Venture capital is a tool, not the goal. The speaker warns that many funds are shutting down or pausing investments, and founders face a tougher market this year due to tariff uncertainties and other economic headwinds.
You should look at venture as a tool. I mean, it should just be financing. It's not a means and an end to itself. You know, in the old days, venture capital became this kind of fuel that your role as a company was to get more of it, like forever until IPO. You know, Brian likes to say that, like, you should look at venture as a tool. I mean, it should just be financing. It's not a means and an end to itself. So I think that's important to have in perspective. And right now, you know, the venture market is very tight. There's a lot of people sitting on the sidelines. There's a lot of funds that are either closing up shop or they're not investing or they're holding out for absolutely crazy deals because it's been a couple tough years in the venture world. And this is supposed to be the year that we turned the corner and that things picked up and there were good exits and IPOs. And now we've got, you know, tariff uncertainties and other things happening. So it's a tough time in the venture world for founders.
