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Venture capital is a form of private equity financing that provides funding to early-stage companies with high growth potential. It plays an important role in the startup ecosystem, helping to bring new products, services, and technologies to market. Venture capitalists are known for their ability to identify promising startups and provide them with the resources they need to grow and succeed. However, not everyone is aware of the interesting trivia and facts surrounding the venture capital industry. Here are a few examples of venture capital trivia questions that might test your knowledge:
These are just a few examples of the many fascinating facts and trivia related to the venture capital industry. Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to raise capital or just someone who is curious about how startups get funding, these questions can be a fun and interesting way to learn more about the venture capital industry.
1. What “G” venture capital company, founded in 2006 in NYC, has investments in Bird, Bumble, Venmo, and others?
Answer: Greycroft
2. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is also a venture capitalist who was an early investor in what company whose plant-based products compete directly with brands like Impossible Burger?
Answer: Beyond Meat
3. While researching cruddy point-of-sale systems, Penn roommates Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail created what V-word mobile payment service?
Answer: Venmo
4. It’s rare for a privately held startup to make it big and be worth more than $1 billion USD. What magical name did Aileen Lee give to companies that have achieved this feat?
Answer: Unicorns
5. Sound Ventures, a fund that has invested in Bird Scooters, is co-owned by what actor who starred on "That '70s Show" and is married to Mila Kunis?
Answer: Ashton Kutcher
6. A venture capital podcast hosted by Harry Stebbings is the what “Minute VC?” The “T” word is also James Garfield’s numerical value as U.S. president.
Answer: The Twenty Minute VC
7. Which term is used to describe how fast your company is spending money to cover expenses and makes it sound like you’re setting the cash on fire?
Answer: Burn Rate
8. Which B-word describes the testing you do close to the launch of your product to make double-sure it’ll work in the real world with end-users?
Answer: Beta
9. Compared to that of Wall Street and the stock market, K Street and political lobbying, Madison Avenue for the advertising industry is for venture capitalism which road running through Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Woodside?
Answer: Sand Hill Road
10. Actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas's ventures have included a large investment in what dating app that requires women to make the first move in an opposite-sex match?
Answer: Bumble
11. What kind of partner (LP) in your company doesn’t have voting rights and is not involved in the day-to-day side of the business’s operations? They’re also not liable for the full amount of your company’s debt (they’re only on the hook for however much they’ve invested).
Answer: Limited
12. Casa Verde is a venture capital firm that focuses specifically on the cannabis industry, founded by what rapper who performed at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show?
Answer: Snoop Dogg
13. Through the first 10 seasons of “Shark Tank,” what Dallas Mavericks owner and prominent venture capitalist had made the highest number of deals on the show, totaling 151 deals?
Answer: Mark Cuban
14. Better known for its coverage of pop culture, especially music, on February 28, 2023, what magazine co-founded by Jann Wenner published the article "Venture Capital Funding Is Not the Only Option for Startups?"
Answer: Rolling Stone
15. A metric that indicates the total revenue a business can reasonably expect from a single customer account throughout the business relationship, what does CLTV stand for?
Answer: Customer Life Time Value
16. Whether you’re just conceptualizing or looking for investors, you may want to join the U.S. non-profit NVCA if you’re looking for resources and connections to help get your startup off the ground. What does NVCA stand for?
Answer: National Venture Capital Association
17. Not long after he founded Sequoia Capital, Don Valentine became one of the first investors in what fruity little tech startup by a computer engineer at Atari named Steve?
Answer: Apple
18. Which directional term applies to a funding round where a startup’s value per share is lower than it used to be?
Answer: Down
19. What four-letter "C" app for guided meditations was founded in 2012 by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew? It hopes to instill an inner sense of peace.
Answer: Calm
20. Identified as APRN on the New York Stock Exchange, Bessemer Venture Partners was one of the first three venture capitalist firms to give over $3 million to what company that started with founders Matt Salzberg, Ilia Papas, and Matt Wadiak making and sending meal prep boxes to customers in 2012?
Answer: Blue Apron
21. Gritt.io is a free searchable database of which kind of (heavenly) investor?
Answer: Angel
22. The co-author of the first widely used web browser (Mosaic) is also the co-founder of Netscape, another popular web browser. However, this person is arguably more famous as a venture capitalist due to his career at what firm?
