17: Inside the VC playbook — After a tech bubble collapse

Mind games and “dirty term sheets.” These are the kinds of potential pitfalls that await tech entrepreneurs and employees in the financial landscape of 2023, especially those particularly in need of fresh infusions of venture capital. In this latest episode of Onward, Fundrise CEO Ben Miller walks co-host Cardiff Garcia through another set of fascinating — if often unforgiving — complexities arising from today’s high interest rate environment. Now that capital is no longer flowing freely and willingly from investors across the country, what options do tech leaders have when their companies’ valuations plummet in comparison to the sky-high estimations from just last year? As Ben emphasizes once again, when we’re uncertain about the future, we should always look to the past. Using lessons learned from the 2000 tech bubble collapse, Ben illustrates for us how a company seeking venture capital in a harsh financial environment like today’s has a choice. They encounter a fork in the road: Is it more prudent to take a down round and accept a lower valuation? Or better to accept structured money and dirty terms, while maintaining the high value assessments assigned during the fundraising of earlier rounds? All this and more in the latest episode of Onward.

Have questions or feedback about this episode? Drop us a note at [email protected].

Onward is hosted by Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, and Cardiff Garcia, co-founder of Bazaar Audio and host of the economics-focused podcast The New Bazaar (after spending many years as the co-creator and co-host of NPR's The Indicator podcast).

Podcast production by The Podcast Consultant. Music by Seaplane Armada.

About Fundrise
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