As you know, this is the time of year when you see endless “Best Of” lists and predictions for the new year. It’s also safe to say that most people were happy to close the door on 2023. While it was better than the previous two years with Covid further in the rear view mirror, there remained significant challenges from high inflation to turbulent markets to a dry IPO market and resulting sluggishness in the venture pipelines.

But, there are positive signs on the horizon. Venture deals not only continued to get done, but early stage deals were actually robust. Most VCs predict a shuffling in the VC ranks as many funds deliver poor results and struggle to raise the next fund. Meanwhile, the pipeline of startups is significant while there is a massive generational wealth transfer underway. Why is that important? Because all signs indicate the new generation taking over the Baby Boomer wealth has a long term investment horizon and is clearly favoring alternative (aka private ) investments over traditional capital market investing. This ensures that dry powder for VC and Private Equity is not going anywhere.

We would be remiss closing out a New Years post without providing some thoughts on intentionality and heading into the year. Some of you may not be familiar with Jessie Itzler. He is the founder of Marquis Jet but more well know for being the husband of the Spanx founder. Together, they are very wealthy and very influential. But what makes Jessie stand out is how down to earth he seems to be despite his meteoric success. Over the Holidays he posted regularly on his Instagram account about ideas he leverages to close out his year and prepare for a great year ahead. We found them compelling and authentic and we encourage you to check them out. We’ll let you explore the posts, but we are confident there will be some ideas you want to leverage. You can navigate to his Instagram account from his website which is linked above.

Happy New Year! We hope 2024 is a banner year for each of you.