🥳 Celebrating 2 Years Data-Driven VC

Discounts, Resources, Learnings & More

Sep 12, 2024

∙ Paid

Yesterday, Data-Driven VC turned 2.

It feels like I just hit ‘send’ for the first year anniversary post, but in reality another year has passed and our community turned two with lightning speed.

Staying true to my “building in public” mantra, I’d like to use this post and reflect on the past 12 months, the highs and lows, and take a look at our plan and the path ahead. I promise, it’s packed with valuable resources, learnings, and discounts!

Data-Driven VC has evolved from casual weekly writing about topics close to my heart into a vivid community and platform where you can find everything you need to run a modern investment firm in one place. It’s all about becoming a better investor with data & AI.

If you only have 30 seconds, here’s the most valuable takeaways..

Get 40% discount on “The Lab” until Sunday night to access our full archive of 170+ posts, watch recordings of our virtual Data-Driven VC Summit, webinars, masterclasses, curated videos, and more
Win 3x “The Lab” memberships + 3x $100 Amazon vouchers by completing our 2min reader survey
We will soon launch “VC Tool Finder”. Join the waitlist and be among the first to benchmark, compare, review, and save more than $10k on essential data & tools

If you have a bit more time..

.. I will share a detailed behind the scenes look at the evolution of Data-Driven VC across our five pillars 1) Newsletters, 2) Reports, 3) Events, 4) Products, and 5) “The Lab”, and highlight what is in for you. Let’s dive in!

Pillar #1 Newsletter(s)

I started my VC related writing on Medium about 6 years ago. If VC is a relationship game, content creation is the best way to scale up 1-to-many conversations and shape a reputation that precedes.

The best founders can choose which VCs they want to work with. As the VC industry becomes more efficient, two “access components” will become core: capital availability (which VC is able to pay the highest valuation) and VC brand (firm brand + personal brand of the individual investor) — besides personal fit (which will remain key)!
“The Future of VC” (2020)

The ‘Why’

I regularly take time to reflect and carve out few goals for the period ahead. In summer 2022 - the midst of the VC market craze, I figured that after completing my PhD few years back, I gradually spent less time reading and instead became more reactive in my work. Not the ideal setup you aim for as an independent thinker.

The most obvious solution? I decided to turn my casual writing into a weekly newsletter as of September 2022. Why? Because public commitment to show up and publish every week together with my personal ambition to deliver high quality output forced me to spend more time reading and thinking, which eventually allowed me to be more proactive again.

11th September 2022, Data-Driven VC was born. Pressure was on and yes, I put the cart before the horse, but hey - today I can tell that it worked :)

Early Beginnings

In the first year, I tested various formats across deep dives, tool reviews, step-by-step guides, interviews, and a lot more. Overarching topics remained mostly the same, always somewhere at the intersection of my area of expertise in data & AI, my passion for automation & productivity, and my deep interest to be at the forefront of private market investing.

I enjoyed writing every single one of the 65 articles in year one, but being data-driven by nature I felt a natural pull to drill into the data. What resonated well, what did not? In addition to some basic analysis on reads, open rates, CTR, likes, and shares, I found the best way to get a feeling was direct interactions via DMs, polls, and surveys. Thank you all for being so incredibly open and supportive!

Help us chart the road ahead by completing this super-easy, 2-minute survey. Not only will it give me invaluable feedback, but it ensures Data-Driven VC is built with you, the reader, at its heart.

Take the 2min survey & win $100

#1A Newsletter Formats

All Good Things Come in Threes: Launching Two New Formats in 2024

Based on past post performance data and your clear feedback, I decided to launch “Insights” as a standalone weekly format in February 2024. Due to the heavy research required, I was happy to have Jerome Jaggi (one of my earliest readers) join me to double the reading capacity and help me publish two rotating sub formats “Insights Digest” (curation of most relevant research from the past two weeks) and “Insights Synthesis” (curation of all relevant research on one specific topic, making it the go-to source) every Tuesday.

Besides “Insights”, another highly requested format has been a data-driven deal flow snapshot. Which are the most exciting opportunities qualified by reliable signals across funding stages? As I obviously cannot share our deal flow from Earlybird VC, I vetted various external data-driven deal flow providers and started a collaboration with Harmonic to launch “Picks” in July 2024. Since then, we publish ten high-signal stealth, early, and growth startups every Sunday.

Partner with DDVC

Counting 173 Posts in 2 Years 🤯

Looking back, we published 65 articles in the first year and another 108 articles in the second. Totalling 173 posts in 2 years that cover all you need to become a better investor with data & AI.

Looking at the formats, I tried to combine two complementary types:

Timely: Think of a newspaper. Easy to skim and digest. Hot today, less relevant tomorrow. “Picks” and “Insights Digest” fall into this category. Traffic spikes in the days after publication but then flattens.
Timeless: Think of a study. Takes time and attention to comprehend. Relevant today as tomorrow. “Essays” and “Insights Synthesis” fall into this category. Traffic continuously grows over time as articles get shared and bookmarked for re-reading.

Launching “Archive Navigator”

As the number of DMs from our community keeps increasing, there remains one common question “Have you written about XYZ before?” And in many cases the answer is ‘yes’. I figured that the sheer volume of content together with Substack’s so-so search functionality makes it difficult to find what you’re looking for.

This is why we created the “Archive Navigator”. A simple sheet that lists all articles clustered by topics and is always up to date. It allows you to find what you’re looking for while at the same time getting inspired by what’s available.

Explore our full archive

Please note that you need “The Lab” Basic membership or higher to read all historic articles. New episodes will remain free until 48h after publication. As a small birthday gift, we offer 40% discount on all The Lab packages until Sunday night.

#1B Newsletter Audience

Attracted by 173 articles and the interaction with like-minded peers, Data-Driven VC has grown to 30k+ subscribers with 27k+ signed up via email and 3k+ following via the Substack app.

Reflecting on this number and putting things into context: I can’t believe that we have outgrown Lanxess Arena, one of my favourite stadiums located in Cologne and known for it’s unique concert atmosphere🤯

LANXESS arena - Alle Tickets & Termine bei kölnticket

More important than the size, however, is the quality of our audience. Looking through the list, I’m incredibly thankful to have thought leaders from investment firms like a16z, Accel, Atomico, Balderton, BlackRock, Creandum, Dawn, Earlybird 👋🏻, EQT, ICONIQ, Index, KKR, Lightspeed, Moonfire, NEA, Point72, Red River West, Redstone, Signalfire, and thousands more reading and contributing to our DDVC community every day.