Eric Little

Harsh truths every aspiring VC learns: - Your first fund won't be $100M—mine started much smaller - LPs will reject you 25 times before one says “maybe” - You need a track record before building a track record - If you haven't built companies, you shouldn’t advise them - Fund managers who've never failed don't understand founders who do - Fundraising for your fund is harder than startup fundraising - Your portfolio will teach you more than any MBA program - You'll spend 70% of your time fundraising - LP meetings are sales calls; treat them like it - It's about backing founders who execute through imperfection - Your first few investments will humble you...quickly - Patience isn’t optional; expect changes & pivots - Saying "no" gracefully is a must-learn skill - Every founder deserves honest, actionable feedback - Your reputation is everything—guard it relentlessly - Relationships are crucial; nurture them VCs who've been founders understand the brutal journey. We don't just write checks. We've lived the sleepless nights, harsh changes, chaotic environments, deals going up in smoke, and pivots that saved everything. I’ve built funds from the ground up, and if I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: The scar tissue matters. If you can't handle the rejection, the long cycles, and the reality that most investments won't work... VC probably isn't for you. If you can? It might be your best career option.

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Web3 infrastructure just had a quiet but significant week. Robinhood is building its own blockchain on @Arbitrum — not a partnership, their own chain. Ethereum confirmed its biggest upgrade in years with parallel processing and tripled gas capacity. And J.P. Morgan Morgan and Citi, Ryan Rugg are now running stablecoin operations on public blockchains. Not pilots. Production. The pattern is hard to miss: the builders driving web3 forward are no longer just crypto-native. They're incumbents. Banks. Brokerages. The institutions that move slowly on purpose — because when they move, it's permanent. If you're still framing web3 as speculative, you're watching the wrong signal. 60-second breakdown in the video below.

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Every operator thinks they’re “institutional.” But their balance sheet, GP commit, and fund structure say otherwise. Early-stage teams need guarantees. Mid-scale groups need GP co-invest relief. Mature platforms need repeatable LP capital. Until you know where you sit on that continuum, every co-GP conversation is just guessing a guess price, power & leverage. In my recent conversation with David Robertson, CEO of FrontRange Capital we unpack some of the mechanics of GP capital needs and the sources available to help.

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Founders obsess over valuation. Investors obsess over terms. Only one of these determines what you actually walk away with. Today’s new HealthVC breaks down the round math that silently shapes founder outcomes. How preferences reshape downside. How participation erodes liquidity. How anti-dilution moves future pain. How option pools rewrite ownership. How pro rata defines who stays powerful as you scale. If you want to protect your future self before signing a term sheet, this is the edition to read.

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Brex got acquired by Capital One for $5.15B. One of the largest fintech M&A deals ever. Great that M&A happened. But the number was shocking $5.15Bn. Just a few months ago, Brex was valued at $30Bn. This is a down exit. Preference stacks matter, and common shareholders + employees may see little to nothing. Looks like something happened at Brex that pushed them to get acquired while wiping out 82% of the startup's value. Hoping to get more info on this in the public domain in the days to come.

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In VC, "Bigger" is rarely "Better." The math is brutal: To return 3x on a $50M fund, you need $150M in exits. Doable. To return 3x on a $1B fund, you need $3B in gains. That requires multiple massive "decacorns." Emerging and smaller managers statistically outperform mega-funds because it is easier to move a small needle than a large one. #FundManager #VC #Returns #SapirWealth

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I’ve spoken to over 2 dozen MDs at PE firms I can confidently say that the arb of figuring out how to implement Vertical AI at portfolio companies is very real right now It will fundamentally change underwriting for those who can do it predictably and unlock generational returns. Most are aware they need to act. Very few have.

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For most PE and VC firms, Slack/Teams has quietly become the center of intelligence. Pipeline updates. Portfolio chatter. LP questions. Co-investor context. It all happens in Slack and Teams channels. But Slack and Teams were never designed as systems of record. Messages vanish. Context fragments. Insights never make it into reports. So partners end up making decisions on only half the picture — the structured data sitting in iLevel, SS&C, or other systems of records for structured data — without the real-time nuance their team is actually sharing. That gap between structured and unstructured data? That’s where the truth lives. Until firms bridge this gap, the real signal is still hidden in Slack and Teams.

