‘A billion-dollar outcome and a billion-dollar valuation isn’t enough anymore’

Toronto – June 18, 2024

In 2024’s VC environment, startups won’t get by on billion-dollar valuations anymore. That’s according to Maven Ventures general partner Sara Deshpande (pictured above), who said that these days, investors are searching for “brick wall” founders.

“Unfortunately, a billion-dollar outcome and a billion-dollar valuation isn’t enough anymore. [Firstly], can you figure out an outcome in the US$2 to US$10 billion range, or more?” asked Sara.

“And [secondly], is there an opportunity for this market to be very, very big? And then the third [aspect is] around the founding team … this idea of grit, what we call a brick wall founder, somebody that will tear through a brick wall to bring this idea to fruition,” continued Sara.

For those who think society is in a funding drought, think again, as according to Blank Ventures co-founder and general partner Antoine Nivard, “there’s a lot more capital out there” – you just need to work for it.

“The bar is much higher. The best you can do is control your own destiny, and you do that in two ways: First, you need to have a very clear storyline around your raison d’etre.”

Antoine observed that when starting in venture 10 years ago, there were fewer companies of a much lower quality. Now, with so much competition, tech founders need to be “very crisp about your story, what you have to bring, why you’re solving this specific problem”.

The founder also said that startups need to know their process, “and that is not just about fundraising, it’s really in the realm of company marketing”.

“It’s about managing the psychology, managing the perception, managing the timeline as well in terms of fundraising,” added Antoine.

Antoine also revealed the secret weapon in a founder’s arsenal: “I think a common mistake for first-time founders is they try to come at it having all the answers, but really, when you raise capital, the most precious thing you have is time”.

“You have 18, 24, maybe 36 months to run a series of experiments. You have a core assumption. There’s a bit of a scientific method to it.”

“So try to find something that’s very, very unique … that you can bring to fruition with your vision and your brick wall-breaking abilities,” said Antoine.

These comments were made as part of a wider discussion on new trends in early stage investing at Collision, which is returning to Toronto for its sixth year. Global founders, CEOs, investors and members of the media have come to the city to make deals and experience North America’s thriving tech ecosystem.

More than 1,600 startups are taking part in Collision 2024 – the highest number of startups ever at a Collision event. 45 percent of these are women-founded, and startups have traveled to Toronto from countries including Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Uruguay, Japan, Italy, Ghana, Pakistan and beyond.

In total, more than 37,800 attendees have gathered at the event, as well as 570 speakers and 1,003 members of the media, to explore business opportunities with an international audience.

739 investors are attending Collision, including Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures; and Nigel Morris, co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, as well as nine companies on the Forbes Midas List, and 12 investors from those firms.

Top speakers at Collision include:

• Geoffrey Hinton, Godfather of AI
• Maria Sharapova, entrepreneur and tennis legend
• Aidan Gomez, founder and CEO of Cohere (an AI for enterprise and large language model company, which raised US$450 million at a US$5 billion valuation in June 2024)
• Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi (a Canadian autonomous trucking company)
• Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1Password (a cloud-based password management tool)
• Dali Rajic, president and COO of Wiz (a cloud security platform)
• Alex Israel, co-founder and CEO of Metropolis (an AI and computer vision platform)
• Jonathan Ross, founder and CEO of Groq (an AI chip startup)
• Keily Blair, CEO of OnlyFans
• Autumn Peltier, Indigenous rights activist

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Useful links

• Collision website: https://collisionconf.com/ 
• Collision media kit: https://collisionconf.com/media/media-kit  
• Collision images: https://flickr.com/photos/collisionconf 
• About Web Summit: about.websummit.com