John Gannon

It's that time of year again. The texts. The WhatsApp messages. Usually from GPs asking me: "Is it out yet?" Well, today's the day. The latest VC Compensation Survey is live! For almost a decade now, this survey has been the benchmark for the industry. --> GPs and fund CFOs use it to build comp policies --> Junior folks use it to negotiate fair deals. --> The press uses it when they need to understand what VCs actually make. (The New Yorker even quoted me about it once. My Auntie Pam was very proud.) This year we had record participation: 700+ responses, including 50+ fund leaders who submitted data for their entire firm. We're honored to be entrusted by so many to analyze and present this data to the industry. So what did we learn? 📉 Salaries are down almost across the board. Average total cash comp declined or stayed flat for every role below Partner over the last two years. Pour one out for the analysts. 👩‍💼 Female representation peaked at Associate. We expect that to translate into more balanced senior ranks as this cohort gets promoted. 💰 Carry data is back. Exclusive to respondents. Full report is here --> venture5.com/salary-survey

Just saw 2 folks (non-engineers) on my team negotiate an API contract for their agents. They decided they're gonna have the agents talk to each other through a spreadsheet instead of a real API. I wonder if we asked the agents to negotiate it, if they would have even considered that option.

If someone asks you to help their kid, the answer is always "yes".

Hello Tech Week

Some times when you are doing it right ... it just takes a while.

Which tech/VC podcaster has the best track record of picking winners ... before it's remotely obvious to the rest of the industry? Meaning: - they interviewed someone 5+ years ago - that person was someone who not at all in the tech/VC zeitgeist at that time - 5+ years later that person they interviewed is a well-known entity / founder / etc

Vibe inviting

Am I the only weirdo who runs 20+ person dinners 4X+ a year and insists on doing all of the inviting myself? Maybe I need to let go but on the other hand ... I just don't think they'd be the same otherwise. Some day my hand will be forced but for now...

This is a weird ask but if you love your financial advisor can you DM me? Moreso if you work with a smaller shop vs. one of the big ones. Always interested to hear who folks I know really like.

What is happening to me

Who's Breezin' tonight?

Getting to close to a decade of running our VC compensation survey. Last year was our biggest year ever - more individual submissions, more full firm submissions (thanks to the GPs and CFOs who helped on this), and the best UX (thanks @imlaurieowen) we've ever had. Any feature requests for this year? Now is the time.

Screaming "Agent, agent" at the IVR system no longer has its intended effect.

Emerging managers: Do you have any LPs in your @SlackHQ ? One of the managers I've backed has me in theirs, I quite enjoy it (I learn a ton, and can be more active/targeted in my helping) and am curious if other GP/LP pairs are doing it.

Playing with this idea: Who the 'friends and family' are in an emerging GP's fund may tell you more about their level of commitment than the GP Commit % in the deck does. Put another way: Are the 'friends and family' truly friends and family ie people that they do not want to let down?

tl;dr Emerging managers need "the dawg"

Not sure I buy the whole SaaSPocalypse thing but what I do know is that replacing a static-ish site hosted on Webflow and moving to GH Pages or AWS takes about 10 minutes of brainpower + a few tokens ... ... and churns a Webflow customer in the process.

Who is working on agents that will pitch another company's agents on partnerships and biz dev deals?

This was very well done - the "Slots" technique was something I found particularly interesting. Fantastic read for emerging managers. Great work @fendien @Work_Bench