being handed pink slips, other senior staffers have voluntarily raised their hands to take an exit package, sources told Insider.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-resumes-annual-investment-banking-trading-cuts-rif-2021-2">Get the full rundown here. </a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/purestream-fundraising-goldman-sachs-bank-of-america-alliance-bernstein-nasdaq-2021-12">A new stock-trading venue backed by a who's who of Wall Street is pitching a perfect solution</a></h3><p>A trading venue that aims to make it easier for large investors like mutual funds and hedge funds to trade blocks of stock is gearing up to go live following a fundraise from some of Wall Street's biggest names.</p><p>PureStream Trading Technologies, started in 2018, is preparing for a launch sometime in the second quarter of this year. It's raised $14 million from a who's who of Wall Street investment banks and buy-side firms including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AllianceBernstein, and BMO Capital <keyword id="31671" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="markets">Markets</keyword>, which bought algo platform Clearpool last year. </p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/purestream-fundraising-goldman-sachs-bank-of-america-alliance-bernstein-nasdaq-2021-12">Here's what top trading execs are saying about the launch.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-aladdin-teaming-up-with-snowflake-data-cloud-partnership-2021-2">BlackRock is teaming up with Snowflake</a></h3><p>BlackRock is partnering with a red-hot <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> company as a way of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrocks-gives-outlook-for-aladdin-during-first-quarter-earnings-2020-4">adapting one of its crown jewels</a> to meet a customer base increasingly focused on data and coding. </p><p>The world's largest asset manager is launching a feature called Aladdin Data Cloud with the help of Snowflake, the cloud-data storage firm that went <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coatue-factset-fidelity-early-adopters-snowflake-data-exchange-2020-3">public last fall. </a> </p><p>The new feature allows customers to access and combine Aladdin's data with their own internal or third-party data sets. It'll also serve as a big boost for Aladdin Studio, a set of tools for developers. The decision to open up Aladdin for more customization was a long time coming, Sudhir Nair, global head of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrocks-aladdin-growth-potential-alternatives-investments-2020-5">Aladdin business at BlackRock</a>, told Insider. </p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-aladdin-teaming-up-with-snowflake-data-cloud-partnership-2021-2">Read more about the new partnership here.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-hires-exits-week-credit-suisse-hsbc-goldman-sachs-2021-2">Check out our roundup of this week's Wall Street people moves </a></h3><h3><div type="image" title="Thasunda Duckett preferred headshot_2019" height="1939" width="3877" msid="81245550" hostid="261"></div></h3><ul><li><strong>TIAA </strong>named <strong>Thasunda Brown Duckett</strong> as its next president and CEO. She will join the firm on May 1 from her current employer, <strong>JPMorgan Chase</strong>, where she has served as CEO of Chase Consumer Banking. At TIAA, Duckett will succeed <strong>Roger Ferguson</strong>, who is departing the firm after 13 years as chief executive. JPMorgan co-president and COO <strong>Gordon Smith</strong> said in an internal memo that, in the meantime, leadership of the consumer bank will report in to him and that the firm will announce plans around succession shortly. </li><li><strong>Maverick Capital</strong> executive <strong>Andrew Warford </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/maverick-capital-andrew-warford-leaving-chairman-stock-committee-family-office-2021-2?r=reed">is leaving the $9 billion hedge fund</a>. Warford, chairman of the firm's stock committee and de facto head of the fund, is departing after 18 years. He was tapped to head up the stock committee in 2012 and became a managing partner in 2013 as <strong>Lee Ainslie</strong>, Maverick's billionaire founder, gradually stepped back and delegated more power. Sources tell Insider that Warford will run his own family office from Minnesota.</li></ul><p><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-hires-exits-week-credit-suisse-hsbc-goldman-sachs-2021-2">Read more for our full rundown of moves at firms like Goldman, Credit Suisse, and HSBC.