Michael Kim

Founder of @CendanaCapital

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

Today, we are announcing our new fund, @CendanaCapital 6. It was our fastest fundraise ever, and had interest well above our $400M hard cap. We added a handful of new institutional LPs–including for the first time, 2 public pension funds. We are particularly keen that a number of our LPs are mission driven–they are the financial engines for a number of world-class educational and not-for-profit organizations, and of course, public pension funds that provide the retirement benefits to their members. We are grateful for the trust and support of our LPs!

Armed with the pattern recognition built over the past 15 years, and the willingness to be both creative and open to refining our approach, we are super excited about the opportunities over the next few years. Chaos is a ladder–for most people, chaos leads to confusion, inaction and ultimately failure. If we remain clear-eyed about our mission, execute accordingly and become true partners along the way to our LPs and to our GPs, we are confident that we can lead the way.

More detail here about our focus:

https://t.co/WrrPNPhDRv

[This Week in Startups @twistartups]

Power laws rule everything around me. That’s the core takeaway from today’s venture capital roundtable with Footwork’s @nbt, Cendana Capital’s @mkrocks and @alex. Nikhil reckons that the Valley has never been more power-law-pilled than it is today, a dynamic impacting who raises, how much, and from whom. Hit play for the state of play in the secondary markets, why data is once the talk of tech, why the SaaSpocalypse may fade, and more!

0:00 Introduction: Nikhil Basu Trivedi (Footwork) & Michael Kim (Cendana Capital)
1:59 The Anduril vs. USVC secondary market blowup
4:08 Why Silicon Valley is 'power-law-pilled'
8:23 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://t.co/AhhYi7Bzen and use code TWIST for 10% off!
9:37 Information asymmetry in the secondary markets
9:45 https://t.co/euF2nCvx0Q — For all of your incorporation, banking, payroll, benefits, accounting, taxes or other back-office administration needs, visit https://t.co/vGH52tTqeh
15:02 Is SPV fraud smoke or fire?
16:32 Superhuman acquires GPTZero
19:54 https://t.co/xQao2Q9LNf - Stop chasing invoices and automate your entire contract-to-cash stack. Go to https://t.co/1LJvXhyz3p and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!
21:10 The M&A wave
27:19 The SaaSpocalypse debate
29:59 DigitalOcean - Head to https://t.co/YCLFZ4OMDZ to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%.
30:44 Data's moment in the energy → compute → data loop
35:01 Where will AI value accrue?
40:04 What could cause an AI correction?
42:17 Why some companies are "too big to miss"
46:23 China's possible open-weight model ban
53:28 Young founders: Etched, Thiel Fellows, Z Fellows, Neo
55:33 Portfolio spotlight: WindBorne's weather balloons and data moat
58:47 Michael's favorite fund manager: Josh Browder

🎥 Watch the full episode here 👇

[This Week in Startups @twistartups]

@MKRocks @CendanaCapital Check out the full docket at https://t.co/26pwGulpZm

[This Week in Startups @twistartups]

🚨 We're LIVE in 20 minutes with @MKRocks of @CendanaCapital.

Michael was the first institutional LP in IA Ventures; now he's the LP behind dozens of the best seed funds in the business, with nearly $3B under management.

Last fall, he said the quiet part out loud: venture funds are sitting on 20-year-old positions with nowhere to go. With secondary markets in chaos this week, we're asking him what breaks first.

See you at 12 PM central! We've got a stacked panel today!

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

I think one way to look at where we are today is that we're in basically ZIRP 2.0, where it's not the U.S. government providing free cash but rather the platform funds. There'll be a time where that low cost of capital and the availability of it will slow down. The catalyst might be the circular economy around data centers and compute getting dented by a correction in the public or credit markets.

Similar to 2022 and what followed would be the same story, where companies have to focus not on growth at all costs, but on getting to profitability. Given that compute and energy are constraints, the pricing power for inputs will be held by those companies and not by the end users (i.e., the startups), so it will be a more challenging period for these companies to get to profitability.

Of course, if there is a large and significant correction in the public equity and credit markets, corporates spending on AI may also pull back materially.