Answer: Andreessen Horowitz
23. One of the up-and-coming global trends in VC is environmental, an “S” word that you might apply to media, and corporate governance (ESCG), in which a company’s impact on the environment and people (as well as its transparency about these effects) is considered by investors. What “S” word completes the acronym?
Answer: Social
24. Delaware Crossing Investment Group and Ben Franklin Technology Partners are venture capital firms based in or near what East Coast American city?
Answer: Philadelphia
25. What fictional character can be said to be a venture capitalist, since he invested in a shrimping boat to found a successful shrimp company named after himself and his late comrade Benjamin "Bubba" Blue?
Answer: Forrest Gump
26. What family-based term is given to a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases?
Answer: Grandfather provision
27. A European venture capital firm, founded in 1996 by Neil and David Rimer with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, that invests in technology enable companies, is what Ventures? The word is also a list of names at the back of a book, indicating on what pages they occur.
Answer: Index Ventures
28. What venture capital firm, founded in Menlo Park, CA, USA in 2009 by Marc “A” and Ben “H”, invests in both start-ups and companies with established growth?
Answer: Andreessen Horowitz
29. In startup-speak, the abbreviation FMA, meaning the competitive edge a company gets from being the first to market with a product, stands for "first mover" what?
Answer: advantage
30. What German-born venture capitalist and PayPal cofounder is a coauthor of the 2014 book "Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future?"
Answer: Peter Thiel
31. Also the name for an Olympic track event, what sort of "H" rate is the lowest rate of return a project or investment must achieve before a manager or investor deems it acceptable?
Answer: Hurdle Rate
32. Your company’s ARRG ratio might sound like a Charlie Brown-esque cry of frustration, but it’s actually an acronym for Average what type of Revenue/Growth Rate?
Answer: Recurring
33. Which type of buyout occurs when you rack up a lot of debt (for example, in loans) when you take over a company with the intent to use its assets as collateral and use your future earnings to pay back what you owe? It’s called “LBO” for short.
Answer: Leveraged
34. What Black-owned Atlanta tech company, whose signature product helps people schedule meetings by selecting the times that best work for them, closed a $350-million investment in 2022 at a valuation of $3 billion?
Answer: Calendly
35. A May 2023 conference called "The Land of the Rising Sun Meets the Nation of Rising Innovation" covered partnership opportunities for ventures between Israel and what Asian nation?
Answer: Japan
36. The home stadium of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers is named after what San Francisco-based online banking company founded in 2011?
Answer: SoFi
37. Not related to ask.com, Thazhmon and Sherwin Gandhi founded a fintech company that shares what J-name with a P.G. Wodehouse butler character?
Answer: Jeeves
38. Founded in 2012 and launched two years later, what is the name of the San Mateo, California-based data company that was named because of the shared love for winter sports that both founders have?
Answer: Snowflake
39. Accel, a venture capital firm specializing in startups at early levels of development, has offices in Palo Alto and what other California city, home of the NFL’s 49ers team?
Answer: San Francisco
40. AlphaQ, a billion dollar international venture capital firm, is based out of what German city?
Answer: Berlin, Germany
41. What Greek letter is the term for the way of measuring how sensitive an investment is to general market movements up or down?
Answer: Beta
42. What mythical term was first popularized in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to describe a startup with a market valuation of more than $1 billion?
Answer: Unicorn
43. "Why AI Will Save the World" is a manifesto by what billionaire venture capitalist, who claims that in the best case scenario, AIs will eliminate the need for labor entirely?
Answer: Marc Andreessen
44. Featuring a light-blue-and-white cover design, "Start-Up Nation" is a 2009 book about the economic miracle of technological development and entrepreneurial economy of what Middle Eastern country?
Answer: Israel
45. What tech startup, which was founded in 2015 and describes itself as "Video Messaging for Work", takes its name from a device used to weave cloth?
Answer: Loom
46. Internet mogul Richard Barton founded the online travel company Expedia, the employment search engine and company review website Glassdoor, and what internet-based real estate company?
Answer: Zillow
47. Getting venture capitalist funding for your startup is a bit of an “alphabet soup,” as each series round is named with which linguistic symbol?
Answer: Letter
48. No, it’s not the Ark Indiana Jones was seeking. Which C-term refers to a key protective clause in a VC agreement?
Answer: Covenant
49. What term beginning with “L” is a predetermined period after an IPO during which insiders are restricted from selling their shares?
