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2025 VC Content of the Year
The tools, reports, graphics, and rebrands that cut through the noise in 2025
Laurie Owen
December 23, 2025
Quick one this week - it's Christmas and I'm keeping the streak alive.
Here's my (heavily) subjective favourite VC content of 2025, I’ve tried to avoid the obvious, and share what makes each one interesting - so you can take away some new ideas going into 2026.
Report
Sequel: The Founder Files
They built the data collection tool first. PitchLeague.ai is a free AI pitch deck coach for founders… every upload feed their dataset. 17,500 decks later, they have proprietary insights. From here they’re giving away the playbook, which positions them as the smartest in the room.
Multi-format delivery. 50+ page PDF, interactive insights page, videos explaining key findings, SequelGPT chatbot to query the data. You can consume it however you want. Low friction = wider reach.
Serves multiple audiences. Founders learn what works in decks. VCs benchmark their own deal flow. Advisors get data to coach with. LPs see Sequel's analytical rigour. One asset, four use cases.
Creates ongoing content pipeline. Every insight can become a LinkedIn post, article, podcast topic. "Solo founders raise 21% more" is a headline. Month’s worth of content hooks from one dataset.
Takeaway: Build tools that generate proprietary data, then publish. Transparency costs you nothing (founders will pitch you anyway) but positions you as the authority. Then package insights for multiple formats and audiences to maximise distrb.
Tool
In a year where lots of firms did a few things with AI tools, like the many AI pitch deck analysers (Ada Ventures’ one here) - EQT’s published tool was super proprietary.
Creates proprietary language. By analysing 5,000+ psychometric profiles, EQT built a framework (Lightning Focus, Resilience Alchemy, etc.) they now own. When people discuss founder traits, they have a reference.
Generates compounding data. Every founder who takes the test adds to their dataset. They're not just publishing - they're building a self-improving sourcing tool. High-scoring founders opt into their network.
Shareable by design. Founders flex their results on LinkedIn. Free 3-minute test = low friction, high organic reach. The virality is built into the format.
Works as paid media. The test offers value upfront (instant results) instead of asking for something. Ad → test → results → framework → EQT's thesis. It's a conversion funnel that doesn't feel like one.
Takeaway: Build tools that generate data, create language you can own, and give value whether someone invests with you or not. EQT's content compounds because it works for founders, journalists, and their own deal flow simultaneously.
Blog
Why venture capital should be consensus-averse - Credistick
Like many I have discovered Dan Gray’s excellent work this year, through his Venture Capital’s ‘Knowledge Work’ Problem essay… This piece was a year or so earlier but is A+.
Most VC content starts with the conclusion, then reverse-engineers a story to justify it. This starts with a real premise and evidence, then walks you step-by-step to the conclusion, so the reader feels the logic land rather than being sold a take.
It reads more like thinking in public than marketing, which is why it stands out from the usual vibes-plus-authority style.
Takeaway: Content that shows how you reason will always outlast content that just tells people what to believe.
Honourable mentions:
Multi-voice by design. Different partners contribute with distinct tones and perspectives. Sam Lessin writes contrarian takes, Will Quist writes investor POV, portfolio founders write their stories. It's not "the firm's view"… it's a collection of individual voices, which makes it more interesting and human.
Filters traffic to individual content. The newsletter highlights the week's best posts from across the team, then drives readers to each partner's full piece. It's distribution infrastructure disguised as curation. Every partner benefits from Slow's audience while building their own.
Founders write too. Portfolio companies contribute pieces (like "My First Investor Was My Wife"), which gives authentic founder perspectives, creates goodwill with portcos, and positions Slow as collaborative and good promo for founders.
Original takes, no consensus. They don't water down opinions for brand safety. "AI Missed Its Punk Rock Moment," "They're Not Dumb. You're Just Not Paying Attention" -these are takes with strong POV, not generic VC wisdom. Slow are p contrarian anyway, they don't avoid AI entirely but are skeptical of the current hype-driven boom, especially in "sexy" generative AI applications that attract massive funding.