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

I would invest in @cory and @Joshuabrowder where the post moneys are low single digits. @apartovi who has larger funds but are 10-15x. @kevinhartz who get it done and newer GPs like @carloagostinel2 and @kokoxs Pretty much covers a continuum, but a very early stage one. If duration is an issue, would cover with @Greenoaks @foundersfund and @ThriveCapital Or, to simplify, just invest in @sequoia’s suite of funds and call it a day.

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

@MeghanKReynolds @hamilton_lane In 7 of the years, actually

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

@MeghanKReynolds @hamilton_lane Interesting to see Seed/Early VC returning higher than All PM in 6 of the years, Multi-Stage VC in 5 of the years and Late-Stage VC in only 2 of the years.

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

Love @immad and @mercury — this is a very smart move. Think of all of the wiring fees saved 💥

[immad @immad]

1/ Mercury Personal is now free (normally $240/yr) for active Mercury Business users**

Personal comes with:
* Free wires
* 3.25% APY
* Mercury Invest for s&p and t-bills funds
* Joint accounts and auto transfer rules
* All in the same powerful app you love

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

We @CendanaCapital are very excited to part with @MoneroMahesh and @DAnconia_Crypto. We were impressed by their hustle and their passion…Sal even has an EV3 tattoo on his neck 💪🏼💥

[MoneroMahesh @MoneroMahesh]

1/ We’re thrilled to announce EV3 Venture Fund II, an oversubscribed $61.74M early-stage venture fund dedicated to backing entrepreneurs with generational drive and ambition. We’re tripling down on crypto with bigger checks and deeper involvement.

Watch the EV3 Vision Below:

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

@TheTrueVanguard Tank rush

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

@elonmusk @SciGuySpace An idea—deposit 1 share of SpaceX into the proposed Trump accounts for newborns. Fosters appreciation for capitalism and equity ownership. Pretty decent tax deduction as well.

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

We at @CendanaCapital are very excited to partner with you @Carles_Reina 💪🏼💥

[Carles Reina @Carles_Reina]

Today, I am thrilled to announce @baobab_ventures, an operator-led, solo GP $15M fund backing global, pre-seed & seed technical teams in AI, Robotics and Defence. I've already done 7 deals: THEKER Robotics, Omnia, Murphy AI and Altan are public. 3 more aren't (yet).

8 years ago, I did my first angel investment in an upcoming startup named @Revolut ($75bn company). During these years, I've backed 74 startups, mostly in the deep tech space. I was the first investor in @elevenlabs ($6.6bn), and happily backed @gokiwibot, Vsim, @praktika_ai, and @happyrobot among many others.

The thesis for Baobab is simple:
Building companies has dramatically changed over the past 3 years. What previously worked is no longer useful. Startups can close enterprise deals in <60 days and use PLG as a catalyst for PLS. To do so, they need to reach Momentum. Quickly. This means they need to nail GTM & distribution, deploy products weekly and spend extra time with customers. I've built GTM globally at ElevenLabs and can actively help teams build in the US, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Latam or the Middle East.

I am an operator-turned-investor-staying-operator at ElevenLabs. And I love it. I get the best of both worlds.

Thank you to my amazing LPs @CendanaCapital, @cyberfund, @isomercapital, RSJ Investments, Emergence Ventures, dara5, @gnutekm, @MKRocks, Jan Habermann, Ondrej Bartos, Jakub Krikava, Benedikt Franke, Chloe Dagnell, Donovan Tan, Dr Fatima P. Godall, Freddie Macpherson, Graham Pingree, Iván Leal Durán, Jatinder Mehmi, Javi Palafox, Pablo Palafox, Luis Paarup, Reece Chowdhry, Konstantin Lomashuk, Karolina Mrozkova, Kelli Fontaine, Lucca Norton, Stella Norton, Mario Götze, and more.

https://t.co/2nVmOrDK6x

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

@Carles_Reina @baobab_ventures We are very excited to partner with you @Carles_Reina 💪🏼💥

