Venture Capital - Venture Capital 2.0

Carta's Charts Don't Lie: The Series A Sprint Is a Cartel-Designed Death Trap

members – 6 min read

Peter Walker's latest Carta data reveals a brutal truth: if your startup hasn't raised Series A within 24 months of seed funding, you're essentially dead.

Jun 20, 2025

JOHN COWAN

2025 VC Forecast Mid-Year Update: The Accelerating Collapse and the $30 Billion Opportunity

members – 5 min read

Mid-Year 2025 Venture Capital Forecast Update Six months into 2025, the venture capital landscape has evolved in ways that both…

Jun 19, 2025

JOHN COWAN

Venture Capital Cause of Death

paid – 6 min read

I turned a decade of venture capital data into a handy interactive chart to illustrate the moment the VC industry…

Jun 17, 2025

JOHN COWAN

Dog Shit Wrapped in Cat Shit: Continuation Vehicles and the Great Venture Capital Liquidity Illusion

members – 11 min read

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Jun 10, 2025

JOHN COWAN

What Carta's Peter Walker Won't Say, But I Will

members – 5 min read

The Venture Model Isn't Broken Because Founders Raised Too Much—It's Broken Because 46% of Seed Rounds Are Now Bridge Rounds to Nowhere

Jun 4, 2025

JOHN COWAN

Bridge to Nowhere: How the Seed-Stage Loop Exposes Venture Capital’s Structural Crisis

members – 4 min read

Seed-stage startups are increasingly stuck in funding limbo, with record bridge rounds replacing Series A progression. This isn’t a founder failure—it’s part of the systemic breakdown in venture capital structure.

May 23, 2025

JOHN COWAN

How Venture Studios Deliver What Corporate Investors and VCs Can’t

members – 9 min read

Discover why venture studios are emerging as the preferred innovation vehicle for corporates and institutional investors seeking alignment, speed, and ROI.

Apr 23, 2025

JOHN COWAN

Broligarchy Endgame: Total Monopoly Through Government-Backed Intelligent Infrastructure

public – 3 min read

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This multi-part essay explores Silicon Valley’s meteoric rise in influence over public infrastructure, the monopolization of autonomous systems, and what can be done to prevent a new era of digital feudalism in the wake of the current regime’s ambition to run America like a private corporation.

Mar 5, 2025

JOHN COWAN

2025 Venture Capital Industry Forecast

public – 6 min read

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In 2024, capital concentration among dominant VC firms reached unprecedented levels. As inefficiencies widen, 2025 will mark a recalibration of early-stage investing, with venture studios emerging as a sustainable model to fill funding gaps and challenge the Power Law Cartel.

Dec 28, 2024

JOHN COWAN

A Constructive Critique of Time Dislocation Theory in Venture Capital

members – 12 min read

This isn't a cyclical downturn to be waited out - mounting evidence suggests we're witnessing the death of a funding model that can no longer sustain its own mathematics, creating space for new approaches better adapted to funding next-generation innovation.

Nov 12, 2024

JOHN COWAN