What are the key trends in venture capital that entrepreneurs should know?

Entrepreneurs looking to fundraise should be attuned to key and changing trends in venture capital. 1. There's always capital, but sometimes it goes to follow-on checks rather than new checks. 2. The amount of funding deployed at each stage has continued to change. 3. Traction and team. You can only raise on an idea if you are a seasoned founder or have some exceptionally patented technology. Raising money right now is more challenging than ever, but there are other reasons not to build your business. There are other funding methods.

Valuation game is over 3 years ago and raising funds slow down will last years, however unrealistic valuations still being played by some VCs to get fees, real reset for ARRs and VC and PE investments not yet corrected and/or fully realized, it will come hot before July 2024(Q2–3) and may be persistent for a while and this's going to happen globally as shown in below table, in 2023's drop will be more significant than 2022, this will be affected further by rising and sticking inflation, rising interest rates?, risk of regional and world war as well as economical slowdown followed by a crash due to geopolitical risks , Venture capital playbook will be rewritten in next two years

Number of Unicorns will keep dropping in 2023 and 2024 as showing below graph in 2022 due to further correction in valuations across the board for all sizes of funding deals. The coming cycle reset will be like nothing seen before lots of hype AI, crypto, web3?,metaverse and other bullshit hype startups will vanish.

Fund raising activity will slow further to drain the swamp of fake valuations and valueless/profitless startups/unicorns and technologies, only stupid and dump money from some investors in GCC region will keep flowing for a while into struggling to raise VCs' GPs in silicon valley (Due to lack of local opportunities or/and experience) and other regions but even this will slow after getting burnt by first or max second quarter of 2024.

Yesterday, ChatGPT launched a store for custom AI agents. The launch of ChatGPT a year ago was AI's iPhone moment. This is the AppStore moment. The impact on founders is enormous—it's the big unlock we were waiting for. A new door has opened: access to ChatGPT's 100M weekly active users. A user base that's guaranteed to grow for many, many months. It's what led to Uber, WhatsApp, Snapchat and dozens of other multi-billion dollar companies. It's an entirely new ecosystem. A 0 to 1 event. We are in 2008 and Steve Jobs just launched the App Store. Now, it's time to build.

AI is the 4th wave of computing since the internet, cloud & mobile. There is a massive 0 to 1 opportunity and investors are actively looking to allocate capital to create the Uber, Snapchat, etc that was created during the last mobile computing wave.

This might be the most important aspect to considering when raising funding. It is critical that investors and founders have very strong alignment. I've seen many venture backed companies get derailed when the incentives get misaligned between funders and founders.

Globally, 2025 Q3 must be a target date for VC fund raising activities, any VC with funds that already raised funds?, i would suggest support their existing portfolios (valuable and profitable startups), and new startups rounds limited to the minimum. LBs, I would keep my money in banks for next two years, For money already promised to GPs, i would pressure deploying in local or specific portfolio startups?. Startups founders must look for ways to sustain money in their banks to reach 2025?, profitable is the main goal?. Unicorns should stop thinking about growth without profitability, no exit ramps for such unicorns till late 2025?, no IPOs?, M&A or SPACs.

The valuation game is over, and a real reset for ARRs and VC and PE investments is coming. The coming cycle reset will be like nothing seen before in 2000s?, 2008 or even 1980s?, with many hype AI, crypto, Web3, and metaverse startups vanishing. Fundraising by VCs activity will slow further, with only stupid and dump money from some investors in the Middle East and GCC region keeping some US and local VCs afloat. Cash is king for the next 2–3 years, and real LBs (Limited Partners) know this. If you're willing to risk it, you could short the stock market and commercial properties, and even some bubbly housing markets (Canada, UK, Australia?, NewZealand?, some US States, Dubai, Singapore).