NEWS & PRESS
Blockchain has certainly provided incredible opportunities across an array of business and cultural functions, from much-needed transparency across the supply chain to the massive proliferation of nonfungible tokens in the investment space. However, yet another blockchain-enabled opportunity — DAOs — is making waves due to its massive potential within the business sphere. So what exactly is a DAO?
A venture capital company's success hinges on the future milestones achieved by the businesses comprising a finite portfolio selected from a massive pool. That's why, to identify promising companies, most VCs have a well-defined process for how they vet, evaluate, and decide on where to invest their money. In that way, we're no different at Ascend Venture Capital. We follow a process to evaluate each potential investment in our pool to determine whether an opportunity is right for us. However, where our process diverges is how founder pedigree is weighed in our calculus.
If you’ve been following the world of Venture Capital, you likely know that it has seen explosive growth that shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. VC funding reached record levels in 2020, and investors are sitting atop a tremendous pile of dry powder. Unfortunately, the VC world is no stranger to unethical behavior — and this can have negative impacts on funds, portfolios, and investors alike. Venture Capital firms have to create an ethical framework to guide their activity and follow it wholeheartedly. Find out how to source investors that share ethical values.
Market manipulation in any form undermines capital market integrity and could lead to foundation-eroding doubts about the actual value of any business. We saw this very phenomenon come to life at the beginning of 2021 — when GameStop stocks soared to bewildering levels in a matter of days, despite steep quarterly sales declines, as a result of retail investors driving up the price artificially. For many, the GameStop frenzy, along with a host of other longstanding issues in venture capital, threw the issue of ethical investing into sharp relief. Dan Conner shares why those in the VC sector should commit to abiding by a venture capital code of ethics.
Over the past decade, family offices have become increasingly interested in the realm of direct investments and coinvesting. This trend has led family offices to gather specified asset pools and the talent required to allocate capital directly into private markets. Today, nearly every family office has decision-makers with firsthand experience in successfully operating businesses. While the direct investment route affords greater control and transparency, it’s not without its downsides. Here are the pros and cons of direct investing and how to identify when investing in venture capital funds and working closely with venture capital managers makes more sense.
Originally published on Equities.com
It used to be the case that an initial public offering was the preeminent financing opportunity for startups, leading most companies to go public earlier in their life cycle. But the proliferation of private equity dollars over the past 30 years means that one of the best investment strategies is to influence founders to keep their companies privately held for considerably longer…
