The Data Minute

What does it actually take to build an executive team from nothing? This week on The Data Minute, Ashley Neville fills in for Peter and sits down with Francois Ajenstat, Founder and CEO of Golden Analytics, to talk hiring at the earliest stages of a company, from seed through Series B. Francois spent over a decade as Chief Product Officer at Tableau before leading product at Amplitude, and recentl...

What if you treated hiring at your startup like an NBA Front Office scouting for the next Draft? This week on The Data Minute Podcast, Ashley sits down with Kirk Lacob, EVP of Basketball Operations at the Golden State Warriors, to discuss what it's like to gather the data and make the calls on world-class basketball talent. Kirk argues that data's real value in the draft isn't ident...

How do you invest in what’s cool before the rest of the world catches on? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Amber Atherton, Partner at Patron, to explore the rapidly shifting landscape of consumer venture capital. Amber reveals the tactical strategies she uses to keep her pulse on the cultural vanguard, including running multiple TikTok burner accounts and hunting for early micro-...

Is seed investing facing an existential crisis? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Rob Go, Founding Partner at NextView Ventures, to discuss the structural shifts making the "game on the field" harder than ever for early-stage investors. Rob explains why many successful seed VCs are exiting the industry and how the rise of mega-funds and massive accelerators like YC has s...

There is a long-standing stigma in venture capital that debt is a "company killer." This week on The Data Minute, Peter Walker sits down with Marshall Hawks, former SVB expert and author of “Venture Debt Deals,” to debunk the myths and explain why debt is often the smartest addition to a founder’s equity mix. Marshall breaks down the tactical reality of how these deals actually get done,...

Live from the Chase Center in San Francisco, Peter gathers four leading venture investors to discuss the shifting landscape of private markets. This special episode features Salil Deshpande (Uncorrelated Ventures), Amit Patel (Owl Ventures), Vignesh Ravikumar (Sierra Ventures), and Corey Goodman, PhD (venBio Partners). The episode covers why gross margins have become the most critical metric for A...

In this special deep dive episode, Peter is joined by his Carta Insights colleague Hamza Shad to unpack the operational reality of running a venture fund. They leave behind portfolio performance metrics to focus entirely on the business of the fund itself. Peter and Hamza break down the data from Carta’s inaugural Fund Economics report. They analyze how much capital GPs are actually committing to...

This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Arian Ghashghai, Founding Partner at Earthling VC, to discuss his thesis of investing in "weird stuff early." Arian explains why he bets on robotic oyster farms, virtual reality, and ocean exploration when other investors are chasing the latest consensus trends. He breaks down his "pirate ship" approach to venture capital and w...

Welcome to 2026. In this special New Year’s episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with his colleague Ashley Neville from Carta’s Insights Team to dissect the data that defined 2025 and forecast the trends shaping the year ahead. Ashley and Peter analyze the "haves and have nots" market where AI startups command a 40% valuation premium over their peers. They explain why solo founder...

This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Ben Orthlieb, Founding Partner at Blue Moon VC, for a look under the hood of a firm that has completely re-engineered the venture capital process using AI. Ben explains how Blue Moon uses a proprietary tech stack to source over 12,000 teams a year and screen them down to the top 5% based on their probability of graduating to Series B, achieving pe...

Is the "co-founder mandate" dead? This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Julian Weisser, co-founder of ODF and solofounders.com, to unpack the data behind a massive shift in the startup ecosystem: solo founders now make up over a third of all new companies. Julian breaks down the "Denominator Delusion"—the survivorship bias that tricks founders into forcing partners...

This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Vivek Ladsariya, Managing Director at Pioneer Square Labs, for a deep dive into the Seattle startup ecosystem and the evolving world of venture studios. Vivek breaks down why Seattle has become the quiet giant of AI infrastructure, holding the second-highest concentration of AI talent in the US, and explains why the "locked up" talent at...

