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 valuations to other SaaS-type businesses.

This leads Peter and Darren into a conversation about biotech, the challenges and differences for biotech founders when raising seed capital, and of course, Darren’s history and experience leading Berkeley’s accelerator program, SkyDeck — one of the most celebrated accelerators in the startup world.

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https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/

Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta’s Data Desk:
https://carta.com/data-desk/

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:44 Darren Cooke, Berkeley Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center
02:05 Berkeley SkyDeck
04:39 The pre-seed experience for biotech companies
08:22 Regulation, reimbursement, and outside funding
10:29 Round sizes in the biotech industry
12:27 Investor interest in biotech
16:42 The five stakeholders biotech companies need to know
21:15 Pre-seed fundraising and priced rounds
23:27 Demo day
25:52 Words of advice

This presentation contains general information only and eShares, Inc. dba Carta, Inc. (“Carta”) is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services, and is for informational purposes only.  This presentation is not a substitute for such professional advice or services nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business or interests. © 2024 eShares, Inc., dba Carta, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 perspectives on countless issues in venture — from how often founders should update their investors, to what Mendel looks for in a company valuation-wise, the mentality of pre-seed VCs, and more.

Subscribe to Carta’s weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/

Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta’s Data Desk: https://carta.com/data-desk/

Chapters:
00:24 Intro
01:15 Mendel Chuang and Acquired Wisdom Fund
06:22 Differences between pre-seed and seed rounds
09:02 Chart: Median raise for a priced seed round
14:30 SAFEs, side letters, and investor updates
17:58 The importance of having a founder network
21:18 On founders and accelerators
23:22 SAFEs and convertible notes
27:26 Raising capital, AI, and being a leader in a space
29:40 Chart: How valuation caps have been trending lately
35:18 Advice for founders on the pre-seed VC market

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 previous years
• The state of remote work at U.S. startups

You can access this data and more with our State of Startup Compensation report, which you can read at the link below. And if you have a question you'd like Peter to answer on the Data Minute, send us an email at [email protected].

Read the State of Startup Compensation report: https://carta.com/blog/startup-compensation-h2-2023/

Subscribe to Carta’s weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:13 Are startups still hiring?
02:15 Who got hit in startup layoffs?
03:25 How is salary trending across private startups?
04:38 What is happening to equity compensation?
06:00 What is the state of remote work at U.S. startups?
07:10 Final thoughts

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 illuminating conversation around trends they're seeing in early-stage healthcare investing.

In a wide-ranging discussion, they discuss how the pandemic changed investing in the sector, the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, the hurdles of early-stage healthtech startups, whether founders are wasting their time pitching "generalist funds," and much more.

Subscribe to Carta’s weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/

Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta’s Data Desk: https://carta.com/data-desk/

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:29 Marissa’s background and Polaris Partners
03:16 The pandemic’s impact on healthtech
06:12 Early 2024 trends
07:23 AI and the hurdles of early-stage healthtech companies 
11:16 Investor specialization
12:57 Do healthtech founders waste time pitching generalist funds?
14:57 Is a cofounder needed?
18:10 Exit strategies and vision
21:32 Differences in the early-stage healthtech and SaSS founder experience
24:26 The Angel Investor community
25:40 Academia and entrepreneurship
29:00 Can you found a healthtech company without being a scientist?
32:42 Robots in healthtech?
33:51 Final thoughts

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 higher valuation caps than companies in other states — and if so, why?

Along the way, Peter and Dave take detours into a number of emerging trends and perspectives, from founders returning to “cluster cities” like San Francisco and New York, to the premium that investors pay for companies in accelerator programs like Y Combinator, and much more.

Subscribe to Carta’s weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://z.carta.com/4cSucXw 

Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta’s Data Desk: https://z.carta.com/3vOwjuS 

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 insights you need to navigate the ever-changing world of startups.