Answer: Lock-up period
50. Which VC firm that started in California in 1972 and was known by its founders’ surnames in the acronym "KPCB" has backed more than 900 ventures, including AOL, Amazon, and Google? Today, it’s known by just the first two names of the original four-name acronym, but if you know the original, go for it!
Answer: Kleiner Perkins
51. Sequoia and Accel are both financial firms that are considered hallmark members of what subclass of private equity investing?
Answer: Venture Capital
52. No, PIPE offerings aren’t plumbing investments. It’s an acronym for private investment in what kind of equity?
Answer: Public
53. In 2019, CB Insights and the New York Times partnered to rank the Top 20 Venture Capitalists. In first place was Neil Shen, a former co-founder of Chinese travel company Ctrip.com. Shen was a founding partner of the China-based office of what famed venture firm?
Answer: Sequoia
54. In October 2020, a San Francisco-based company named Whisper raised $35 million in Series B funding. Coincidentally, Quiet Ventures led the fundraising round for Whisper and the company is known as a manufacturer of what piece of medical technology?
Answer: Hearing aids
55. They’re similar, but venture capital and which type of equity have some key differences (for example, the latter will buy up a successful company while the former is more interested in “getting in on the ground floor” with a startup)?
Answer: Private
56. In the world of venture capital, a company that is funded by an entrepreneur's personal resources or revenue from the company is said to be what?
Answer: Bootstrapped
57. Snore! What Elon Musk-founded tunneling firm raised $118 million in venture capital funding in April 2018?
Answer: The Boring Company
58. Which common banking term that comes from the Latin word for “equal and fair” describes the kind of financing you could do for your startup by selling shares in the company?
Answer: Equity
59. Started in 2012, Blackbird Ventures was founded in and is based in the largest city in which Southern Hemisphere country? It has expanded to a smaller island country nearby.
Answer: Australia
60. What is the name of the document prepared by a venture capital firm outlining the reasons for investing in a particular startup or innovation?
Answer: Investment Memo
61. What sort of fund beginning with “S” is a fund that invests in a particular or specialized segment of the marketplace, such as stocks of companies in the software, healthcare, or real estate industries?
Answer: Sector Fund
62. Although it may sound like fish eggs, the term ROE in venture capital terms is a measure of profitability. It stands for “Return on …..” what?
Answer: Equity
63. In the world of appropriate ticker symbols, $CRM refers to which $200B San Francisco company that hosts an annual conference called Dreamforce?
Answer: Salesforce
64. Which “M” term describes a middle-risk financing option where the person lending can turn the debt into equity in the company they’re funding if the borrower defaults? The word also means an in-between floor between two main floors in a building.
Answer: Mezzanine
65. What kind of investor provides capital for a start-up business in exchange for ownership equity? They probably get their incredibly positive name from taking a risky investment at an early stage.
Answer: Angel Investor
66. Marc Lore sold Diapers.com to Amazon and later founded a new ecommerce company with Mike Hanrahan and Nate Faust. These three men raised over $800 million in venture capital before their July 2015 launch. Thirteen months later, their company was a subsidiary of Walmart. What was their company?
Answer: Jet.com
67. Counting Peter Thiel among its partners, what alliteratively named San Francisco-based venture capital firm lists Facebook, Palantir, Airbnb, and SpaceX among its portfolio companies?
Answer: Founders Fund
68. What is the "techy" name of the first podcast from Gimlet Media hosted by Alex Blumberg and Lisa Chow, which was meta enough to follow the founding and growth of Gimlet Media itself?
Answer: StartUp
69. What business-related list was first created by editor Edgar P. Smith in 1955?
Answer: Fortune 500
70. What Boston-based private equity investment firm was co-founded by former Massachusetts governor and current Utah Senator Mitt Romney?
Answer: Bain Capital
71. The San Francisco-based company Ethos was valued at more than $2 billion in May 2021 after spending its existence focusing on what common type of insurance product?
Answer: Life insurance
72. 83north does duty as the Israel branch of what old-school, Cambridge-born V.C. firm?
Answer: Greylock Partners
73. If you want to make a business idea come to life, first you need to have an MVP—a very basic, but functional, version of your product that you can test out with potential investors and buyers. Not quite your “Most Valuable Player,” but what does MVP stand for?
