Today’s show: Alex moderates a TWIST VC Roundtable with Jason, Paige Doherty (Behind Genius), and Altimeter’s Megan Reynolds about the state of early-stage venture capital. They break down the rise of secondary markets as a key liquidity path for VCs, analyze the resurgence in M&A activity from major players like Meta, Databricks, and OpenAI, and question whether inflated ARR figures from YC startups are distorting valuations. Jason shares his year-zero investment thesis and offers tactical advice on secondary structuring and identifying high-quality revenue. Whether you're raising, investing, or building, this episode delivers essential insights into the evolving early-stage landscape.

Timestamps:

(0:00 ) Episode Teaser(1:28 ) Meet our panelists!(2:37 ) Will secondaries replace traditional M&A?(10:10 ) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups(14:28 ) Has M&A actually bounced back?(20:06 ) Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.(25:35 ) Secondary market advice, just for founders(30:10 ) Retool - Visit https://www.retool.com/twist and try it out today.(32:49 ) Why is it so hard for emerging managers to raise funds?

(38:28 ) Seed funds: the math is not mathing(52:07 ) Why early investors become “collateral damage”(56:31 ) The importance of revenue quality in early-stage startups(1:06:43 ) Quick Fire Question Round!

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Links from episode:

Altimeter: https://www.altimeter.com/homeBehind Genius: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/

Follow Meghan:

X: https://x.com/MeghanKReynolds

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghankreynolds/

Follow Paige:X: https://x.com/paigefinnn

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigedoherty/

Follow Alex:

X: https://x.com/alex

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm

Follow Jason:

X: https://twitter.com/Jason

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis

Thank you to our partners:

(10:10 ) LinkedIn Ads - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at http://www.linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups

(20:06 ) Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year.

(30:10 ) Retool - Visit https://www.retool.com/twist and try it out today.

Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland

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