Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

Unveiling the Brutal Truth Behind Venture Capitals Real Purpose

5 May 2024 · 1 min

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This is a short excerpt from a Jason M. Lemkin talk arguing that venture capital is a narrow, niche asset class whose purpose is to find extreme outliers. Lemkin contends VC will not become fairer to pre-seed founders or those who "don't check any boxes," and emphasizes that the goal is to discover companies like GitLab, Okta, and Stripe. The tone is direct and critical of expectations that VC should broadly serve all founders.

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They're not delivering a lot of results. And so again, I say this just to be helpful that it won't. I don't think venture will get fairer for pre seed. I don't think venture will get fairer for folks that don't check any boxes. It sucks. But venture is a business. And here's two last points. And I know founders, founders especially, haven't gotten this last four or five years. Venture capital is a niche, niche, niche asset class only designed for outliers. The job is to find an outlier. It is to find a GitLab. It is to find an octa. It is to find a stripe.