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For those in the cheap seats: PAPER VALUATIONS ARE NOT EXITS. Capital One buying Brex for ~$5.15bn is almost certainly one of the most honest deals we’ve seen in a while. And I say that precisely because Brex wasn’t any kind of a failure. It wasn’t a fraud. It wasn’t poorly run. It was just priced at a moment in time for a world that no longer exists. A peak valuation of ~$12.3bn in the early 2020s ran straight into the reality we’re all now living in again: growth, margins, and the cost of capital actually matter. This is the bit that seems to trigger people: If you think a company exiting for multiple billions — with founders and employees walking away with real money, and early investors getting actual liquidity — is a “bad outcome”… you might want to ask yourself whether you’re optimising for optics or actuals. Because the real lesson here is that the last cycle pulled a lot of outcomes forward… and now the market is methodically unwinding them. Also: bank–fintech consolidation isn’t some future prediction anymore. It’s just the shape of the market. Check out my thoughts on Brex and more in this month's Nothing Ventured - on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious: what do you think we'll see more of in 2026 — down-rounds, secondaries, or “honest” M&A like this? As always — stay liquid.

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Excited to share that Inspired Capital is leading Remark’s $16M Series A. We’re joined by our friends at Spero Ventures, Shine Capital, Stripe, Neo, and Visible Ventures. Despite trillions spent on e-commerce, the single most effective driver of sales — the in-store expert — has never been replicated online. Remark changes that. Their AI personas, trained by over 60,000 human product experts, embed directly into brand storefronts to turn passive browsing into confident buying. I first met Theo last year at a small dinner I hosted on the future of commerce. His take on blending human insight with AI to unlock authentic shopping experiences was one of the most thoughtful I’d heard. As we got to know the founding team, it became clear that their ambition was to redesign today’s commerce infrastructure — and that we needed to be along for the ride. Thrilled to welcome Theo Satloff 🍊, Carl-Philip M., Ian Patterson 🍊, and the entire Remark team to the Inspired portfolio. TechCrunch: https://lnkd.in/ewFxNwjt

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BREAKING: JPM is the new issuer for Apple Card, buying the book for a $1 billion discount. Why this matters? - JPMorgan is doubling down on dominance. They are largest consumer bank. At $20 billion in balances, the Apple Card one of the largest co-branded card programs. JPM is also the issuer behind the Amazon Prime card (also $20 billion in balances). - Goldman’s consumer reset is now complete. What began in 2019 as an ambitious push into Main Street lending ends after ~ 7 billion in losses (ouch!), regulatory friction, and a multi-year unwind. What's not changing? - Mastercard remains the network, locking in significant transaction volume and fending off aggressive competition. Also, the thing to watch going forward? - JPMorgan isn’t just taking the card—it’s reportedly planning an Apple savings product as well. If they execute well on here, could be a large crossell opportunity... ps if you're curious here's a list of the largerst co-branded card programs - Apple Card — JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard; ~$20B in balances - Costco — Citi, Visa; ~$20B+ in balances - Amazon Prime — JPMorgan Chase, Visa; ~$20B+ in balances - American Airlines — Citi & Barclays, Mastercard; ~$18–20B in balances - Delta SkyMiles — American Express, AmEx; ~$15–18B in balances - United MileagePlus — JPMorgan Chase, Visa; ~$15B in balances - Southwest Rapid Rewards — JPMorgan Chase, Visa; ~$10–12B in balances - Marriott Bonvoy — AmEx & JPMorgan, AmEx & Visa; ~$10–12B in balances - Target RedCard — TD Bank, Mastercard; ~$8–10B in balances - Walmart Credit — Capital One, Mastercard; ~$8–10B in balances