In another special solo episode, Peter Walker dives deep into Carta's Q2 Fund Performance Report to unpack the data on what's really happening inside venture capital today. Peter walks through the critical benchmarks every GP and LP needs to know, from median and top-decile Net IRR, TVPI, and DPI across different vintages and fund sizes. He explains why the 2021 vintage is struggling, wh...

In this special live episode of The Data Minute, recorded in San Francisco, Peter is joined by Janelle Teng from Bessemer Venture Partners for a data-driven look at the state of AI fundraising. Peter and Janelle walk through the data on everything from the AI valuation premium to the new benchmarks for growth, breaking down Bessemer's "Supernovas" and "Shooting Stars" fram...

In another special solo episode, host Peter Walker tackles the most requested topic on The Data Minute: AI funding and valuations. Using data from Carta and Bessemer Venture Partners, Peter unpacks what’s really happening inside the AI boom. He walks through five key charts that reveal where the capital is flowing, the massive valuation premiums AI-native companies command at Seed and Series A, an...

This week, Peter is joined by Yohei Nakajima, founding partner of Untapped VC and one of the most forward-thinking investors in the AI space. Known for his public experiments with AI agents and automations, Yohei shares his radically different approach to venture capital: investing from the top down. Yohei explains how he uses the social networking site X and his AI community, Baby AGI, to map mar...

In this special solo episode of The Data Minute, host Peter Walker dives into the data from Carta's latest research on the state of startup hiring. With hiring down month-over-month since 2021, Peter unpacks the trends that every founder, operator, and investor needs to understand. Using five key charts, Peter breaks down the current talent landscape: the shrinking gap between layoffs and vol...

On this episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Drew Glover, founder and managing partner at Fiat Ventures and Fiat Growth, for a wide-ranging conversation on what’s next in fintech and what founders actually want from their investors. They dive into how fintech is moving from DTC chaos into quietly powerful B2B infrastructure, why capital is no longer a moat, and how AI may turn traditio...

In this special episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Dave Chen, Co-Head of Global Technology Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, for a tactical deep dive on how today’s founders should think about going public. Dave shares what IPO prep really looks like in 2025 and beyond, why the best companies start working with bankers 2–3 years ahead of a listing, how institutional investors act...

What does it really take to spin out and start your own private equity firm? Stephanie Srulowitz, co-head of U.S. private funds at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, joins The Data Minute to break it all down. From legal structure to fundraising strategy to LP negotiation tactics, she and Peter walk through the three common paths to fund launch (and which is the hardest), why some seed capital can come a...

This week on The Data Minute, Peter sits down with David Zhou, Head of Investor Relations at Alchemist Accelerator and the host of Superclusters, for a deep dive into how LPs choose, and say no to, emerging managers. David shares what hundreds of GP conversations have taught him about building trust and avoiding the "sea of sameness.” They talk about why charisma can be learned, how LPs think...

Lu Zhang Managing Partner of Fusion Fund joins Peter this week to talk about what it takes to scale an early-stage venture firm—and back game-changing companies—at the speed of today’s AI boom. Fresh off her oversubscribed $190M Fund IV raise, Lu talks about what most managers get wrong when pitching institutional LPs, what it takes to stand out in a bubble-driven market, and why true founder supp...

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter is joined by Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Ventures and co-host of the acclaimed Origins podcast, for a candid, rapid-fire look inside the minds of LPs, the realities of fundraising, and why venture isn't broken, but is being reshaped. They cover the biggest questions emerging managers are asking right now: How do you stand out in a market fill...

What does it mean to be a “day one partner” for founders—and how does that change in an era of AI-driven acceleration? On this episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Ed Sim, founding partner of Boldstart Ventures and the voice behind “What’s Hot 🔥 in Enterprise IT VC.” Ed shares what it means to invest at the “inception stage”—before a company is even a company—and how startup formation...

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) sits down with Liza Benson, Partner at Moderne Ventures, to discuss investing in real-world industries and Moderne’s unique LP-driven approach. They discuss the Moderne Passport, a multi-stage investment fund and industry immersion program, how to turn pilots into revenue, and why so many founders overlook real estate as...