Answer: Minimum Viable Product
74. If B2B means “business-to-business” (when businesses interact with each other) it makes sense that B2C means business-to-what, when businesses interact with end-users or customers?
Answer: Consumer
75. Also called a stock launch, a company’s IPO is its initial public what? This is its public shares to potential investors.
Answer: Offering
76. Capital what “E” term (CAPEX) refers to how much money a company has to shell out to improve their business—for example, through buying or updating the equipment they use to make their product.
Answer: Expenditure
77. Not just a name to call your mother by, MOM is also an acronym you’d want to know if you were comparing growth rates for September to August. The “O” is over and the Ms sandwiched on either side are which word repeated?
Answer: Month
78. Which VC firm based in Menlo Park shares a name with a familiar California tree and has invested in companies like DoorDash, Zoom, Apple, and 23andMe?
Answer: Sequoia Capital
79. In 2022, which Israeli-based medtech startup got $62 million in Series B funding from Pitango Venture Capital to expand consumer access to its breathalyzer-style metabolism tracking device?
Answer: Lumen
80. Which VC firm founded by Mike Maples Jr. and Ann Miura-Ko has a name that makes it sound like it can open up a steady stream of support and help you make some big waves?
Answer: Floodgate
81. If a part of your company hasn’t done well, what term describes the process of getting rid of all its assets? It’s essentially the opposite of investing.
Answer: Divestiture
82. Which VC firm based in London and founded by Bjorn Stray and Tellef Thorleifsson in 1996 has backed companies like Spotify, Klarna, and Trustpilot?
Answer: Northzone Ventures
83. A common acronym used in business but especially venture capital, MRR stands for Monthly Recurring what?
Answer: Revenue
84. What word yelled out by Ross in that episode of “Friends” with a couch that needed moving could you borrow to mean you’re making a change to your startup strategy?
Answer: Pivot
85. Important as a startup develops, the acronym "BML" refers to creating a product, getting consumer metrics quickly, and responding to the insights learned. "BML" stands for "build, measure, what?"
Answer: Learn
86. A shortening of the word "dividend," what verb that means "to divide up" is also the name of a startup that calls itself "the all-in-one expense management solution"?
Answer: Divvy
87. What two-word term is an acquisition strategy where one company offers to purchase another at a much higher price than that company’s valuation and is more beneficial for shareholders than most hostile takeovers would be?
Answer: Bear Hug
88. What two-word term is the main entity responsible for the issuance of new equity, debt, and other securities?
Answer: Book Runner
89. What rights are a contractual provision that gives investors the right to sell their shares back to the company at a predetermined price?
Answer: Drag-along rights
90. What goes around comes around—or what goes up must come down? Either way, what freelancing platform where people might go for some help getting their startup off the ground was itself a startup called Elance back when it began in 1998?
Answer: Upwork
91. What two word term is when a limited partnership raises funds from investors without telling them where the money will be invested?
Answer: Blind Pool
92. Founded in 2018 by Evan Reiser and Sanjay Jeyakumar, which San Francisco-based security startup with a somewhat atypical name uses AI to help make email more secure?
Answer: Abnormal Security
93. What two word term is when all classes of preferred stock have equal payment rights in the event of a liquidation?
Answer: Blended preferences
94. You could say that what Chicago-based VC firm started by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell in 2010 illuminates promising startups (like Groupon and Udemy)?
Answer: Lightbank
95. Which American investing mogul is most well-known for two things that have nothing to do with each other: being a top tech dealmaker at Benchmark and measuring about 6’9’’ tall?
Answer: Bill Gurley
96. What portmanteau is used when an acquisition of a company is primarily for its talent, rather than its products or services?
Answer: Acqui-hire
97. What five letter term is the percentage of profits earned by a venture capital fund manager on successful investments?
Answer: Carry
98. What term beginning with “C” is a special contractual clause typically included in employment contracts by financial firms, by which money already paid must be paid back under certain conditions?
Answer: Clawback
99. What term starting with “G” is a takeover bid put forth by a company or investor that is purposely designed to be all but impossible to refuse?
Answer: Godfather offer
100. In 2017, ServiceNow founder Fred Luddy and venture capitalist Mark Ein bought the majority share of the WTT, a mixed-gender professional league devoted to what sport?
