Between massive IPO bumps, founders being picked off by big tech, and ever-increasing round sizes and valuations, today’s startup market is getting a little frothy. Still, we remain optimistic at where the ship is headed. Across the board, startups are continuing to accelerate from Q1, with ARR and GAAP revenue growth rates continuing near three-year…| Scale Venture Partners
Venture firms love to talk about what they’ve built. New dashboards, sourcing models, founder portals. Ask any LP and they’ll tell you about the sea of sameness coming out of any VC annual meeting. But when I look at the infrastructure supporting our own investing work, what stands out the most to me isn’t what… The post The infrastructure and models we wish we had: Building for the next generation of venture appeared first on Scale Venture Partners.| Scale Venture Partners
There’s been a transformation brewing in how startups operate. Startups are accelerating again, with topline momentum returning in late 2023 and forecasts for 2025 looking increasingly optimistic. What’s striking is that this resurgence in growth is happening while companies are maintaining—and in many cases improving—their operating efficiency. Stabilized opex is a strong signal that the…| Scale Venture Partners
Venture capital has always been a mix of art and science. And training more apprenticeship than algorithmic. It seems most investors trust their network, their read on the founder, their estimates on the market. In other words—pure gut. And for good reason. That judgement has historically been hard to teach and even harder to quantify…| Scale Venture Partners
It feels rough out there, at least from the headlines. But despite broader market volatility (liberation day anyone?), early indicators from software startups show signs of resilience. Startups are going for it, and willing to take some hits on efficiency for gains in revenue. What happened this quarter: Companies are back on offense. Both ARR…| Scale Venture Partners
We now have full year data and can say for sure: growth is back. After the low of 2023, 2024 showed real acceleration and 2025 looks even better. After a tough and unsteady few quarters, startups are finding themselves in a uniquely advantageous position. The adaptability and lessons learned from the post-hypergrowth era have equipped…| Scale Venture Partners
Over the past couple of weeks, a number of founders and startup teams have reached out to us to help them think through how they should be setting their 2025 growth and spend targets. As part of this early annual planning work, we collected “whisper numbers” for 2025 where we asked our companies for very…| Scale Venture Partners
Whisper numbers for 2025 signal a new chapter for startups: growth is reaccelerating, but this time with a sharp focus on maintaining—and in many cases improving—operating efficiency. Just two years ago in 2023, growth rates hit a period of rapid slowdown, with signs of recovery only beginning in Q423. Since then, the momentum has shifted.…| Scale Venture Partners
This quarter’s flash report shows more of the same from last quarter, and the forecast indicates a steady finish for the year. This is good news! The return to growth paired with ongoing gains in operating efficiency is holding, showing that the “year of efficiency” has given way to an era of sustainable growth. This…| Scale Venture Partners
The theme of 2024 is cautious optimism. With improved ARR growth rates across the board and two consecutive quarters of median GAAP revenue growth improvement, it looks like the worst is over. So, where do we go from here? We’re seeing startups aiming for a more sustainable way of operating, focusing on customer retention and…| Scale Venture Partners