Andy Bromberg - Startup Investor School Day 4

TL;DR

Andy Bromberg (CEO of CoinList) traces the history of venture capital from the 1940s to present, identifying three persistent trends: decreasing costs to start companies, decreasing costs to invest, and an arc toward faster liquidity.

Key insights

• The three mega-trends across all decades: decreasing cost to start companies, decreasing cost to invest, and the market bending towards liquidity.
• In the 1940s–1960s, founders had to invest hundreds of thousands of their own money before a venture fund would invest; this barrier lasted roughly forty years.
• The 1980s saw a huge increase in the number of venture firms (from a few dozen to >650) driven by institutional capital, making deals competitive and forcing funds to invest earlier.