Goingvc

Many people associate venture capital primarily with sourcing deals and making investments.

In practice, the role is becoming much broader.

Today’s venture professionals often help founders recruit talent, build partnerships, navigate fundraising, expand networks, and access strategic resources.

As the industry evolves, the ability to create value beyond capital continues to grow in importance.

The venture capital industry is evolving alongside advances in technology and changes in founder expectations.

While financial analysis and relationship building remain foundational, many firms increasingly value skills that extend beyond traditional investing, including AI proficiency, sector expertise, founder support, and community building.

For aspiring investors, developing a broader skill set may create new opportunities to contribute and stand out.

What capability do you think will become most important in venture over the next few years?

Building a VC fund is a lot like building a startup.

And growing that fund into a firm — and eventually a franchise — follows almost the same arc as a startup going from seed to IPO.

Here's the part nobody advertises: only 20% of firms make it from Fund I to Fund IV. And only 1.7% ever become a true franchise.

So what separates the ones that survive?

According to Kauffman Fellows' Zero to Four study — based on 100+ interviews with fund managers — it comes down to three things:

1. Trust, built into the investment process from day one. Returns get you in the room. Trust keeps you there.

2. A real market insight. Every firm that reached Fund IV owned an untapped opportunity — a new geography, a new vertical, or a structurally different VC model.

3. Treating the firm itself as the product. Team-building, LP relationships, fund architecture — these aren't ops afterthoughts. They're the strategy.

We wrote the full breakdown at GoingVC: how teams grow across Fund I through IV, how mature firms run multiple vehicles at once, and what the fund → firm → franchise arc really looks like on the ground.

Only 1.7% of VC firms ever become a franchise. 🏛

Most funds don't fail because of bad picks — they fail because the firm itself was never built to last.

The difference between a fund and a franchise:

A fund deploys capital.
A firm builds process.
A franchise builds trust — with LPs, founders, and the market.

Swipe to see how the arc really works ➡️

Full breakdown at GoingVC (link in bio).

Revenue growth shows progress. It does not explain how the business works.

Investors look at what drives that growth.
Customer acquisition cost, retention, and margins shape how sustainable it is.

These factors determine whether growth can continue without increasing pressure on the business.

Early on, investors look for signs of traction and direction.
As conversations go deeper, they focus on unit economics and retention.
After investing, they track ex*****on against plan.

The same business is evaluated differently depending on the stage of the conversation.

We published a guide to understanding these metrics. Read more on link in bio.

Venture capital performance isn’t one number.

IRR. DPI. TVPI. RVPI. MOIC.
Each one answers a different question.

Some show speed.
Some show real cash returned.
Some show what’s still just on paper.

If you don’t understand the differences, it’s easy to misread performance.

We put together a simple cheat sheet covering the key VC fund metrics, what they mean, and when to use them.

Save it for later. It’s a useful reference whether you’re building, investing, or learning VC.

In venture capital, one metric never tells the full story.

IRR shows speed.
DPI shows real returns.
TVPI shows total value.

The best investors know how to read them together.

We put together a practical guide to VC fund metrics, covering what they mean, when to use them, and how to interpret them in context.

If you’re building, investing, or exploring VC, this is a strong place to start.

"You can't be behind in your own life. It's literally impossible to be behind if you're the only person in the race." About the article:
Adeola didn't know what venture capital was until her junior year of college. She came from West Philadelphia, studied human health at Emory, and had no existing foot in the door of the industry. She's now a pre-seed investor at Seae Ventures, focused on healthcare access and equity.
We sat down with her to talk about how she got in, what she looks for in founders at the earliest stage of company building, and what it actually takes to get an investment across the line inside a firm — not just to find it. Link here:

This week we sat down with Adeola, a pre-seed investor at Seae Ventures, who came into venture capital without a finance background, without a network, and without knowing the industry existed until college.

What she did have was a clear and specific point of view on healthcare — and it shaped everything that followed. The piece covers her path in, what she looks for in founders at the earliest stage, and one of the harder lessons she's learned about how investment decisions actually get made inside a firm. Link in the comments.