</a></strong></p><h3>Other stories our readers loved this week:</h3><div type="image" title="cathie wood ceo ark invest profile 2x1" height="1250" width="2500" msid="81245552" hostid="261"></div><ul><li>Cathie Wood has staffed her firm with analysts in their 20s and 30s as she looks to predict the future. 2 analysts break down <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/proptech-startups-the-hottest-real-estate-and-construction-tech-companies-2021-2">what it's like to work at Ark Invest.</a></li><li>These <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-stripe-mafia-14-former-employees-with-their-own-startups-2021-2">14 former Stripe employees</a> are raising millions for their own startups, from climate tech to a Slack competitor</li><li>Rally, an app that splits collectibles like vintage cars into shares,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rally-robinhood-general-counsel-fintech-investing-app-lawyer-2021-2"> just nabbed Robinhood's litigation head</a></li><li>The 31 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/proptech-startups-the-hottest-real-estate-and-construction-tech-companies-2021-2">hottest proptech startups, </a>as chosen by leading VCs</li></ul>

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon wants more face time; Job cuts are back at Bank of America

<p>Hi readers!</p><p>Welcome to the long weekend and to Insider <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="finance">Finance</keyword>. Here's a rundown of the must-know stories from the past week:</p><ul><li> Meet <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-20-ma-investment-bankers-deal-volume-north-america-2020-2021-1">the top 20 bankers</a> involved in 2020's biggest M&amp;A deals.</li><li>Wall Street's talent war for 2022's class of interns has already kicked off. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/investment-banking-internship-recruiting-timeline-shifting-earlier-summer-analysts-2021-1">Here's why the search started so early. </a></li><li> An inside look at <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-blackstone-turnaround-bumble-dating-app-ipo-private-equity-bmbl-2021-2">how Blackstone transformed dating-app Bumble</a>, which soared in its IPO debut this week.  </li><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ram-sundaram-goldman-sachs-structured-credit-chief-retiring-trading-2021-2">Goldman Sachs trader</a> who built the 1MDB trades that landed the bank in trouble is set to exit. </li><li>How money managers are rushing to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/esg-sustainable-investing-asset-management-wealth-management-blackrock-biden-gensler-2021-1">get a grip on ESG investing</a> as Biden commits to fighting climate change.</li></ul><p>If this email was forwarded to you, <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/click/22653302.34602/aHR0cDovL25ld3NsZXR0ZXIuYnVzaW5lc3NpbnNpZGVyLmNvbS9qb2luLzRucC9pbnNpZGVyLWZpbmFuY2U_bnJfZW1haWxfcmVmZXJlcj0xJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9U2FpbHRocnUmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1JbnNpZGVyJTIwRmluYW5jZQ/5cf970723f92a452082ea752B3f5606f6">sign up here </a>to get your daily dose of the stories dominating banking, business, and big deals.</p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-20-ma-investment-bankers-deal-volume-north-america-2020-2021-1">The Rainmakers: Here are the top 20 dealmakers who put together the biggest mergers and acquisitions of 2020</a></h3><p>While M&amp;A had a down year during the pandemic, bankers still orchestrated a number of megadeals.</p><p>Insider partnered with the financial-data platform MergerLinks to identify 2020's top 20 bankers. The ranking is based on lead investment bankers who arranged the largest M&amp;A deals in North America.</p><p><strong>More on deals this week:</strong></p><ul><li>Former TD Ameritrade CEO and chairman <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-moglia-spac-acquire-opploans-fintech-td-ameritrade-oppfi-fgna-2021-2">Joe Moglia's SPAC announced plans to acquire fintech OppLoans</a> in a deal valued at $800 million</li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/investment-banking-internship-recruiting-timeline-shifting-earlier-summer-analysts-2021-1">Applications for Wall Street summer internships in 2022 are already opening. Here's why the talent war for undergrads is starting earlier and earlier.</a></h3><div type="image" title="investment banking timeline shifting earlier 2x1" height="1333" width="2667" msid="80898231" hostid="261"></div><p>The timeline to nab a summer internship on Wall Street can start as early as two years beforehand. Banks like RBC Capital Markets and BMO Capital Markets are among the first to open applications for summer analyst positions.