Answer: Tennis
101. Thomas Edison had a lot of great ideas, but he still needed people to believe in—and bankroll—him. Which Wall Street financier with an entire banking conglomerate named after him must have had at least a little faith in Edison, as it placed plenty of hefty bets on his success?
Answer: JP Morgan
102. If you have people investing in your company, you’ll want to keep track of the profit that gets invested back into it and balance this amount against dividends. What term is used to describe these earnings? It’s another word for “kept.”
Answer: Retained
103. Which Long Island native and Wharton School alum founded First Round Capital with Howard Morgan in 2004?
Answer: Josh Kopelman
104. Catahoula-LaSalle Bank, Jackson Parish Bank, and The Mer Rouge State Bank are some state-chartered banks in what pretty guessable U.S. state?
Answer: Louisiana
105. Thirty Five Ventures is a capital firm co-founded by what NBA star, who wore number 35 from the start of his career until he joined the Brooklyn Nets in 2020?
Answer: Kevin Durant
106. What type of laws refer to state-level securities regulations aimed at protecting investors from fraud and ensuring fair and honest securities transactions?
Answer: Blue Sky Laws
107. What is the name of the fintech company, which was founded by Max Levchin and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, that allows users to apply for a small loan when purchasing a variety of items at its partner stores?
Answer: Affirm
108. E-Trade, Eaton Vance, and Solium are all subsidiaries of what investment bank based in Manhattan that’s been operating for over 80 years?
Answer: Morgan Stanley
109. In crypto, buy the what “D” term is (BTD) is slang for purchasing at a low price (usually just after a peak) with the assumption that the value will go up again.
Answer: Dip
110. Acquired by TechStyle in 2013, what 2009 footwear startup, which provides styling recommendations to members each month, counts Kim Kardashian among its co-founders?
Answer: ShoeDazzle
111. What two-word term is a record of a company’s shareholders, ownership percentages, and other equity-related details?
Answer: Cap Table
112. What two-named American financial and investment company was founded in 1869 by one of its namesakes, first name Marcus, in a simple basement office that had a humble view of a coal chute?
Answer: Goldman Sachs
113. Born in Bulgaria before attending Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia and Stanford University in California, Vlad Tenev founded defunct trading company Celeris and then software company Chronos Research before eventually founding what still-functioning company in 2013?
Answer: Robinhood
114. Before Chris Dixon became partner at Andreessen Horowitz and made the number one spot on the Midas List in 2022, what online shopping platform did he work at?
Answer: eBay
115. What two-C-word alliterative term are the capabilities and advantages of a business or an individual that set them apart from the competition?
Answer: Core competencies
116. What “H” Seattle company uses caller data to help identify incoming calls and block unwanted ones? Its four-letter name sounds like an informal greeting.
Answer: Hiya
117. Vinod Khosla, a billionaire and founder of an eponymous venture capital firm, is also a cofounder of what company that created the Java programming language?
Answer: Sun Microsystems
118. What “D” American venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins in Menlo Park, CA, also wrote books on the subject, including “Measure What Matters” and “Professional Services Marketing?”
Answer: John Doerr
119. Which term applies to a company that’s in the growth or direction phase, has at least 10 employees, and has had an annualized return of at least 20% over the last 3 years?
Answer: Scaleup
120. What "buggy" database company raised $160 million in early 2021? The company claims to combine "the benefits of familiar, relational SQL" with the "easy scale and global reach" of NoSQL.
Answer: Cockroach Labs
121. What term is used to describe a type of investment funding that’s only used to fund other funds (often hedge or mutual)?
Answer: Fund of Funds
122. With a soaring valuation that reached more than $40 billion in the first half of 2021, what is the name of the Swedish fintech company that primarily features post-purchase payments (i.e., "buy now, pay later") and is headquartered in Stockholm?
Answer: Klarna
123. What venture capital fund, founded in 2007 and named for the Pacific Northwest U.S. state it’s located in, invests in customer.io, Perfect Company, and GlobeSherpa, among many others?
Answer: Oregon Venture Fund
124. Founded by Charles Feeney to look after his philanthropies in 1980, what growth capital company has a headquarters at Park Avenue Plaza in New York City?
