Earlier this week, I held the annual meeting for K9 Ventures. As I mentioned in the meeting, I am grateful to the K9 Founders for allowing me to be along for the ride in the companies, and I am also thankful to the K9 LPs for allowing me to do what I love to do: build companies.

I present my view of the startup ecosystem in each annual meeting to the LPs. Unlike other funds that may have teams to crunch numbers and data and look at micro and macro trends, my view is simply that: my view. I describe this to K9 LPs as this is my opinion and feelings based on what I see from my vantage point as a pre-seed/seed stage investor.

Here are the five slides I’ve excerpted from the 2023 K9 Ventures LP Zoom deck that cover this:

Early stage venture, particularly Pre-Seed and Seed stage venture, is a different game today than it used to be 10 years ago. LPs and GPs should be aware of this dynamic as they make investment decisions.

For founders, my advice is consistent: ‘The best time to start a company is when you have an idea that won’t leave you alone.‘ You have to be a little bit crazy and naive to start a company. It’s never going to be easy. Even though the “venture market” might be in a tough spot, there are still incredible opportunities to innovate and create value. That will never stop. And the company you build today will be healthier. Ad astra 🚀.