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

Super excited to be working with @infoarbitrage again 💥. IA Ventures Fund 1 was the first ever commitment made by @CendanaCapital and I think we were the first institutional LP to commit to it. It was perfect timing as both big data and very early stage venture market in NYC were about to take off. Now, as Roger discusses below, he sees similar dynamics with technology and sports & entertainment. Afterall, data is a critical component of sports (performance) & entertainment (engagement). We are very excited to see Roger work his magic 💪🏼

https://t.co/967nQqth4T

[Jack Altman @jaltma]

We’re ready to add to our team at Alt Cap! We love being a small team and want to stay small-ish forever, but we have more to do these days than we can manage so it’s time to grow.

A bit about us:

- We’re investing out of our $275M fund II in San Francisco; mostly seed and series A, but there are no hard and fast rules. We just want to build something great and work with founders who inspire us.
- We love what we do; we could (and do) talk about startups and venture all day. For better or for worse, our work lives and personal lives are deeply integrated and we’re thrilled about it.
- Joy comes before excellence. We want to be as good as possible at what we do conditioned on it never coming before loving our work and our lives. We strongly believe you can have both.
- We think fortune favors the bold, that a small number of things make most of the difference, and special people are what make special things happen.
- We’re highly independent people who love our time together. No one here wants to be told what to do, but no one here is a lone wolf. We think, grow, and improve as a team.

A bit about you:

- You’re friendly and empathetic, but you’re competitive and want to be great.
- You’re a student of startups and business. You know a little about a lot in tech, and when you don’t understand something that you can tell is important you’re driven to learn about it.
- You value signal over noise. You don’t like being busy for the sake of being busy, you prioritize sanity for yourself and people around you. You’re okay to be patient and wait for great.
- You never root against a company under any circumstance; you have a deep respect for what every founder is pouring into their startup.
- You’ve done some work (maybe you were a founder or a VC before) but your glue isn’t dry and you strongly feel that your formative work years are still ahead of you.
- You’re highly flexible and want a fun journey more than a particular destination.
- You’re allergic to the politics of deal attribution and just want to win as a firm.
- You’re motivated to be hugely successful, for whatever reason is meaningful to you.

If you or someone you know might be a great fit please get in touch!

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

.@Tim is a pretty low key guy but iykyk 💥 Very excited to continue our partnership with @EssenceVenture 💪🏼

https://t.co/Uc5TuAVqTi

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

Today, we are very happy to announce that Josh Grimm @jtgrimm_ , has joined @CendanaCapital as our CFO. With close to $3 billion under management, 5500+ portfolio companies, and 3 lines of businesses (fund of funds, secondary funds and direct investment funds), Cendana is substantially more complex compared to when I started it 15 years ago using Excel spreadsheets. We spent the past 8 months working with Stina Ladd at @true_search_US who did a tremendous job to find a CFO that shared our vision for full financial automation and data integration.

Josh brings deep expertise in finance operations, reporting, and strategy, most recently serving as Controller at a16z. At a16z, he helped establish the finance function for the firm’s crypto funds and was an early member of both the Finance and Fund Strategy teams. Earlier in his career, Joshua served as Audit Senior Manager at KPMG, where he led audits for alternative investment funds in the financial services industry, including our Cendana Blackbird fund.

Bringing Josh on board ensures we have the financial leadership to scale our financial and technology capabilities to help simplify the ever-increasing complexity of the Cendana ecosystem 🚀

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

@Curiousjorge65 @HarryStebbings @Beezer232 @LDEakman Totally. It’s a negative signal if a multi-stage firm does a secondary. Seed funds, on the other hand, have greater degrees of freedom

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

@HarryStebbings @Beezer232 @LDEakman @Curiousjorge65 Our advice to GPs is that if you can sell 10-30% of a major value driver and return a material part of the fund, you should consider it. We have never advocated selling an entire position.

[Michael Kim @MKRocks]

Very excited at @CendanaCapital to help launch an LP track with @Cookie at @TechCrunch Disrupt. Come join us on October 28th in San Francisco! Will also feature the legendary @kevinhartz of @A_StarVC
https://t.co/RT45UNlrvZ