Consistent cadence, varied content. Weekly format creates habit, but the mix (predictions, hot takes, founder stories, market analysis) keeps it from feeling repetitive. You don't know what you're getting each week, but you know it'll be interesting.
Takeaway: The best firm content is more than a unified brand voice… but a platform for individual voices. Let partners contradict each other. Let founders tell their stories. Create distribution infrastructure that benefits the whole team while letting each person's POV shine through.
Graphics
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Found a gap nobody was covering. Everyone tracks deals, valuations, portfolio companies. Nobody was systematically mapping VC talent - which partners moved where, which operators turned investor, which angels backed what. Alex built data infrastructure around individuals, not just firms.
Dense information architecture. Every graphic packs firm names, partner headshots, portfolio logos, funding stages, co-investment patterns - all legible, all useful. Zero decorative fluff. It's designed for people who study it, not scroll past it.
Reveals network structure visually. Shows which funds co-invest by stage and volume, where operators want to work, which prolific angels invest together. You can see patterns that would take paragraphs to explain.
High information density makes them reference material, not disposable content. The consistent Nucleus style (clean, data-heavy, atom logo) builds brand equity people trust the data before reading it.
Takeaway: Find the gap nobody's systematically tracking (in this case: VC individuals, not just firms), then make it visual and dense enough to be reference material. Design for the 1% who will study it deeply…
Rebrand
Nebular VC
Nebular is a solo GP fund backing wild bets most VCs won't… AI teddy bears, dinosaur fossils as alternative assets. Their rebrand reflected that curiosity-first approach.
Used the rebrand to bundle all news. New site = excuse to announce two full-time hires (CFO, Applied Research), two operating advisors (ex-1X Robotics VP, VP Sales), and showcase portfolio range (space data centres, remote patient monitoring, robotics). One thread = six separate announcements. Got 14K views.
Takeaway: A rebrand is a forcing function. Bundle everything… team, portfolio, the "why" behind the name - into one moment. Make the brand story specific enough that people remember it (James Webb nebula images, not generic VC metaphors). Let the portfolio variety communicate your differentiation.
Podcast
While Lightcone by YC and a16z's (many) podcast network are both excellent - they build firm lore, reinforce key characters, highlight portfolio companies, and deliver practical advice… But they're obvious choices.
For something less known… Jackson Dahl's Dialectic has quickly become one of my favuorite interview shows. Great research and asks questions that skip small talk and get straight into guests' deeper ideas and motivations - without being aggressive.
Chris is eccentric with no filter, but the conversation reveals his philosophy - play rigged games (don't invest where you're just a spectator), go long on weirdos (asymmetry is at the frontier of crazy), words are the most democratic leverage (free, accessible, powerful), burn the boats (his most successful founders never had a downside case).
Jackson pulls out Chris's operating principles through stories - the bike ride across America with singular focus, walking away from Google and $100M on the table, shutting down Lowercase when everyone wanted in.
Takeaway: The best episodes reveal operating principles through stories, not through direct questions like "what's your philosophy?"
Video
Makes deep tech visual. Films inside fusion reactors, robotic construction sites, synthetic fuel plants. Shows the actual tech being built, not just talking heads explaining it and founders explain their tech in their facilities.
Low-production vlog style. Not polished content. "I'm visiting this startup, here's what they're building." He documents what he's already doing - visiting companies, meeting founders. Camera stays on.
Every video reinforces his thesis. Europe has talent, broken incentives. He's building the case for policy change (unified IPOs, less bureaucracy) through founder stories. Content serves the mission.
Takeaway: Make your content creation part of your existing workflow. If you're visiting portfolio companies or meeting founders anyway, turn on the camera. Let the content serve your broader mission.
That’s it - Thanks for reading and Happy Christmas!
We're pretty much booked for Q1, but if you want to chat about Q2 or think about 2026 plans, reach out. Always up for a conversation about what your or your fund is working on.
Laurie, Refinery Media
If you made it all the way through, thanks so much for reading! Several hundred VCs now open this every week. If it’s helped you think differently about marketing, Venture, or storytelling, please send it to someone in your orbit.
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