Shout out to Pablo of the The Product Market Fit Show for producing such great content, specifically in this recent episode.
Insights from Peter Walker of Carta
- Peter Walker is the Head of Insights at Carta, accessing unique startup data.
- He provided analysis on trends observed over the previous quarters and years, focusing particularly on changes post-COVID.
- Notably, total fundraising has been expanding steadily for the last three quarters, although levels remain below the heights of 2021.
- The percentage of down rounds decreased from 24% to 17% on Carta, signifying a shift towards more positive fundraising conditions.
- Bridge rounds in later stages have also declined, suggesting that venture capitalists may be increasingly willing to make new investments instead of focusing solely on rescuing struggling portfolio companies.
- Since the onset of rising interest rates in early 2022, company shutdowns have been gradually increasing, but they are doing so at a much slower pace than earlier in the year.
Funding Trends and Metrics
- Pre-seed rounds are generally defined as raising between $500,000 and $2,000,000 through SAFE or convertible notes.
- In the current market, median raises for pre-seed are around $3-3.5 million, with median pre-money valuations at approximately $14 million.
- For seed rounds, the time from pre-seed to seed is currently averaging around 18 months; however, the time from seed to Series A has extended to over 24 months.
- Recent cohorts raised in Q2 2022 show a stark drop in graduation rates: only 15% transitioned to Series A within two years compared to 40% in the Q2 2020 cohort.
- The median Series A round raised in the U.S. is around $10 million, leading to a post-money valuation of approximately $50 million.
- There's an increasing trend of extensions in rounds; about 42% of seed rounds last quarter were extensions or bridges.
Equity and Dilution Insights
- Founders are advised to be cautious when using SAFE deals, as accumulating multiple SAFEs can lead to significant ownership dilution at the conversion point.
- Common suggestions indicate that founders should aim to retain close to or more than 51% ownership post-Series A round.
- Typically, founders face 10% dilution in pre-seed rounds, 20% in seed rounds, and another 20% in Series A rounds.
Hiring Patterns and Employee Equity
- The hiring landscape remains stagnant, with net headcount changes at about zero in the past several months after hiring nearly 60,000 in early 2022 across 45,000 U.S. startups.
- Startups are still replacing departing employees but are not actively increasing their staff, which has led to flat salaries while equity packages have declined.
- Founders often split equity unevenly; around 58% of two-founder teams do not split 50-50, with median splits around 55-45.
- The median equity awarded to the first hire is about 1%, decreasing rapidly for subsequent hires.
Whether you’re a sales superstar, in-demand consultant, busy recruiter, or someone who simply needs to schedule a lot of meetings, one thing’s for sure—you’ve probably booked a lot of them over the past two years.
Hybrid work has forced the majority of our meetings online, and while we appreciate being able to wear sweatpants during normal work hours, the time-consuming ballet that is sharing your availability, finding a time to meet, and adding it to your calendar isn’t quite as enjoyable.
Speaking with everyone from solopreneurs to seasoned professionals, it seems like a lot of people find meeting scheduling software either costly, impersonal, or just plain boring. And Calendly and other alternatives don’t always cut it.
We hear you.
Everyone is different, and so is how they work. Making good first impressions is important, and you shouldn’t have to pay a premium for them or basic customizations and integrations with your meeting booking system.
Nook Calendar’s meeting proposal feature is already used by tons of high-performing teams for selecting and proposing meeting times outside of their organization.
Now, we’re making things even easier by letting you build personal pages with shareable calendar-booking links, right in Nook Calendar. Add them to your LinkedIn profile, email signature, website, or messages when finding a time to meet.
We think it’s the best meeting scheduling software out there, and we’re excited for you to give it a try, so let’s get started.
Here’s How to Set Up a Personal Booking Page in Nook Calendar
First off, if you’re new to Nook Calendar—hello! (If you’re already a Nook user, you can skip ahead.)
You’re going to start by syncing your calendar—either from Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook—and entering your work email address.
Once you approve any necessary permissions, you’ll set up your People Bar. Search for any connections and add the people you interact with the most when scheduling meetings.
From there, you can add any additional calendars you want to see (add your personal one, if you like, to further prevent any overlaps when scheduling meetings), integrate with Zoom (so you can launch calls straight from your calendar), and choose your preferred display setting—select Match OS, Light Mode, or Dark Mode.
Launch Nook Calendar, and you’re ready to set up your online meeting scheduler.
Now, the fun begins
You’re going to start by claiming your unique URL for sharing your meeting availability page.
Your first name appears by default, but really, it can be anything. We recommend using your full name (e.g., /john-smith).
(You can always change your URL in the future, as long as it’s still available.)
From there, you want to complete your profile.
Your profile pic is automatically pulled in from your Microsoft or GCal account.
But you can add your name, job title, welcome message, and links to social media profiles or professional website, so guests know a bit more about you when booking a meeting.
Then, you can start setting your weekly availability.
Nook Calendar defaults to traditional time blocks—9–12 a.m. and 1–5 p.m. These are the hours someone can book a meeting from your personal page. Adjust them based on your availability.
Your timezone is automatically set to your local time, but you can change it if you primarily work with people in a different timezone and it’s better to visualize that when setting your availability.
Choose which calendar you want to accept meetings in—it can only be booked in one, but Nook Calendar will automatically reference your availability in other calendars you’ve synced to prevent double-bookings when someone schedules a meeting.
Now, it’s time to set up some paramaters.
You can set up your preferred meeting duration in either 15, 30, 45-minute or one-hour increments (or a custom time).
You can also add buffer time to give yourself a break between meetings, or set a lead time of up to 24 hours, so no one can book any last-minute meetings.
And you’re all set! You can preview what the page will look like, then share it with contacts or add it to your LinkedIn profile (we suggest adding it as a secondary URL), email signature, and anywhere else you do business.
Once someone books time in your calendar, you’ll receive an email and get a notification in the Pulse.
If you ever need to make any changes, you can access your personal meeting page in the bottom of the Magic Panel and make any adjustments—either to your weekly availability or personal information.
You can also remove your availability by simply creating events in Nook Calendar and marking them as Busy to block off time and prevent any bookings.
Nook Calendar’s new personal pages for sharing meeting availability are available on Web, iOS, and Android.
If you have any questions or thoughts, we’d love to hear them. Hit us up in our Slack Community or contact us through Support.
