Connor Ryan

VC @BridgeInvestVC, former @listendotco & @TheRiversideCo🚀 @KelloggSchool💜 wildlife & nature enthusiast🐼 college football junkie🏈 annoying @NotreDame fan☘️

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

Welcome to the SaaSpocalypse!💀🔥 More in the doomsday bunker👇🔗

[BBC London @BBCLondonNews]

Happy 100th birthday, Sir David Attenborough 🎉❤️

The broadcaster who changed how we see the natural world.

#DavidAttenborough

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

https://t.co/0MYrK5Tr1Y

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

Welcome to the SaaSpocalypse!💀🔥 More in the doomsday bunker👇🔗

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

✅

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Here's YC's official advice about being truthful and precise about what is pilot, bookings, revenue and recurring revenue.

Founders, particularly first time founders, need to sear this into their brains. Don't mistake one tier for another. Be precise, and always be truthful.

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@drewfallon12 COMPS - I need it Drew!

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@drewfallon12 Hey you missed a couple labels

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@StephNass VC Map

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

https://t.co/BbfuAmhLnD

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

There's been a lot of activity in consumer recently 👟🧸...

Check out my podcast with @lifeofbi from last month discussing why consumer is an important part of our strategy and how we think about investment decisions in the category at @BridgeInvestVC!

Link below 👇

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@BridgeInvestVC @CarawayHome @PrioriLegal @us_abstract @bonsai @Sierra_Ventures https://t.co/hDoALvgnj9

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

🔥Hot start to 2026 at @BridgeInvestVC!

🗑️@CarawayHome starts the year with 4 new product launches
🎙️@PrioriLegal, @us_abstract, @Bonsai on podcasts and panels
🏔️Traveling coast to coast including the @Sierra_Ventures Pre-Seed Summit
🌉Thoughts from Bridge

🔗Link in comments!

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

Throwing out the “why now?” section of my pitch deck and just reffering LPs to this instead. 😉

[Pavel Prata @pavelprata]

I think this shift in seed valuations is starting to meaningfully impact portfolio construction and actually creates a new set of opportunities for EMs.

For me it feels less like “everything is getting more expensive” and more like the market quietly splitting into two different layers.

If you look at the chart, for most of the distribution not much has really changed – median quartile is moving, but not dramatically. What’s really happening is the top 5% completely detaching and pulling the headline numbers up.

A few deals (AI infra, hot teams, etc) are getting priced at $100–175M at seed, which starts to create the illusion that “this is the new normal,” even though it’s really just a very narrow slice of the market.

And that has a pretty direct impact on portfolio construction for smaller funds.

If you’re running a $30-50M fund and trying to play in that layer, you either don’t get into those deals at all, or you get in with a check that’s too small to matter – $500K–$1M into a $100M+ round quickly turns into sub-1% ownership, and after a few rounds of dilution it’s hard to see how that position moves the needle even in a good outcome.

So you end up in this awkward spot where you’re either overpaying for perceived quality or under-owning your winners, which is basically the worst combination for a small fund.

But the more interesting part is that for the rest of the market (probably 70–80% of it) the game hasn’t actually changed that much.

I think pre-seed and early seed in the $5-20M range still exist, and in some ways they’re even less competitive now because so much attention and capital is getting pulled into that top percentile.

So what looks like “expensive seed” is really the creation of a new asset class inside seed (call it pre-priced winners or early growth disguised as seed) – while the true early stage is still there, just slightly out of focus.

And ironically, that’s where the opportunity for emerging managers probably gets cleaner.

"Less" competition, more room for ownership, more ability to lean into non-consensus – which is still where most of the actual DPI for a small fund gets built.

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@drewfallon12 @iiiitsandrea Never thought “IRRmogged” would come across my timeline but here we are

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@landon20s @claudeai Subscribed 🫡

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@landon20s @BridgeInvestVC 👋

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@drewfallon12 🤢

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

In case you missed it, the Q4 @BridgeInvestVC newsletter went live last month:

🪡 @QuilttFintech's Seed round
🌉 New Thoughts from Bridge
🚚 @automotus_inc on podcasts and securing patents
🍳 @CarawayHome product launches and top company recognition

https://t.co/D7dATeF0D6

[Connor Ryan @ConnorRyan2013]

@haleymbryant @HustleFundVC @dunkhippo33 @ericbahn @shiyankoh HALEY!!! Congratulations!!! Well deserved ❤️