Amid record dry powder, VCs are determined to fund anything but you

You can do anything, seriously.

If you had If you were to sum up 2022’s venture capital market in one sentence, this word would be Contradictions.

Venture funds have record dry powder — deployable capital on hand — and yet funding continues to steadily decline. There seems to be more talk about supporting women and people of colour in the industry, but the numbers are moving in the opposite direction. VCs said publicly that they were focusing on companies on the path to profitability, but that wasn’t true for even a minute.

Many venture firms claimed that they were largely avoiding investing in this year while they wait for the valuations to drop. However, it is again largely false.

What Does seem to be true, though, is that some VCs are using this year’s uncertainty as an excuse to avoid doing the work it takes to discuss valuations and assess TAM on potential investments into companies with real customer bases. Because they aren’t backing no one — they’re just backing everyone but you.