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“Insights from Over 40 Investors on What the Future Holds: 2024 Predictions”

More than 40 investors share their top predictions for 2024 Investors aren't sure about the fate of IPOs and AI next yearIf I had to characterize 2023, I’d say it was the year of the great venture divide. To find out, TechCrunch+ surveyed more than 40 venture capital investors about how they are preparing for next year and what they expect. Some investors think exits will return in full force in 2024, but others predicted the industry would not see meaningful liquidity until 2025. Several investors expect AI investing to cool next year, and an almost equal number think the sector will continue to remain red hot, only in different ways. Lisa Wu, partner, Norwest Venture Partners: As multi-stage investors, we meet founders wherever they are on their journeys.

Ava Patel
December 28, 2023
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The Dominance of X: Approaching Growth and Profit in the Cloud Industry

Businesses are working hard to conform to traditional heuristics like Rule of 40 (i.e., the idea that the sum of revenue growth and profit margin should equal 40%+, a metric that Bessemer helped popularize). The world has over-rotated into an FCF margin mindset over a growth mindset, which is backward for growing efficient businesses. Long-term models show that even in tight markets, growth should be valued at least ~2x to 3x more than FCF margin. While a margin increase has a linear impact on value, a growth rate increase can have a compounding impact on value. We show the detailed math below, and it’s confirmed by public market valuation correlations when you backtest the relative importance of growth versus FCF margin.