Thoughts from the MadTech Money conference

Earlier this week I was speaking at the MadTech Money conference, an excellently named event which is delightfully blunt about the business of both building and selling adtech and martech companies. I feel like we need more conferences like these.

Overall, the conference tone was a curious mix of cautious optimism (more ad dollars!), batten down the hatches pessimism (VC is dead!) and much solemn head-nodding and discussing of EBITDA¹. To a large degree, it feels like a lot of what was being speculated about at the start of the year (including by me) is now playing out. There is a definite sense of gradually and then quickly.

At the same conference I had a few conversations where people were declaring the VC model over because of interest rates. A point which several commentators on VC (including many founders) seem to have forgotten is that when Art Rock started investing in Intel and other companies in the late sixties², he was operating in an environment of almost identical interest rates. It’s possible, maybe, that rather than just being structurally challenged because of interest rates, that the real problem with VC is it simply has far too many bad investors combined with a very slow assessment mechanic. Sam Lessin recently posted a bunch of (far more polite) thoughts about the investing environment. I mostly agree enthusiastically with all of them. 

The state of VC in 2023. Where we are, where we are going, and where to invest – here is the whole thing… https://t.co/dux39L3ODH pic.twitter.com/SWs7rCa1sB

— sam lessin

(@lessin) October 16, 2023

Also at the same conference, someone asked me about whether they should start a company now, as everything in the world sounded rather terrible and perhaps they should just retreat to a bunker somewhere instead? I told them yes! Start a thing! If you’re thinking about building a company now, you should! It is historically a very good time to start companies (less competition). For anyone thinking those thoughts but lacking a framework Shaan Puri³ has a helpful set of search filters. 

1. Lots of people are now referring to EBITDA as a category investment e.g. ‘what’s your EBITDA strategy?’ in much the same way as they would refer to Saas or AI. It’s quite funny.
   

   

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2. Sebastian Mallaby’s The Power Law is an excellent read on this and worth your time

   

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3. I occasionally listen to MFM podcast which remains annoyingly good. Every time I do, it makes me want to start about five different things which is exactly what I’m trying not to do for a minute. 
   

   

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