The VC funding shift
For startups, cash is king of course — but it's also important where they get it from.
If you’re a startup raising money and in the position to turn down Andreessen Horowitz in a funding round, you are either foolish or in very high demand.
Sydney-based user experience software startup Dovetail fell into the latter camp last year when it pulled off one of the most talked about rounds in Australia's close-knit startup scene, at a time when conditions were markedly frothier than they are today.
Benjamin Humphrey, the Dovetail founder and CEO, revealed in a candid interview with Bronwen Clune that he turned down a16z, arguably Silicon Valley's most high profile venture fund, when the company raised $89 million back in the heady days of the Covid boom.
At the time, venture capital funds were scrambling for as much exposure to fast growing startups as they could get. It's not hard to see why Dovetail was in demand - the company looks like it has the potential to be the kind of scalable, capital efficient software business Australia is increasingly renowned for, like Humphrey's former employer Atlassian and Canva.