Answer: General Atlantic
125. BEDCO was one of the earliest Silicon Valley venture capital firms that took an interest in emerging technology in the ‘70s. It was named after its founders, which included Craig BURR, Dr. Jean DELEAGE, and William P. who? Then they tacked on the “and Co.” The “Bill” in question is now the founder of Alta Communications, the successor of BEDCO.
Answer: Eagan
126. If your shareholders have a certain “-along” rights clause, the majority can force the minority to become part of the sale of your company. What word comes before the hyphen?
Answer: Drag
127. What is the name of the security company founded in 2006 by two Harvard Business School students who couldn't find a security company designed to help renters? The couple was interested in the field after multiple friends in Cambridge had experienced break-ins. By 2014, the company had raised more than $50 million in venture capital.
Answer: Simplisafe
128. It is commonly said that early investments in startups come from what are known as "The Three Fs:” Friends, Family, and what third F word?
Answer: Fools
129. What is the name of the 2012-founded San Francisco-based company that uses a spreadsheet-database hybrid in which features of a database are applied to a spreadsheet? Founded by Howie Liu, Andrew Ofstad, and Emmett Nicholas, the company widely shares its API for connecting other online services and has raised more than $300 million in funding (as of early 2021).
Answer: Airtable
130. The cybersecurity startup Island received $11 million in funding from what Bosack and Lerner-founded San Jose tech giant that pioneered the LAN?
Answer: Cisco Systems
131. What is the name of the mysterious and unknown person who designed and created the original implementation protocol for Bitcoin?
Answer: Satoshi Nakamoto
132. A pun on the French phrase meaning "ready to wear," what fashion website did venture capitalist Julie Massenet found in 2000, with the idea that users could look at a magazine-style photo and buy the items in the look?
Answer: Net-a-Porter
133. Which cloud collabing service founded by Howie Liu, Andrew Ofstad, and Emmett Nicholas in 2012 has become a popular deal for venture capitalists, since it helps businesses make better use of spreadsheets, keep track of projects, and share databases?
Answer: Airtable
134. Which Israel-based VC fund started in 2000 by Shlomo Dovrat and Avi Zeevi has backed companies like Outbrain, Payoneer, and and SimilarWeb?
Answer: Viola Ventures
135. Preceding the burst of scooter sharing companies in the United States, LatAm, and Europe was a wave of Chinese-based dockless bikeshare companies in ~2017. Most prominent of these brightly colored companies were Mobike's orange bikes and what other company's yellow bikes?
Answer: Ofo
136. Deeper Insights, Five AI, and Beyond Analysis are some of the top AI companies in what international city?
Answer: London
137. Ahoy! Also known as a lead investor, what A-word describes a qualified institutional buyer who steadies a fund before it goes public?
Answer: Anchor Investor
138. Crowberry Capital is the largest venture capital fund in what Scandinavian country, with its all female leadership?
Answer: Iceland
139. Which term describes the cycle of proposals and pitches to venture capitalists and is influenced by the state of the economy?
Answer: Deal-Flow
140. With a valuation north of $1 billion and more than $700 million raised in venture capital, what is the four-letter company that offers business credit cards to technology companies and brands itself as "the financial OS for the next generation of business"?
Answer: Brex
141. Policybazaar and ZhongAn Insurance are both technology-based insurance companies that have received large amounts of funding through the Vision Fund which is one of the world's largest venture capital funds and is associated with what Japanese telecom giant?
Answer: SoftBank
142. In 2008, which famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm launched its “iFund” specifically to seed iPhone, iPad, and iPod ideas?
Answer: Kleiner Perkins
143. What 2008 nonfiction work by Spencer E. Ante tells the story of Georges Doriot, a French American who was a brigadier general in World War II and is credited as one of the fathers of the VC industry?
Answer: Creative Capital
144. Founded in 2005, which doggy-named speech recognition startup based in Santa Clara, California is having its day during the AI boom since its voice-enabled assistant and music recognition products are built with NLM?
Answer: SoundHound
145. What letter “curve” is a well-known early venture capital investment metric that shows a drop in returns before a big boost?
Answer: J
146. What two-word term describes what happens when a startup sells its shares at a lower price than what it sold them for in previous rounds of financing?
Answer: Down Round
147. Which VC firm founded in 2012 has a froggy name, believes “it takes money to change money,” and has invested in companies like Affirm, Credit Karma, Coinbase, and Wealthfront?
