Roizen also commented on the recent report of Tiger Global selling part of its stake in AI company Cohere, suggesting it's more indicative of Tiger's situation than Cohere's. She also discussed the role of strategic investors in the startup ecosystem, using Salesforce's recent investment in AI startup Hugging Face as an example. She expressed skepticism about the belief that the ARM IPO will "blow open the IPO window", stating that every company that goes public is different and she doesn't believe it will lead to a surge of IPOs.
Key takeaways:
- British chip designer ARM's anticipated initial public offering (IPO) is expected to open the IPO window for many other offerings, but Heidi Roizen, a former operator, entrepreneur, and longtime VC, believes it may have less impact on the industry than anticipated.
- Roizen advises entrepreneurs to prioritize terms over valuation and to understand the implications of giving downside protection to VCs.
- She also highlights the importance of strategic investors in the financial ecosystem for entrepreneurs, but warns of the potential downsides.
- Despite widespread speculation that ARM's IPO could be worth anywhere from $40 billion to $80 billion and open the IPO market, Roizen disagrees with this notion, stating that every company that goes public is different.