VC-backed founders - it's going to take a decade. Probably more.
Seed-stage VCs - planning to complete your full fund lifecycle in 10 years is optimistic to slightly delusional at this point.
Here's some data on the time (in years) from the day of incorporation to various funding milestones for startups.
Yes, I know funding milestones aren't everything. But if you're on the venture path then they matter - and speed is a major aspect of the VC growth model.
Chart below shows time to primary round (no funny business with bridges or extensions).
๐ ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐ฏ๐ ๐ณ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฑ
โข Seed: 1.3 years old
โข Series A: 2.8 years
โข Series B: 4.7 years
โข Series C: 6.2 years
โข Series D: 8.3 years
And of course that's just to Series D - many companies will raise additional rounds or take years to go from D to IPO.
A couple things stand out here. First, obviously, startups are staying private longer and the biggest private companies are beginning to rival their public counterparts in size and influence. No one could have imagined we'd have multiple $300B+ private companies a decade ago, yet here we are.
Second, note the slight downtick in median age from 2024 to 2025. I think that's mostly an effect of AI startups speed-racing through funding stages but would need to dig deeper. Blip, not a trend in my view.
Third, and this one is for investors, this means ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐บ๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ด๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ. A company that exits for $1 billion after 15 years is less valuable to your fund IRR than one that used to exit for the same valuation after 10 years.
Startups are a marathon and a sprint. Respect to the founders willing to take this plunge ๐
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Peter Walker
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