When I first agreed to take on writing Term Sheet alongside the inimitable Jessica Mathews last fall, I was admittedly pretty nervous. Well, really nervous. Term Sheet’s brand and prestigious alumni—including Axios’s Dan Primack and Lucinda Shen, The Profile’s Polina Marinova Pompliano, and the New York Times’s Erin Griffith—left big shoes to fill, to say the least. And frankly, I wondered if I’d be able to pull it off. But as I write this, my final Term Sheet, I’m so glad I said yes.
I’ve truly learned so much—about venture and myself. Thanks in huge part to my wonderful and long-suffering editor Lee Clifford (who hired me over four years ago), my amazing partner-in-crime Jessica, our incredible newsletter team Jack Long and Courtney Dennis, and the first-rate Jackson Fordyce and Joe Abrams on the deals section, the past year has been one of the most exciting and rewarding of my career. And all of you, the Term Sheet reader community, have made my time on this newsletter so fulfilling. It’s been so fun meeting you at conferences and events around the city, and your emails have warmed my heart and taught me a lot. But all good things must come to an end, and today is my last day at Fortune. I’m excited to say I will soon be joining the Financial Times-backed news site Sifted, where I’ll be covering European startups and venture capital and writing the (soon-to-be daily) flagship newsletter—and I’ll be moving to Berlin to do it!
I will be forever grateful for my time at Fortune, especially for my fantastic colleagues and editors who took a chance on me way back when, trusted and encouraged me to co-write this newsletter, and are such great role models doing rigorous, consistent work day in and day out. I’m not quite sure what I will do without my daily Slack and phone chats with Jessica, but I’m trying not to think about that just yet.
As I was sitting down to write Term Sheet one last time, I got a chance to reflect and think back on everything I've learned. I’ve been able cover so many wild market events and interesting people and companies, including the spectacular collapse of venture capital darling FTX; the mayhem during the bank run on Silicon Valley’s favorite bank and lender, Silicon Valley Bank; the explosion of AI startups—from those working on things like drug discovery to AI assistants for humans—and, of course, their crazy valuations; the big changes (and tensions) at Microsoft’s venture arm, M12; the rise and fall of Tiger Global; interviewing well-known solo climber Alex Honnold, who I also told that, given his incredible risk tolerance, he would make a good venture capitalist; and, of course, the unwinding of the dealmaking frenzy in 2021 and rise of down rounds.
It’s certainly a tough time for the industry, and it’s easy to get bogged down in the slew of negative news. But there are also a lot of good things happening—from crucial climate technologies getting funded to more pay transparency for VC jobs. And I’m excited to continue covering this crazy ecosystem from across the Atlantic.
That’s all from me. Please do keep in touch via Twitter/X at @AnneSraders, or on LinkedIn, until I get settled with my new email. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I leave you in the infinitely capable hands of Jessica.
Auf Wiedersehen,
Anne Sraders
Twitter: @AnneSraders
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.
Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