</p><p>Insiders explained how competition among firms is accelerating the start of the process.</p><p><strong>For more on battles for best talent: </strong></p><ul><li>Big Law is scoring talent from the Big 4. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-4-big-law-talent-wars-between-accounting-law-firms-2021-2">Here are the law firms winning the battle</a> for professional services talent.</li></ul><h3>Here's how private-equity giant Blackstone transformed Bumble, the dating app targeting a valuation of more than $7 billion in its upcoming IPO.</h3><div type="image" title="Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd is" height="4480" width="5973" msid="80898235" hostid="261"></div><p>Bumble's public offering marks a milestone for Blackstone's growth equity group. </p><p>The group started in 2019 when Blackstone hired Jon Korngold from General Atlantic and has also invested in oat milk brand Oatly. Korngold spoke with Insider in January and detailed several changes Blackstone helped implement at Bumble.  </p><p><strong>For the backstory on how Blackstone and Bumble matched up:</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jon-gray-blackstone-profile-succession-schwarzman-interview-ceo-bumble-oatly-2021-1">Jon Gray is the future of Blackstone. </a>50 insiders reveal how the super investor consolidated power, elbowed out rivals, and is remaking the firm in his golden-boy image.</li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/esg-sustainable-investing-asset-management-wealth-management-blackrock-biden-gensler-2021-1">Biden is committed to fighting climate change. It has money managers scrambling to get a grip on sustainable investing.</a></h3><div type="image" title="sustainable green investing 2x1" height="1333" width="2667" msid="80898238" hostid="261"></div><p>Firms are pushing deeper into sustainability as Biden's administration eyes a stronger ESG approach. The administration has already ushered in wins for climate activists and may finally look to define ESG.</p><p>We asked industry insiders how firms were addressing the rise in socially responsible <keyword id="35175" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="investing">investing</keyword>.</p><p><strong>For more on sustainable investing this week:</strong></p><ul><li>How <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-aladdin-climate-big-data-analytics-sustainable-esg-investing-2021-2">BlackRock is 'sprinting' to solve ESG's data dilemma</a>, according to Aladdin's sustainability head</li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ram-sundaram-goldman-sachs-structured-credit-chief-retiring-trading-2021-2">Read the full memo announcing the exit of a Goldman Sachs exec who built the 1MDB trades that landed the bank in trouble.</a></h3><div type="image" title="Ram sundaram goldman sachs" height="1130" width="1506" msid="80898240" hostid="261"></div><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/profile-of-goldman-sachs-trading-executive-ram-sundaram-2020-7">Ram Sundaram</a>, the head of currencies and emerging-markets business at <keyword id="6361649" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Goldman-Sachs">Goldman Sachs</keyword>, is planning to exit the firm. </p><p>Sundaram is a Goldman partner who was closely involved in the design and sale of the trades the bank did for the Malaysia development fund known as 1MDB. Sundaram has had a leading role over the past 15 years in some of the bank's most imaginative - and at times controversial - trades. </p><p><strong>Read more for other big changes at Goldman:</strong></p><ul><li>A former <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-names-former-stripe-exec-head-direct-consumer-business-2021-2">Stripe exec was just tapped to help run Goldman Sachs' Marcus</a> and lead its direct-to-consumer strategy. </li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennium-annual-letter-from-englander-performance-hires-capital-hedge-fund-2021-2">A new investor letter from billionaire hedge-fund manager Izzy Englander lays outs Millennium's massive 2020, from blockbuster performance to a global hiring spree</a></h3><div type="image" title="millennium hedge fund 2x1" height="1249" width="2499" msid="80898242" hostid="261"></div><p>Billionaire Izzy Englander's Millennium had its best year since 2000. In the firm's annual letter, which went out to investors last week, Englander lays out the firm's personnel growth and fundraising activity. </p><p><strong>Other hedge fund news: </strong></p><ul><li>Billionaire Alan Howard's hedge fund <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brevan-howard-hire-morad-masjedi-goldman-sachs-portfolio-manager-2021-2">Brevan Howard just hired a longtime Goldman Sachs mortgage trader</a> as a portfolio manager</li><li>Volatility-focused hedge fund manager <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/artemis-capital-chris-cole-wall-street-social-media-volatility-gamestop-2021-2">Christopher Cole warns that Wall Street needs to wake up</a> to social media 'weaponization' after GameStop frenzy</li></ul><h2>Other stories readers loved this weekz</h2><ul><li>More than 100 Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC alums sit on S&amp;P 500 company boards, fueling concerns over conflicts of interest. