Do new venture firms displace the prior generation of firms, or coexist alongside them?

Terrence Rohan · Feb 5, 2024 · hedged

Within about two years the combination of fund fragmentation, generational turnover, founder optionality and AI will make seed and venture ripe for major disruption and leadership reordering.

The compounding long trends plus AI's unsettled brand pairings and unclear round norms create enormous change and corresponding opportunity for new managers to take leadership positions.

Scope: roughly a two-year horizon; framed as opportunity rather than certainty

14:14 20VC: The Biggest Misconceptions & Hardest Truths About Seed Investing Today; Why The Best Founders Don't Need You, Why Uncapped SAFEs Are Good, Why Reserves Are Bad, Why Signalling is BS, Why Price Doesn't Matter with David Tisch & Terrence Rohan

Mark Goldberg · Oct 25, 2024 · hedged

This is the most dynamic moment in venture in twenty years

Legacy institutions are dealing with generational change and huge portfolios, while a set of new-guard funds is emerging

34:30 20VC: The Truth About Multi-Stage Firms; Why Portfolio Services are for VCs not Founders | Why Politics is Rife & Decision-Making is Broken in Large VCs | Why Reserves are Bad for Founders & How Boutique Firms Will Win with Mark Goldberg @ Chemistry

Mark Goldberg · Oct 25, 2024

A capital shakeout and an old-guard-to-new-guard turnover in venture can be happening at the same time, and that turnover moment is happening now rather than three, five or ten years ago

35:29 20VC: The Truth About Multi-Stage Firms; Why Portfolio Services are for VCs not Founders | Why Politics is Rife & Decision-Making is Broken in Large VCs | Why Reserves are Bad for Founders & How Boutique Firms Will Win with Mark Goldberg @ Chemistry

Max Altman · Nov 21, 2025 · hedged

Every generation of venture gets a refresh, with room for a new set of firms roughly every decade that replace the incumbents rather than being added on top of them

62:38 20VC: Max Altman on The New Seed War: Can Anyone Compete with Sequoia and a16z | Leaving $2BN on the Table with Reddit | Lessons from Backing Rippling at $25M Post | Why Climate Tech is a Mirage and Disaster

Max Altman · Nov 21, 2025 · hedged

He has roughly fifteen good years as a seed investor before becoming irrelevant and being replaced by a new set of seed funds

There is not room for all seed funds, so each generation has to outcompete and displace the last

Scope: about his own career arc

63:10 20VC: Max Altman on The New Seed War: Can Anyone Compete with Sequoia and a16z | Leaving $2BN on the Table with Reddit | Lessons from Backing Rippling at $25M Post | Why Climate Tech is a Mirage and Disaster

Harry Stebbings · Nov 21, 2025

The new seed firms must displace the prior generation of boutique seed firms; there is not room for both

Multistage players have moved into seed so efficiently that new entrants can only come in by displacing incumbents

62:55 Multistage encroachment means new seed firms must displace boutique incumbents