Startups and Investing

The missing middle of startup funding

There was a time, not that long ago, when starting a small business meant going to see your local bank manager. This sounds almost quaint now. A friendly person in a branch. Someone who may have known you, or at least had access to your history with the bank. You would turn up with a business plan, talk through the numbers, and ask for a loan. Maybe it was unsecured. More likely it was secured against your house, which you probably had mortgaged with the same bank. The bank knew your salary, your spending habits, your debts, your reliability. You were not an abstract risk profile. You were a person in a place, with a track record.

What gets VC funding now?

I was recently asked to join a local conference panel about what investors are looking for in 2026. The session ranged from angel and seed investing to scale-up capital, bank lending and company valuations. But the question I kept coming back to was narrower: what has changed over the last 12 months, and why does the old early-stage fundraising playbook feel less reliable than it used to?

Startups and Investing

The lazy myth that Europe regulated itself into decline

There’s a familiar libertarian story about Europe: too much bureaucracy, too many regulations, too many worker protections, too much privacy law, and too many rules about what companies can and can’t do. This, we’re told, is why Europe doesn’t produce as many world-beating technology companies as the US.

Startups and Investing

Will AI Super Charge Venture Studios?

Coming from an agency background, I’ve always had a soft spot for the idea of the venture studio. At its simplest, it’s a pretty seductive model. Instead of using your design, engineering, marketing and commercial skills to help clients build their businesses in exchange for fees, you use those same capabilities to build companies of your own in exchange for equity.

Startups and Investing

How AI-Enabled Startups Are Moving Faster — and Rewriting the VC Playbook

Artificial intelligence is quietly reshaping the relationship between founders and venture capital. On the surface, the AI boom still looks familiar: huge rounds, soaring valuations, and a sense that you need billions just to stay in the race. But beneath that headline narrative, a very different kind of startup is emerging—what Anu Atluru calls the Silicon Valley Small Business.

Startups and Investing

The Vanishing Series A: The money hasn’t disappeared, but the pathway is getting harder.

There was a time when the journey from Pre-Seed to Series A felt almost linear. Raise a small pre-seed round, build a great product. Develop some momentum. Raise $2–5M Seed. Hone your GTM. Hit $1M ARR. Tell a good story. Raise again.