As Lyft, Pinterest, Postmates, Slack, and Uber prepare to go public, VCs are preparing to invest in a new wave of startups created by employees enriched by IPOs
SAN FRANCISCO — Riley Newman, a former head of data science at Airbnb, set out in mid-2017 to raise a venture capital fund that would invest in a multitude of tech trends. Tweets: @triketora , @eringriffith , @alexrkonrad , and @eringriffith . Thanks: @chrismessina Tweets: Tracy Chou / @triketora : the best part of this article is this photo http://www.nytimes.com/... mad props to the photographer http://twitter.com/... Erin Griffith / @eringriffith : here's my latest: The Airbnb and Uber “mafias” are already forming and investors are jumping to back the next generation: http://www.nytimes.com/... Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad : Interesting story as usual from @eringriffith. I'm curious how much these alumni will be true mafias in the PayPal sense, though. The companies are so much larger while private that it seems there could be many smaller ex-Uber or ex-Airbnb networks. Perhaps Google is a good comp? http://twitter.com/... Erin Griffith / @eringriffith : in other words, if you leave uber and want to start a company it'll take about 2 weeks to round up 400k from your millionaire friends. Thanks: @chrismessina
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2019 IPO class — Lyft, Pinterest, Postmates, Slack, Uber — is about to hand equity to thousands of employees at once, and the capital is already organizing before it lands. Two ex-Uber executives run Moving Capital, an AngelList syndicate of roughly 100 Uber alums targeting two-sided marketplaces, while former Airbnb data science head Riley Newman has been raising a fund since mid-2017.
The timing matters because this cohort exits stronger than past ones: consumer-backed startups are outperforming enterprise peers at IPO this decade, going public more often at higher valuations. And the payoff structure is proven — Rakuten's 13% Lyft stake, sized off Slice purchase data in 2015, shows how early conviction in this class compounds.
First-order effects
- Newly liquid employees from the five IPO-bound companies become a fresh pool of angels and LPs, with vehicles like Moving Capital and Riley Newman's fund positioned to capture their checks immediately.
- Early backers of this class — Rakuten among them — see paper gains convert toward real liquidity as Lyft, Uber, Pinterest, Postmates, and Slack list.
Second-order effects
- Institutional VCs must compete with branded alumni syndicates for deal flow in marketplaces and transportation, where Uber alums already have sector-specific networks and operating credibility.
- A larger angel base bidding on the same post-IPO seed deals pushes valuations up at the earliest stage, squeezing funds that rely on small entry prices.
Third-order effects
- If each IPO cohort recycles its windfalls into the next generation through alumni funds, venture capital structurally shifts toward operator-network capital — 'mafia' syndicates as standing institutions rather than one-off angel activity.
- Combined with founders extracting more control and pay at IPO, the balance of power in company formation tilts further away from traditional VC gatekeepers toward the operators themselves.
The trend: IPO waves are becoming self-funding flywheels: each class of newly enriched employees converts its equity into the seed capital and networks that finance the following startup generation.