Answer: Ribbit Capital
148. What two word term is a contractual provision that allows investors to increase their ownership in the company if the company issues new shares at a lower price than the original investment?
Answer: Full Ratchet
149. What two-word, alliterative term is the process by which a fund manager asks the fund’s investors to contribute a portion of their fund commitment?
Answer: Capital call
150. Which American tech startup accelerator, founded in 2005 by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Tappan Morris, and Trevor Blackwell, has since backed more than 4,000 companies, including Instacart, Reddit, Dropbox, Twitch, and Stripe?
Answer: Y Combinator
151. What is the "sunny" parent company of InvestorInfo, PitchBook, and ByAllAccounts?
Answer: Morningstar
152. What is the name of the NYC-based e-commerce fraud-prevention fintech founded by Eido Gal and Assaf Feldman in 2013 that had raised more than $200 million in venture funding as of April 2021?
Answer: Riskified
153. In September 2020, the food delivery company Rappi raised an additional $150 million to further fund its expansion in what continent?
Answer: South America
154. What is the alliteratively-named San Francisco-based technology company that offers pay-per-mile car insurance? The company was founded in 2011 and went public in February 2021.
Answer: Metromile
155. In the U.S., platforms like Onevest are a great way for startups to get investors during which early-stage series of funding?
Answer: A
156. Which colorful footwear option would apply in a situation where your IPO gets more interest than you expected and the underwriters need to make sure there’s more stock for your investors?
Answer: Greenshoe
157. When Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz founded their VC firm in 1983, their investment philosophy took a cue from scientist Louis Pasteur, who once said that "chance favors the prepared mind.” What’s the name of their company?
Answer: Accel
158. What is the alliterative legal term beginning with “P that refers to equal treatment for two or more parties in an agreement meaning “on the same terms as”?
Answer: Pari Passu
159. What sort of curve, with the same name as a location in California, is a period of time, typically early in the company lifecycle, when a startup struggles to gain traction and is at the greatest risk of running out of cash?
Answer: Death Valley Curve
160. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon was supplied with boxes thanks to the work of what A.-integrated, Jason Traff-founded Austin logistics startup with a very on-the-nose name?
Answer: Shipwell
161. What website design and implementation tool was founded by Bryant Chou, Sergie Magdalin, and Vlad Magdalin in 2012 and did not raise a series A fundraising round until 2019? When they raised that round of funding, it was a cash injection of more than $70 million.
Answer: Webflow
162. Ellen Ma made 2022’s Forbes 30 under 30 list for being the Managing Director of which VC firm founded by Wei Guo in 2016 and has invested in ventures like Substack, Instacart, and Lime?
Answer: Uphonest Capital
163. "Beat Faster, Fly Further" is the apt slogan of what avian-named venture cap firm with a portfolio including Deliveroo, Kraken, and Peak Games?
Answer: Hummingbird
164. What is the five-letter name of the London-based company that provides software for virtual events and raised *three* rounds of venture capital in 2020 totaling more than $170 million? The company grew from 5,000 to over 3 million users during the year.
Answer: Hopin
165. Which entrepreneur started with a networking group for women named SoGal and went on to run the largest female-led millennial venture capital firm?
Answer: Pocket Sun
166. Which app that was founded by Sanjay Jha and Shanti Mohan in 2013 is India’s most popular platform for startups looking to get investors?
Answer: LetsVenture
167. Which VC firm has been putting “people first” since it was founded in 1969 by two (unrelated) guys named Davis, backing startups like Atari, ServiceMax, and Lyft?
Answer: Mayfield Fund
168. Which American unicorn tech startup was brought to you by the same folks who created Apache Spark and is a cloud data platform (or “lakehouse,” as it's marketed)?
Answer: Databricks
169. What phrase describes the highly liquid capital that an angel investor holds onto specifically to invest (or perhaps, “sprinkle” onto) startups?
Answer: Dry Powder
170. What is the name of the Egypt-based software company that primarily offers a bug reporting tool with a "Shake to Send" feature? The company integrates with many other tools through its SDK and raised $5 million in a Series A led by Accel in 2020.
Answer: Instabug
171. What is the name of the NYC-based fintech company that focuses on reducing clients spending along with issuing a namesake corporate credit card? The company was in the news in April 2021 after raising back-to-back rounds that raised the young four-letter firm at more than one billion dollars.
Answer: Ramp
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