Bill Gurley

So the first thing I would just bring up, which people have talked about, so I'm just putting it on the table as one of the key variables, not trying to overanalyze it, which is the continued rise of the mega VC fund.

When I first started, everything was bespoke.

Most of the well-branded funds were focused on early stage.

They didn't participate in late stage.

And the funds were modest compared to today.

Today, many of the branded firms, I think, have moved from maybe...

500 million commitment every three or four years to 5 billion.

So 10x.

And they're participating very actively in what we would call late stage.

Although I've always thought late stage was a euphemism for big check.

There are people willing to put 300 million in an AI company that's 12 months old.

So that's not late stage.

It's just big check.

There's a whole bunch of firms that have moved up market.

And then they've also created different industry specific funds and things like that, all leading to much more capital under management from many of the brands.

And then there's a ton of parties that have entered the late stage market with different approaches.

And some of those have always been there.

I mean, Fidelity and Capital Group have always done a deal or two every once in a while.

But I think

Petritis, KOTU, Altimeter, Thrive, who I think is really doing some interesting and differentiated things in the market.