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/11-board-members-connecting-sp-500-companies-and-big-4-2021-1">Here's our exclusive look at the web of board members</a> that used to work at Big 4 firms.</li><li>PayPal is seeing high engagement numbers from crypto holders on its app as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paypal-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-investor-day-growth-strategy-payments-2021-2">digital currency is shaping up to be a key part of the payment giant's future strategy</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-a-job-in-crypto-at-grayscale-2021-2">How to get a job at Grayscale</a>, the world's largest digital asset manager</li><li>FT Partners, a top fintech deal advisor, is now raising its own <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ft-partners-bregal-sagemount-launch-fintech-spac-2021-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$400 million SPAC with a private equity firm</a></li><li>A startup helping community banks expand their reach with digital offerings <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nymbus-insight-partners-fundraising-fintech-banking-as-a-service-2021-2">just nabbed a $53 million Series C round led by Insight Partners</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zach-newkirk-perkins-coie-lawyer-jeopardy-profile-alex-trebek-2021-2">Meet Zach Newkirk</a>, the Perkins Coie lawyer who raked in a six-win streak on 'Jeopardy!'</li></ul>

Top 20 rainmakers - Blackstone's Bumble boost- Wall Street's talent war

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Jason Shames founded Skipper in 2020 and raised $5.8 million in seed funding this August.</li><li>He met his lead investor, Google's Gradient Ventures, through Pear's demo day.</li></ul><p>Jason Shames is a <a href="https://www.sps.nyu.edu/homepage/academics/faculty-directory/20705-jason-d-shames.html">professor of hotel distribution</a> at NYU and the cofounder of <a href="https://www.skipperhospitality.com/">Skipper</a>, a boutique hotel-booking platform he launched in 2020. Before raising an official seed round for the company, Shames received investments from family, friends, and Pear, an early-stage venture fund based in California. Last year, as part of <a href="https://www.pear.vc/accelerator">Pear's annual demo day</a>, Shames got to pitch his startup in just three-and-a-half minutes to hundreds of investors.</p><p>After the presentation, Shames told Insider, 70 lead firms reached out — including an investor at <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gradient-ventures-google-vc-fund-artificial-intelligence-2017-7">Gradient Ventures</a>, Google's venture fund focused on early-stage companies primarily in the AI space. "We were very fortunate that we got a lot of interest in our business, and I think it was because travel became interesting to venture capitalists for the first time in a while," Shames told Insider.</p><div type="image" title="Headshot of Wen-Wen Lam" height="323" width="431" msid="95239482" hostid="261"></div>In August, Skipper<a href="https://skift.com/blog/travel-tech-firm-skipper-raises-5-million-to-help-independent-hotels/"> announced a $5.8 million seed round</a> led by GV. Shames, who most recently served as the vice president of web and digital distribution at boutique-hotel brand Ace Hotels, and Wen-Wen Lam, a partner at GV, shared what about the company's pitch helped it gain the major VC firm's attention, and how their partnership came to fruition.<h2><strong>A match of experiences and a strong team</strong></h2><p>After the demo day, Shames said, he was connected with Lam through an associate at GV. Shames knew Lam from his days running the travel company <a href="https://www.jetaport.com/">Jetaport</a>. She also came with similar experience to his, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-sell-company-struggling-industry-wen-wen-lam-2021-11">having built and exited a booking company</a> called NexTravel before joining GV.