When more companies can build, more have to find a way to sell.
It takes far less to build software than it did. More than a third of new startups on Carta now have a single founder, up from under a quarter in 2019. In our experience, the good founders raise less as a result, and more of what they raise goes to getting to market.
With the product easier to copy, more depends on how quickly and how creatively a company reaches its buyers. Buyers start about four in five first sales conversations themselves, and nearly all buying groups rank their shortlist before they talk to a seller. The vendor they contact first wins about eight deals in ten. In our work, that puts a lot of weight on how easy a company is to find.
It also raises the bar for what keeps customers. The median AI-native app keeps about 40% of its starting revenue a year later, while AI products priced above $250 a month keep about 70%, like other B2B software. When we look at a company, we want to know how good the founder is at selling, and what will keep customers once a competitor copies the product.
The best companies get to choose.
The investors we talk to describe more companies to sift through, with quality flat or down. When they find a winner, the founder needs less money, so the round is smaller and harder to get into.
A founder with more than one offer looks for more than the check. a16z says so on its own site: “We are the best firm, so we expect to win with an equivalent or lower offer than anyone else bidding.”
87.5%
of US venture dollars in the first half of 2026 went to rounds of $100 million or more
$412.7 billion was invested in total, and AI companies took 86% of it.
a16z
In August 2026, a16z added more help with sales, marketing and pricing for the growth-stage companies it backs.
Insight Partners
Insight Onsite is a team of more than 130 people who connect portfolio companies with expertise and networks. In 2025 they made more than 370 executive introductions.
Battery Ventures
In June 2025, Battery launched a network of go-to-market operators who advise its portfolio companies on product-led growth, demand generation, and enterprise and international sales.
Start with your view.
Tell us what you’re seeing in the business, what has been tried and where you think it’s stuck. We’ll test that view with the founder and with the numbers.
Work with the team.
We join customer calls, rework the offer, build the follow-up process or help someone take on decisions the founder still owns. We can work alongside your platform team or stand in for one.
Make the change usable.
With the founder, we agree who will run the work, what we’ll measure and how you’ll stay informed. The team needs to be able to run what we build in the weeks between board meetings.
We bet on ourselves.
We bet on our ability to pick companies, and on our ability to make change inside them.
Some problems suit a defined project with a fixed fee. When we believe in a company, we invest our time the way you invest capital. We charge at most what our people cost us, with no markup, and make our return from the company’s growth, as a performance bonus on new revenue or as equity.
General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund works on a similar idea with capital. It pays for go-to-market spend and takes a capped share of the income that spend produces.
We spend about six months inside the business, on sales calls, in pipeline reviews and in leadership meetings, then advise for about six more. With the founder’s permission, we can share what we learn with you ahead of the next round.
An introduction with a little context is enough to start: what the business does, what the founder is trying to change and why you think a conversation would help.
We meet the founder first. If there’s a useful piece of work, we’ll agree the next step together. For a longer bet, we start with value-add due diligence and come back with the 90-day plan we’d pursue if it were our company. The founder doesn’t pay for the due diligence or the plan.
You can also start with a conversation.
You don’t need to have diagnosed the problem before getting in touch.