Caitlin Bolnick Rellas
@caitlinbolnick1
GP @ CRV. Vertical and weird stuff is my jam. Hardware curious. If it’s not fun, you aren’t doing it right. Views here are strictly mine.
I'm always asked where do I invest and this is my attempt to define it... I grew up in a tiny ass town in the middle of nowhere Texas and then moved to what was once a tiny cowboy town in Montana (sadly it is now considered v hip!). Living in both places has given me a different…
💯— it’s actually wild once you start going really deep into a space, just how little you actually know
very difficult lesson that developing a precise, theoretical understanding of a system/industry/company and developing an intuition/feel for how that thing actually works are two entirely different and often contradictory activities the more you “know” the less you actually do
I totally get keeping fundraising to a tight group/process, but man it’s a really long term partnership you embark on with what is feeling increasingly like a shotgun wedding.
I just asked ChatGPT to make a tweet based on the piece i'm writing this week and I was horrified by the output. I just don't love any of the models interactions with my writing. I try to use for editing etc. but it feels so hit or miss and honestly mostly miss 🫠
The startup fundraising market is clearest I've seen in my 13yrs of tech investing - major funds only interested in 2 things: 1/ AI native co's w/ demonstrable momentum, rounds are big $; and 2/ seeds for outlier teams. That's it. Anything else encounters fundraising fiction.
I actually think this is a very good take. It's why so often in VC, "contrarian takes" sound almost identical. It's inherently not "contrarian" if it's parroted from someone else.
i'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you're not contrarian. you adopt the views of people who have made a career out of being contrarian.
🎯 Attention does not create DPI: Of the ten largest outcomes for venture capital, only one or two were arguably close to consensus early on. Most of those returns came from companies that initially struggled with fundraising.
Good read from @FinnMurphy12 on understanding which game you are playing in venture capital. It's worth emphasizing, with so much focus on attention, that there are (basically) two paths: 1) There are startups that are great at capturing our attention; hot technology,…
Have been spending a lot of time with manufacturers and machinists and I just fundamentally do not believe that the space is broken and that next-gen startups need to fix it. There are tons of talented operators out there absolutely crushing it. Yes, there are legit challenges…
love this 💯
Some of the highest performing founders I know are the most understated early on. They're not loud, barely active on social media, & come off as normal, nice people. They're underestimated because they seem almost too well balanced: not charismatic or aggressive enough, or…
software isn’t a moat anymore, differentiation comes from owning process, first-party data, relationships and distribution
“Despite mountains of theory and evidence supporting idiosyncratic risk as the source of outperformance, it’s just not where the incentives lie for venture capital.” Thought this piece was quite good…
There are two main types of risk in venture capital: - Idiosyncratic Risk (investment risk) - Systematic Risk (market risk) The goal is to embrace idiosyncratic risk (the source of alpha), and limit exposure to systematic risk (a reflection of beta). However, systematic risk…
I absolutely love the Bay Area, but man the energy in NYC is infectious. City is just so alive.
Incredible stuff and also, now I’m going to try to write a letter to myself.
Find me a better essay than "Hey there, old man" written in the last 18 months. I'll wait. jacksondahl.com/Posts/Hey+ther…
I am so incredibly saddened by the flooding and tragedy in TX. Camp Mystic was the gold standard of camps where I grew up (I was Jewish so didn’t go). My heart goes out to all the families who were impacted. Just absolutely gut wrenching.