</p><p>Old-school payment processes were one of the biggest problems she'd faced when running her company — so seeing Skipper as a viable solution, she told Insider, got her instantly intrigued. "I know the travel industry quite well. And that's one of the reasons why I made the investment in Skipper, because I saw the big opportunity in what they're doing," Lam said.</p><p>Shames' team, which consists of Dane Bratz and Cole Maritz, two Stanford alumni with substantial experience in software and hospitality, and the company's partnerships with Robert Redford's <a href="https://www.sundanceresort.com/">Sundance Mountain Resort</a>,<a href="https://marrammontauk.com/"> Marram Montauk</a>, and <a href="https://www.theameswellhotel.com/">The Ameswell Hotel</a> in Silicon Valley, were other selling points for the investor. "Jason and his team have very deep knowledge and connections in the hotel and travel industries. So they're the best team to get customers, and they wouldn't have a lot of issues going to market. They would be able to not only build new tech but work with existing systems as well." Lam said.</p><p>Shames said he decided to work with GV because of Lam's deep knowledge of the industry and the firm's connection to Google, which he believes is the most powerful force in travel right now. The two have monthly check-ins and frequently communicate via email and text about developments around sales, product, and recruiting.</p><p>"There's a lot of value to the relationship," Shames said. "Their industry experience is so valuable for us, and they've been a great sounding board and brilliant operating partner. It makes me understand the value of a top-tier fund."</p>

How a hospitality startup founder hooked Google's VC firm to lead its $5.8 seed round with a 4-minute pitch

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Jon Gray is <keyword id="48032" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Blackstone">Blackstone</keyword>'s No. 2, and has already ushered in a massive transformation under his watch.</li><li>Gray helped put together Blackstone's deal for Bumble, the dating app that's now gearing up for an IPO. </li></ul><p>It was a meeting that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jon-gray-blackstone-profile-succession-schwarzman-interview-ceo-bumble-oatly-2021-1?r=gray-teaser" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jon Gray</a> couldn't miss.</p><p>So when his transatlantic flight touched down in the early hours of a September 2019 morning, the president and chief operating officer of the nearly $600 billion alternative-asset manager Blackstone told his driver to head straight to the company's headquarters on Park Avenue rather than his home on the Upper East Side.</p><p>Gray and Blackstone's co-founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman had a breakfast planned with Whitney Wolfe Herd, the young <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/read-bumble-founder-letter-ipo-filing-2021-1">founder</a> of Bumble - a dating app where women make the first move, and just the type of hip, fast-growing company in which Blackstone has increasingly sought to stake its own continued expansion.</p><p>Herd, was 29 at the time. Gray, a youthful 49, boundlessly affable, and the billionaire No. 2 at the world's largest private-equity firm, cast a different image from the traditional buyout titan.</p><p>Two months later, Blackstone would purchase a majority share of MagicLab in a deal that valued it at $3 billion and promoted Herd as the new CEO. By January 2021, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bumble-files-to-go-public-ipo-2021-1">the dating app filed for a public offering </a>that could double that valuation or more - creating a blockbuster exit for Blackstone in the span of just over a year.</p><p>Winning over hot businesses that have their pick of investors has become one of Gray's most visible successes in the three years since stepping into the role of president and COO at the firm.</p><p>Insider talked with 50 people who know Gray about his path to the top of firm. They revealed sides of Gray that few people outside of Blackstone have seen, including the tireless focus, drive to perform, and unbridled ambition behind his calm and amicable exterior.</p><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jon-gray-blackstone-profile-succession-schwarzman-interview-ceo-bumble-oatly-2021-1?r=gray-teaser" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SUBSCRIBE NOW TO READ THE FULL STORY: Jon Gray is the future of Blackstone. 50 insiders reveal how the superinvestor consolidated power, elbowed out rivals, and is remaking the firm in his golden-boy image.</a></h2>

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