kvm

managing director @generalcatalyst running CVF | sold cos to @palantirtech, @meta | studied comedy @stanford

[kvm @__kvm]

Next time a Hinge date asks why I’m single, I’ll tell her some frontiers have to be paced

[kvm @__kvm]

Props to Jensen for managing his wife + 3 affairs. My ideal number of romantic partners is 0.7

[kvm @__kvm]

@pranavsinghvi

[Pranav Singhvi @pranavsinghvi]

Too many talk about being a “strategic” CFO.

Here is what a top-notch one actually looks like. And there are not many of them.

[Aron Susman @asusman103]

$270M to $3B+, with fewer people than we had in 2021. The proudest work of my career, alongside the best team I know.

The point was never fewer people. It was more for patients: helping millions reach their health goals, for less.

[kvm @__kvm]

@pranavsinghvi same

[kvm @__kvm]

@ZReitano Thank you for sharing this. Absolutely incredible business

[kvm @__kvm]

Required reading for any generational founder

[Z Reitano @ZReitano]

https://t.co/KSkuRhqTxn

[Z Reitano @ZReitano]

Have listened and learned from @patrick_oshag and his guests for years. When I decided to do this conversation, I went straight to him. Hope you enjoy it.

Still just the beginning!

[General Catalyst @generalcatalyst]

We led @mercor’s seed in 2023, and today we’re backing them for the fifth time in their $750M Series D as they help enterprises own their intelligence.

Mercor builds custom evals from human expertise, giving every business the same tools the best AI application companies use.

Congrats to @BrendanFoody, @adarsh_exe, and the whole Mercor team.

[kvm @__kvm]

@ekzhang1 @modal @thinkymachines incredible

[kvm @__kvm]

the problem with thinking that you’re hot shit is that sometimes you’re only half right

[Sriram Krishnan @sriramkri]

wrote about this a year ago

surprised many startups arent using this

a great way to scale if you already have pmf and great understanding of your customer cohortss

https://t.co/NBtWn1MOP4

hit up @pranavsinghvi

[kvm @__kvm]

Wao

[dan @_dan_lee_]

Today we’re announcing $500M in growth capital from @generalcatalyst 🚀

[kvm @__kvm]

🥹

[Yuri Sagalov @yuris]

CVF is the most unique financial offering GC has. With CVF a post-PMF company can scale growth massively without using its own cash for CAC.

[Pranav Singhvi @pranavsinghvi]

Appreciate the call out @gokulr

To clarify: CVF only gets paid if the specific cohort pays back, if it doesn’t, we bear the risk on each individual cohort, with no recourse to any other part of the company. As a result, while the cost of capital is capped, it is a function of the outcome on each cohort as we’re aligned with the company. CVF is risk-bearing capital, so we can’t work with companies where the unit economics are not there.

On compute: we already finance compute if it is part of GTM and the investment has a measurable ROI (lots of token spend is GTM-related).

The challenge is when there is no measurable ROI yet or the ROI is very high volatility, and you have to rely on the price of a GPU persisting to recoup the investment or find a way to hedge it. You can always YOLO and make money on a few trades because GPU prices have only been going up, but we’re more interested in a real solution, so looking hard at the problem from that lens.

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

If you're a startup with a good handle on your CAC / payback period, and cohorts that reflect this stability, General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund is an excellent way to raise non-dilutive capital (@ 12-15% interest rate IIRC) to scale sales and marketing. Kudos @pranavsinghvi and team on this innovative product - great for both founders and LPs.

Given AI startups have relatively small product development teams, most equity fundraise proceeds are used to (a) Scale GTM and (b) Scale Compute.

The CVF is a great solve for GTM. I'm hopeful we'll see a good debt solve for Compute soon.

And then, startups can truly scale infinitely without expensive equity financing beyond a couple of early rounds.

(Example of company using CVF in link)

[Sho Sho @shosquared]

GC offsite 👾

[kvm @__kvm]

@anvisha incredible

[Reggie James @HipCityReg]

I have been sent the same tweet by several people now

Sometimes it takes a single counter-voice to give everyone permission to say what they really feel

[kvm @__kvm]

@u_chill @generalcatalyst sorry I’m poor

[kvm @__kvm]

some personal news: I’m resigning from @generalcatalyst effective immediately after being robbed of the halloween costume award for the fourth year in a row