WTF VC, Q2 2025 EDITION

Summary from the TLDR Founders newsletter

The linear “seed-A-B” assembly line is over. Startups now jump between discrete capital pools, and valuations ride almost entirely on conviction—whoever “believes harder” wins the round. Meanwhile, AI is up-ending the funding game (inbound deal flow is dead and classic SaaS looks uninvestable) and capital markets are splintering into region- and stage-specific silos, forcing LPs and GPs to play several fragmented games at once. Net-net: narrative beats numbers, AI warps the field, and the one-size-fits-all VC market is gone.