In a contracting market with higher stakes per deal, prior success has become the primary filter for funding. First-time founders face an increasingly narrow path while repeat founders enjoy structural advantages that compound.
Capital flowing to founders who previously raised venture capital:
2019: 21%
2021: 22%
2024: 35%
2025: 53%
Over half of 2025 venture capital is going to founders who have done this before.
The Meritocratic Pipeline Narrows
The mechanism is rational from the investor’s perspective: With fewer bets and more pressure to generate returns, backing founders with track records reduces outcome variance.
But the second-order effect: The pipeline that historically renewed the startup ecosystem is narrowing.
Founders Take Chips Off the Table
Founder secondaries have exploded:
Seed-stage secondaries: +103% (H1 2021 → H1 2025)
Series A secondaries: +46%
Why? Only 2.6% of seed-stage companies ever reach $1B+ valuation. 64% never exceed $100M. Taking chips off early is rational portfolio management.
This connects to network effects—reputation creates compounding advantages in capital markets.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
