Four VCs from four different firms joined forces to launch Diversity VC, a non-profit partnership that aims to create a fairer, more representative venture capital industry. Apart from the fact that this is 2017, and we really should be doing better, the numbers also present a strong case. 

The 2014 Diana Report revealed that VC firms with female partners are twice as likely to invest in companies with a woman on the management team, yet 80% of Europe’s VC-backed startups have all male-founding teams. Diversity VC’s thesis is by improving the ratio at the source, this can trickle down to improve diversity across the industry.

Just 7% of the top 100 VC firms have partners who are women. Here’s how these young, female investors are beating those odds.

Fred Wilson resurfaces his argument against convertible notes and makes the case for priced equity rounds instead. I can certainly see convertible notes becoming less fashionable, as Series A investors increasingly get frustrated at the large, but polluted pipeline of seed-backed companies coming through.

Always be ready to pitch, as these days you don’t know who is an investor, as barriers to angel invest barely exist anymore, and the average joe is increasingly aware of the opportunity that investing in tech startups presents.

It’s not just Jay Z who is trying his hand at VC, as investing has been pretty hot amongst the hip hop community for some time, with Nas, will.i.am, Snoop Dogg, Chamillionaire and John Legend all regularly investing. As it becomes easier to become a rich celebrity, will we see it become easier to be a VC?

EXCELLENT post from Founders Collective on how by the time there is a special purpose VC fund devoted to a trend, it is probably too late to build a meaningful company in that space.

Aswath Damodaran lays out why there’s a distinction between good companies and good investments, arguing that a good company can often be a bad investment and a bad company can just as easily be a good investment. 

Medha Agarwal of Redpoint Ventures share their four key characteristics they believe distinguish winners who are successfully leveraging machine learning.

Silicon Valley elites’ vision of the future

Union Square Ventures recently invested in Tucows, a 23-year-old public company. Why did an early-stage VC firm invest in an established public company? Because it was a good opportunity.  

Another interesting example includes Google Capital. As a firm, their focus is providing growth capital to private startups. But they recently invested in publicly traded Care.com. 

Could we see other later-stage funds follow?

Sam Myers of Balderton shared his internal memo on the opportunities that exist in the automotive software market

Every year Upfront Ventures surveys Limited Partners (LPs), here are the results. The main takeaway? LPs are at their most optimistic phase about venture since the great recession of 2007–2009.

Great discussion between Beezer Clarkson and Nino Marakovic on what makes for a better exit, an IPO or an acquisition?

Brent Hoberman has a bold plan to help launch 200 startups by 2021 with his latest project, Founders Factory

What was initially thought to be a $230 million fund has evolved into a smaller $100 million fund with the same focus.

Floodgate predicts that founders of companies in the next ten years need to create movements that will bring abundance to the entire world. They call these special Founders the “Prime Movers.”

Good take on whether the rise of Micro-VCs can help assist 2nd and 3rd tier tech hubs grow and encourage a greater balance of power, talent and capital in countries (using the U.S as an example), rather than it all being focused in one or two main hubs.