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Mega Funds are optimizing for AUM. LMM firms are actually building businesses. This isn't a knock in MF PE firms. It's simply math. When you're running a $30B+ firm, the incentives change. You're thinking of: - AUM growth to generate larger management fees (this is key) - portfolio allocation - capital efficiency - financial engineering And to be fair, this works well and makes GPs a ton of money. As long as you are beating the S&P by enough margin, your 1.5-2% management fee is set in stone. LPs seeking slightly higher yields will re-up. You won't get many home runs, but you also don't risk goose eggs. However, when you're in the LMM, your game is different. You do not have 100s of PortCos to hide behind. You don't have abundant leverage to smooth mistakes. You cannot optimize around the edges. You have one path to success: Build. - leadership teams - systems - revenue engines - margin through execution - culture that can scale In LMM / MM, victory is achieved by: - injecting real, scrappy, operational talent - hiring CEOs and CFOs who understand the shop floor - professionalization WITHOUT destruction - getting into the trenches - driving REVENUE growth vs strictly cost takeout Mega Funds are capital allocators. LMM / MM are company builders. The reality of modern PE is this: Capital is abundant. True builders are scarce. The firms that will dominate and yield the highest returns over the next decade won't be the ones with the biggest models. It'll be the ones with the strongest operators who can build. What are you seeing? #GVentures #PrivateEquity #LMM #ValueCreation #Leadership #ExecutiveSearch

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Publishing Part 2 of my deep dive into the $42 billion #chargeback problem that's eating into merchant margins and triggering payment processor shutdowns. This one gets technical. I break down the actual dispute lifecycle, the new VAMP rules from Visa that have blindsided merchants, and what startups are building to fight back. Some highlights: → Fraud chargebacks resolved via RDR now count against your ratio → Merchants exceeding 0.9% dispute rates risk termination by acquirers → Post-VAMP, some vendors saw 300%+ spikes in inbound → The space is shifting from "chargeback ops" → payment intelligence platforms Also shared my take on where this market is heading — and what it’ll take to build enduring platforms in the space. Link in comments

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🚀 Early-Stage VC Is Shifting: Bigger Seed Rounds, But Fewer Graduates 🚀 I've been following the latest Aumni data closely, and the trends in early-stage venture capital are becoming increasingly pronounced: Seed deal sizes are climbing—the top quartile is now surpassing $7M. The number of deals is contracting: We're seeing fewer seed rounds, and an even steeper drop in the number of startups progressing to Series A. Graduation rates from Seed to Series A have sharply fallen—from 41% for companies seeded in Q3 2020 to just 12% in Q1 2023. There’s been a slight uptick, but it’s still far below historic norms. It's clear to me: the environment is more selective and demanding than ever. Startups may secure bigger funding rounds, but only if they meet increasingly high benchmarks. Progressing to the next stage is taking longer, and the “spray and pray” approach is quickly becoming a thing of the past. 🔮 My Prediction: In this environment, founders who can balance bold vision with operational excellence will pull ahead. At Jet Ventures, we're betting on teams who leverage knowledge, data, and AI in their respective domains and laser-focused on execution—especially those building innovative solutions in industrial and tech-heavy sectors. Going forward: Demonstrable product-market fit and clear, tangible progress will set the top startups apart. VCs with real operator experience and industry expertise—like our team at Jet Ventures—are in the best position to support and guide the next generation of champions, particularly in Central Europe. For both founders and investors, it’s a time for disciplined execution and outsized ambition. #VentureCapital #Startups #SeedStage #SeriesA #InvestmentTrends #JetVentures #VCInsights https://lnkd.in/eHHcXyUi

