Jason M. Lemkin tells founders to assume they're unfundable until a VC says yes. Deal activity has slowed sharply: one growth investor closed zero deals last year, and many VCs are doing few or none.
Assume you're unfundable until you hear otherwise. And that applies to everyone in the room. No, that's scary. I laugh. I laugh and I want to hear your question. But if I can provide some advice. Even In June of 2023, every founder I meet is too optimistic about funding today. There are so many VCs here to shake a stick at. VCs have not gone away. VCs have raised bigger funds than ever. But every VC I talked about that I've known for years in the green room, whether they're seed or series A or series, they all said the same thing, like we're just not seeing a lot of deals. We're just not getting a lot of deals done and they're getting like, did you, did you see the iconic growth session in this room? It's okay if you didn't. Well, they're one of the great growth investors. Well, they did zero deals last year. Zero.
