The venture capital space is itself a B2B arena. While many entrepreneurs view VCs as “holding all the cards” when it comes to funding innovation—after all, these are the folks who founders have to pitch—VCs also need to market their own bona fides to attract that next big thing deserving of investment.
This is at the heart of what Tim Sprinkle and the team at Venture Capital Marketing do every day.
As Managing Director of VCM, Tim and his team have worked with almost 50 VC firms to help drive an average 20-30 percent increase in Assets Under Management (AUM) year-over-year.
While this is impressive on its own, Tim has an expansive career in the tech and startup space, including more than 25 years as a writer and journalist, which has given him a unique and valuable perspective on what it takes to succeed in the world of tech and finance.
He’s shared many of these learnings in his 2015 book (and subsequent newsletter) Screw the Valley: A Coast to Coast Tour of America’s New Tech Startup Landscape where he outlined just how decentralized the footprint for innovation has become in the United States (and frankly, across the globe!).
I’m excited to pick his brain on how things are looking for startups and VCs in 2024, sage wisdom for navigating the current market challenges, and what’s in store for Tim and his team as the year rolls on!
It’s nasty out there for funding
As Tim, “it’s nasty out there” when it comes to capturing private equity. Businesses need to do more than hope and pray given how competitive the market is, pushing them to demonstrate earlier than ever the product-market-fit of their solutions when courting Venture Capital.
Just like any B2B product, VCs that do the work of marketing their specialities will have a better chance of working with their ideal target customer. This is pivotal to supporting businesses who want access to a VCs network within a specific niche, for instance, or to open the doors to other partnerships that can help all parties involved reap greater outcomes from the partnership.
Helping drive global innovation and support entrepreneurs is at the heart of our mission at Boast too, as we help some of North America’s leading innovators capture the funding they need to achieve growth.
Catch the full interview with Tim Sprinkle on Boast’s YouTube channel here.
