The Data Minute

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) sits down with Brianne Kimmel, founder and managing partner at Worklife Ventures, to explore what it really takes to build enduring companies in today’s AI-first startup landscape. They discuss the new playbook for go-to-market, why “renewals are the new revenue,” and how modern founders are raising—and deploying—capital...

Welcome to a very special episode of The Data Minute. For the first time, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by an actual Founder and CEO, Anubhav Srivastava whose company Tactyc.io is now a part of the Carta family! Join them for an in-depth conversation that goes in two directions. First, for VCs, they discuss reserve ratios, recycling capital, forecasting, and the effect LP infl...

In this week’s episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) and Marie Drez (Venture Capital CFO) sit down for an insightful conversation on the crucial role of fund CFOs and how emerging managers can find one. This discussion is full of expert insights. Marie shares important lessons from the SVB crisis, questions to ask banking partners, and why, in the world of AI, great...

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) and Aditi Maliwal (Partner, Upfront Ventures) have an in-depth conversation regarding the seed and Series A market. They discuss seed stage dynamics across the U.S. plus AI companies and how to determine which companies are worth investing in. There’s also a discussion on the importance of grit, both in an investor portfo...

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by Rex Salisbury (Founding GP, Cambrian Ventures) to discuss what’s developing in the fintech space, GPs calling more capital, and Rex’s idea on how to get into the tech industry. This conversation also covers Rex’s personal cheat sheet explaining why someone shouldn’t be a VC, and should instead start a career...

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by David Willbrand (Chief Legal Officer, Pacaso) for a wide-ranging conversation on fundraising with SAFEs, liquidation preferences, and the relationship between founders and lawyers.  What started as a discussion on the technical aspects of raising a SAFE, late-stage liquidation outcomes, and other fundraising...

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by Charles Hudson (Managing Partner and Founder, Precursor Ventures and writer of the Venture Reflections Substack - chudson.substack.com) for a deep discussion about pre-seed deals, the differences between multi-stage and small funds, and the types of investing that work in this AI dominated market.  They also...

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) and Waseem Daher (Co-founder and CEO, Pilot) discuss all things financial for early-stage startups. They go deep on founders' salaries, those important calculations every startup should know, like burn rate and runway, as well as building a startup in different interest rate environments. Throughout this episode, you...

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by Kate Shillo Beardsley (Founding Partner, Hannah Grey) for a wide-ranging conversation on VC, private equity, investor trends, and the chasm between seed stage startups and those that make it to series. This jam-packed conversation also includes a debate on priced rounds versus SAFEs, the importance of a found...

In this episode, Peter reads a few of your most pressing questions for a special pre-seed focused Data Minute Q&A. Using information from the State of Pre-Seed: Q1 2024 report, Peter uses five charts to answer five questions related to pre-seed fundraising. Learn about: How pre-seed funding is faring in this market SAFEs and convertible notes Valuation caps and your business You can access thi...

In this week’s episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) sits down with Darcy Casarella (Director of Talent, NEA) for a wide-ranging discussion all about how founders should think about compensation and how to structure teams. Hiring at startups is down and compensation trends are shifting, so it's a perfect time to talk to an expert that advises many startup founde...

In this week’s episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) sits down with Darren Cooke (Executive Director, Berkeley Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center) for an enlightening discussion about some emerging trends with biotech companies: Namely, while pharma and biotech currently rank as the 5th most-funded type of pre-seed startups, they simultaneously enjoy favorable val...

In this episode of The Data Minute podcast, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by Mendel Chuang (GP at Acquired Wisdom Fund) for a wide-ranging discussion around two interesting trends in Carta’s data: • How valuation caps have been changing over time since Q1 2022 • The percentage of seed rounds that are priced, by raise amount Along the way, Peter and Mendel share insights and pe...

In this episode of The Data Minute, join Peter as he breaks down five charts from Carta's recent State of Compensation Report to answer five of the most common founder questions related to startup compensation today.  Using anonymized, aggregated data from Carta's Total Compensation tool, Peter dives deep into: • Startup hiring and layoffs • Equity and salary compensation compared to pre...

Even in turbulent times, early-stage investing has held up in one particular area: Healthcare. In fact: Biotech, pharmaceutical, and digital therapeutic startups are receiving more capital now than before the pandemic, in 2018 - 2019. In this week’s episode of The Data Minute, join Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) as he sits down with Marissa Bertorelli (Principal, Polaris Partners) for an...

In the inaugural episode of The Data Minute podcast, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) sits down with Dave Anderson (GP at Beat Ventures) to discuss recent venture industry data around two key questions:  • In today’s fundraising market, how many individual checks should the average founder plan to raise in their first SAFE round? • Do early-stage companies from California tend to raise at...

Starting April 15th: Join Carta's Head of Insights, Peter Walker, as he breaks down the data that's fueling today's most fascinating trends in startups, VC, and the private market ecosystem.  Featuring guests from across the venture industry — from founders to investors, and everyone in between — each new Data Minute is a bite-sized breakdown of the metrics, patterns, and important...