r/venturecapital

I run a neurotech recruitment, market data and media business and finally did something I had been putting off, placing every funded company by headquarters and then doing the same for the investors. 564 companies, 107 investors I could confirm. 330 of the companies are American, and all of Europe combined is 165. The investor side is even more concentrated, 81 of the 107 are US-based. What struck me is that US investors clearly fund a lot of the non-US companies too, so the geographic gap in where the money comes from is even wider than where the companies are. Happy to talk through the method or the gaps in the comments. Full write-up with the charts and the investor list is linked below.

Does anyone have any idea about firebolt ventures and whether it is a good firm to join as analyst?

Hi all:

1. could you share your top 3 newsletters that you follow daily/weekly? (To contribute: I'm a fan of a16z's news letter)

2. also I am a fan of market updates from bloomberg's tech hour (available on youtube) but wondering if someone has been able to recap their updates in a newsletter format?

If you don't have a personal connection to a VC firm or know someone to give you a warm intro, how do you successfully reach out to a VC firm to get them to view your pitch?

Hey,

I’ve been sending a few pitch decks recently, and most of the time I don’t really know if they were actually read.

Sometimes I get a reply, sometimes nothing.

Just wondering how other people think about this.

Do you just wait and see what happens, or follow up after a while?

Yesterday we launched full API + MCP server for Papermark Data Rooms

What you can do with it?

• Spin up a data room. From a single instruction, an agent creates a structured data room with folders, ready for a deal or fundraise. → create_dataroom() · create_folder()

• Upload & organize documents. Agents push files into the room, set versions, and let Papermark auto-index pages for search and analytics. → upload_document() · update_document()

• Share secure links. Generate scoped share links with NDA gating, expiry, email verification, and dynamic watermarking on every page. → create_link() · update_link()

• Read page-by-page analytics. Agents pull who viewed what, time per page, and downloads to rank serious buyers and trigger follow-ups. → get_view_analytics() · list_views()

• Run grounded due-diligence Q&A. Search across an entire room and return answers cited back to the exact documents the agent is allowed to see. → search_documents()

• Manage visitors & access. Grant or revoke per-bidder access, rotate passwords, and keep staged disclosure tidy across a live process. → list_visitors() · update_link()

• Act on real-time events. Subscribe to webhooks so an agent can respond the moment a link is viewed or a new document lands. → link.viewed · document.created

• Export the audit trail. Pull an append-only log of every view, download, and change for the deal record or a compliance review. → get_audit_log()

This uncover a lot of use cases for creating and controlling your data room.

Do you think in the future our data rooms will be created, managed and read by agents?

Is cold email still the most effective way to reach pre-seed investors, or is LinkedIn better? Looking for what’s actually working right now.

Is there scope for me to start a financial research firm where I do sector analysis or deal dilligence memos for agel investors, small family offices, PE firms, and VC? So basically I would deliver a financial research report and recommendation for firms contemplating deals or looking at entering a particular sector. Im a student right now so I do want to do a couple of free work until I get some good testimonials. But is this even a viable business model and would firms actually buy from me? Appreciate your thoughts!

I'm curious if anyone else in the VC community has run into this.

I subscribed to The Information last year at $299. This month I was renewed at $399.

A few things about the experience surprised me:

• I specifically remember attempting to cancel after I originally subscribed. I routinely do this with annual subscriptions so I don't get surprised a year later.
• I noticed the renewal within a few days.
• I cancelled immediately.
• I requested a refund immediately.

Support told me:

• They sent a renewal email.
• They do not provide refunds on renewals.
• My subscription is now cancelled and active until next year.

The part that concerns me is that I asked them several specific questions and haven't received answers:

1. Can they verify that the renewal email was actually delivered, not just sent?
2. Can they review account logs to see whether there was cancellation-related activity around the time I originally subscribed?
3. Can they escalate the case to a supervisor with authority to make an exception?

Instead, I keep receiving responses that don't address those questions.

I understand auto-renewal. I understand subscription terms.

What I don't understand is refusing to refund a customer who notices the charge almost immediately and asks for a refund right away.

I'm genuinely curious:

• Has anyone else here had a similar experience with The Information?
• Has anyone successfully received a refund on a renewal?
• Does anyone know how difficult the cancellation flow was a year ago?

I love the journalism, which is why this experience has been so disappointing.

At this point I'm less frustrated about the money and more frustrated that straightforward questions are not being answered.