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How the heck did this VC firm get 26x ROI on a single partial exit? Here’s my analysis of Arali Ventures, and they’re bloody good at what they do: Lemme first breakdown on their thesis, Arali comes in around the pre-seed / seed round deploying about $500k to $1m in cheque sizes. Their first fund was an angel fund and their second fund now is an early-stage seed fund. They focus on enterprise tech / B2B primarily around SAAS, fintech, logistics, infra all the way up to robotics. Now, how they work is, they come in around the pre-seed or seed stage to help prototyping / pre-revenue startups get through PMF and even help them achieve early traction. Let’s break down a bit into how their thesis worked with their top 3 startups right: FinBox: FinBox has been the golden ticket straight from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Bar So Arali had an early seed access in FinBox (B2B credit infrastructure). And FinBox later raised about $40M Series B led by WestBridge. This is where Arali played its absolutely genius game of taking a partial exit - the effect? 26× fracking return on a partial exit, large enough to enable returning Arali’s LPs. It’s on bloody every single news. How does this matter? Technically it became the PMF of their fund and thesis itself - proving that their early checks into enterprise fintech infra can scale to later institutional rounds and create outsized returns that materially impact fund vintage economics. Wingman, a strategic acquisition (Clari): Exit type: strategic sale to US based Clari (Arali was an early investor again). This is one of the prior exits Arali cites publicly. Strategic M&A in enterprise SaaS is a core expected path for seed investors in this vertical. Insent.ai: acquisition by ZoomInfo Exit type: acquisition (ZoomInfo). Another early Arali win, this acquisition reinforces focus on B2B SaaS companies that attract international strategic buyers. Mannn, but here are cherry points: Arali focusses on digitisation of traditional industries, democratisation of tech (making powerful tech accessible to non-techies), and finally deep domain understanding from ex-operators on the team. All these put together - the team, the thesis, the startups, Arali’s a big win. Arun Raghavan | Azhar Yakkundi | Harsha Sachdev | Harshal G. | Rajiv Raghunandan | Swati Dixit | Svetha Ravi | #FounderX #FounderXVentureStudio #FounderXResidency #FounderXGlobalConference #FounderXGlobalConference2025 #Entrepreneur #Entrepreneurship #Startup #Startups #StartupEvent #StartupConference #StartupTN #IndianStartup #StartupIndia #VentureCapital #AngelInvestments #AngelInvestor #AngelInvestment #StartupInvestor #StartupInvestment

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A VC fund listed an analyst role & received 2,500 applicants in 1 week. They had to shut off the spigot. These were applicants from top schools, with high grades & plenty of accomplishments. That number alone says everything. The job market for young people is getting ridiculously competitive. I am joined in this episode of The Profit or Pivot Podcast by Jim Ferry, a Partner at Volition Capital ($1.7B AUM), to unpack what that level of competition really means, why the traditional career path and advice is broken, and how hiring managers actually think when they’re flooded with applicants who all look the same on paper. We get into: - What 2,500 applications for one role tells us about the job market - Why credentials & grades matter less than most people think - How candidates disqualify themselves before interviews - What hiring managers are actually screening for - Common resume and interviewing mistakes - How to position yourself when competition is extreme - His perspective on investing in the age of AI - Who will win the AI 'search war' If you’re navigating competitive roles and want to get hired, promoted, or taken seriously, this conversation will reshape how you think about your career. 🎧 Link to the Spotify version in the comments. https://lnkd.in/gRFJcXvp #startups #venturecapital #career #investing

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The double fee layer question for a fund of funds is easily answered: If you deploy $25m+ per annum into Venture you can hire someone qualified + travel expenses, etc. to build a fund of funds portfolio. Otherwise it's more economical to pay the fees.

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Hot take working in VC: if you want to know the probability a founder wins, look at their romantic partner. At the earliest stage, you’re betting on a human. And the first person who bet on them wasn’t a VC. It was their partner. Before the pitch deck or Forbes article, if someone smart chose them, they’re likely special. Think about it. Your partner sees: → how you handle failure → if you spiral under pressure → whether you do what you say If a high-agency, ambitious, emotionally intelligent person bets their life on you…that’s signal. Barack Obama met Michelle when he was a summer associate. She was Princeton + Harvard Law, rising fast. She married potential before it became president. Success attracts success And proximity to excellence raises your ceiling. When an impressive person dates a founder who, on paper, “hasn’t done much yet,” it tells me: (1) they saw something in you before the world did (2) you are now under daily accountability to someone who won’t tolerate mediocrity, or (3) they’re the kind of person who elevates whoever they’re with Lately, I pay attention to the home front. Because at this stage, we’re not underwriting revenue. We’re underwriting trajectory. And the most informed investor is the one who bet their life on you before we bet our money. — 👉 I post on VC, startups, and what I’m personally investing in (public + private). Follow along :)

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