Just came across an interesting take on how drastically the VC investing landscape has shifted over the past year or so. Basically, the dynamics have completely flipped.

Used to be that if you were a VC and wanted access to good deals, you had to constantly hustle—networking events, podcasts, Spaces, Twitter threads explaining your thesis, endless calls every single week. It was exhausting just to stay visible.

Now? If you've got capital ready to deploy, that's literally all you need. Projects are coming to you. The tables have turned completely. As long as people know you have dry powder, deal flow just walks through the door.

But here's the thing—most VCs are in one of three situations right now. Either they've already burned through their funds, they've shifted focus entirely to later-stage deals (Series A and beyond), or they're out raising their next fund but struggling to close it. The fundraising that used to wrap up in 2-3 weeks? Now it's dragging on for months.

On the flip side, there's actually some real filtering happening. Projects with sketchy fundamentals or ones just copy-pasting whatever narrative is hot this cycle aren't getting funded anymore. New money and follow-on checks are drying up for those. Which honestly feels like a healthy correction.

The wild part: there are probably fewer than 20 actual firms still actively doing pre-seed and seed round VC investing right now. That's it. That concentration means VCs who are still in the game can be a lot more selective, take their time on due diligence, really dig into what they're backing.

If those firms can stay the course, 2025 and 2026 could shape up to be a historically significant moment for VC investing—basically a golden window for the capital that managed to stick around. But it all hinges on whether they have the patience to sit it out.