Preparing for the Next Investment Boom:

As markets show signs of emerging from recent volatility, investors and entrepreneurs are sensing a shift in the wind. Despite ongoing global uncertainties including election outcomes, international conflicts, and trade tensions, financial markets are demonstrating remarkable resilience. Bitcoin has reached new all-time highs, the cryptocurrency sector is experiencing renewed growth, and startups are achieving profitability faster than in previous cycles. These indicators suggest we may be entering a new bull market—one that both venture capitalists and founders have been eagerly anticipating.

Market cycles are inevitable, and while downturns test resilience and separate strong companies from weak ones, boom periods present their own unique challenges and opportunities. Success during an upswing requires more than just riding the wave; it demands careful preparation, strategic thinking, and disciplined execution.

The VC Perspective: Maintaining Discipline Amid Opportunity

For venture capitalists, boom cycles can be both exhilarating and dangerous. History shows that market peaks are often characterized by excessive speculation, with investors chasing deals outside their expertise, cutting corners on due diligence, and abandoning fundamental investment principles in pursuit of quick returns.

The key to thriving during a boom is maintaining the same disciplined approach that serves well during downturns. This means doubling down on sectors and business models you genuinely understand and believe in, rather than succumbing to fear of missing out on trendy but unfamiliar opportunities. The pressure to move quickly and compete with other investors will be intense, but compromising on due diligence standards or lowering the bar for fundamental business metrics is a recipe for long-term regret.

Smart VCs use boom periods strategically. Instead of chasing overvalued deals, they focus on nurturing relationships with existing portfolio companies and limited partners. These cycles present ideal conditions for raising new funds, but the best investors resist the temptation to neglect their current commitments in favor of shiny new opportunities. They understand that sustainable success comes from playing the long game—supporting their winners and building trust with stakeholders who will remember their commitment when markets inevitably turn.

The Founder's Challenge: Building While Scaling

For startup founders, boom cycles often become a perpetual fundraising marathon. As capital becomes more accessible, competition intensifies, forcing entrepreneurs to dedicate enormous amounts of time to securing funding rather than building their businesses.

Preparation is crucial for navigating this environment effectively. Founders who succeed during boom periods have typically spent the preceding months clarifying their vision, refining their pitch materials, strengthening their financial position, investing in key talent, and nurturing strategic partnerships. The more groundwork laid in advance, the faster and more efficiently founders can move when the competitive race for capital begins.

Sustainable Growth in Unsustainable Times

The fundamental challenge during boom periods is maintaining perspective. These markets create an illusion of endless opportunity and limitless capital, but history reminds us that every boom eventually ends. The companies and funds that survive market transitions are those built on solid foundations rather than hype and speculation.

For venture capitalists, this means deploying capital thoughtfully and avoiding the pitfalls of momentum investing. It requires staying true to investment theses and maintaining rigorous evaluation standards even when peer pressure suggests otherwise.

The Time to Prepare is Now

Market timing is notoriously difficult, but preparation is always valuable. Whether the next boom cycle begins in six months or two years, the strategies that lead to success remain consistent: disciplined investing, sustainable growth, strong fundamentals, and long-term thinking.

Both VCs and founders who begin preparing now—before the wave fully forms—will be best positioned to ride it successfully and emerge stronger when it eventually recedes. In the venture capital world, as in many others, fortune favors the prepared.

//Kicking Off Summer

No stage. No spotlight. Just sun, smiles, and the people who make it all go.

We kicked off summer the best way we know how—firing up the grill with our closest community partners. No promotion. No agenda. Just real connection, cold drinks, and conversations that didn’t need a mic.

Shorts, sandals, and shared stories. This is the kind of gathering that grounds everything we build together.

Thanks to everyone who pulled up. Here's to more moments that matter—and a summer full of momentum. ☀️🔥

//Whats Next

Bay Area Startups Collectively Secured $2.77B

$2.77B went to Bay Area startups this week, with a flurry of funding activity at the end of the week. Vertical AI companies (Grammarly, $1B) received the bulk of the fundings this week, followed by biotech (Neuralink, $600M) and medical devices (Exo, $100M). The total brought May-to-date to $6.43B, with more fundings for May still coming in.

IPO Watch: Last week's IPO, Hinge Health, closed today at $38.84, down from its high of just over $40 but still up from its IPO price of $32.00. Yesterday, Omada Health filed their S-1, launched their roadshow and will be the next test of the IPO market. They announced they will price shares between $18 and $20, for a market cap of $1.1B at the top of the range. At $20 or above, Omada would be the first tech company in the last year NOT to have a down-round IPO, as they were last valued at $1.1B in their $192M Series E funding in 2022.

M&A: There have been more acquisitions with disclosed prices in the first five months of 2025 than any year since 2020. Want details? Check out our June 6^th LinkSV-WITI Webinar, details below.

If you're interested in Silicon Valley funding, funders and funds, details and trends in exits - M&A and IPOs – then join us one week from today on June 6th @12 noon Pacific Time for the next edition of SV Tech, Talent & Investment Trends. We'll break down what's getting funded – besides pure-play and vertical AI, who's investing plus the big changes in 2025 in acquisitions and IPOs. More details and register here.

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay on top of what's happening in 2025 in startup fundings, M&A and IPOs, VC fundraising plus new executive hires & investor moves.

Early Stage:

• VuMedi closed a $80M Series A, the largest healthcare video education platform, serving more than 600,000 physicians and healthcare professionals in over 20 specialities worldwide.

• Chalk closed a $50M Series A, the data platform for inference, providing critical infrastructure that empowers teams to rapidly operationalize machine learning and AI.

• Vivodyne closed a $40M Series A, rendering inaccurate animal testing obsolete, using automated robotic platforms and AI to grow and analyze thousands of fully functional human tissues.

• Gridcare closed a $13.5M Seed, the essential one-stop power solution for AI data centers that identifies and unlocks previously untapped grid capacity to accelerate AI

• Neuron Factory closed a $6M Seed, building the future of enterprise work through intelligent AI coworkers.

Growth Stage:

• Neuralink closed a $600M Series E, developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers. to help people with paralysis and inventing new technologies that will expand our abilities, our community, and our world.

• ClickHouse closed a $350M Series C, a fast, open-source columnar database management system built for real-time data processing and analytics at scale.

• Hex Technologies closed a $70M Series C, the only unified, AI-powered workspace for data analytics.

• Cerby closed a $40M Series B, the identity automation platform purpose-built to secure disconnected applications—those that fall outside the reach of traditional identity security tools.

• Pallet closed a $27M Series B, provides AI workers for logistics makes supply chain operators more efficient.

Follow us on LinkedIn to stay on top of what's happening in 2025 in startup fundings, M&A and IPOs, VC fundraising plus new executive hires & investor moves.

“It takes a village to deploy AI at scale."

Vik Malyala Managing Director, Supermicro

At our AI Infra Summit, Vik Malyala, shared practical insights into the evolving landscape of AI infrastructure. Addressing the reality of 200kW racks becoming commonplace, Malyala emphasized the importance of:

• Liquid Cooling: Highlighting its role in managing high-density computing environments.

• Real-Time Deployment Constraints: Discussing the challenges and solutions in deploying AI infrastructure efficiently.

• Sustainable System Design: Advocating for smarter designs to enhance sustainability in data centers.

• Edge-to-Core AI Compute Evolution: Exploring the shift from centralized to distributed AI computing models.

Malyala's session provided attendees with a clear view of the operational challenges and innovations shaping the future of AI infrastructure.

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