VCs Are Funding Market Risk Again — Are You Ready to Ride the New Wave?
- David Bitton
- Mar 31
- 6 min read
Venture capital is tilting back toward bold bets — and founders should pay attention.
After two years of austerity, efficient growth, and repeatable revenue obsession, VCs are once again warming up to market risk. But this isn’t a return to “growth at all costs.” Today’s investors want to see conviction, insight, and go-to-market execution baked into the DNA of early-stage companies.
In this article, you will learn:
Why VCs are rediscovering their appetite for market risk
How to position your GTM motion as a scalable, fundable engine
Tactical moves founders can make right now to attract conviction capital
Let’s rewind and see how we got here — and where the real opportunity lies.
Rewind: From ZIRP to Grit
Remember 2021? Capital was cheap, CAC was ignored, and “grow fast or die” was gospel.
Then the music stopped. Interest rates soared, VC portfolios shrank, and survival mode kicked in. Suddenly, founders who raised on momentum had to become cash-flow monks overnight. Execution risk replaced market vision as the dominant narrative. Burn multiples were scrutinized harder than your churn rate. Your inbox in 2023? A graveyard of ghosted investor conversations.
The result? A new founder archetype was born — one who could stretch every dollar, prove traction early, and focus on building something fundable, not just functional.
And now, in 2025, the narrative is shifting again.
The Pivot: VCs Are Taking Bets on Market Risk Again
The smartest investors are sniffing out signals of a market thaw — and it’s showing up in the kinds of bets they’re making.
What they’re looking for now isn’t just a working product or a low burn rate. They’re looking for vision again. Not delusion — but conviction. They want to back companies that are making calculated bets on market risk — new categories, new buying behavior, and bold GTM strategies that don’t follow last year’s playbook.
And no, this doesn’t mean swinging wildly with zero plan. It means showing a clear go-to-market insight, even if your product is still early. It means saying, “Here’s how we believe the market is evolving — and here’s how we’re moving to lead it.”
Fundraising in 2025 won’t go to the safest founders. It will go to the most prepared and the most precise.
GTM Is Now the Differentiator — Not the Tech
Most early-stage investors can no longer differentiate between your tech and 50 other slide decks.
But they can differentiate how you think about distribution. That’s the unlock.
Whether you’re selling into mid-market ops teams or targeting product-led self-serve users, investors are looking at how your GTM motion de-risks the opportunity. Do you understand the buyer deeply? Can you articulate your wedge? Do you know where your first $1M in
ARR will actually come from?
VCs have learned the hard way: startups with decent products but clear distribution strategies outperform beautiful tech with fuzzy GTM plans. Your sales motion isn’t a slide. It’s a strategy. It should reflect the real-world friction you’ve already encountered — and how you plan to scale through it.
“We’ve helped dozens of founders go from pitch-deck GTM fantasy to actual pipeline velocity — without overhiring or burning through their first $500K in the process.”— MarketFit Sales Partners
Case Study: Make My Day’s Strategic Partnerships and Market Expansion
Make My Day, a startup solving electric vehicle fleet charging and route optimization, has executed a sharp GTM motion through partnership and positioning — with strategic guidance from MarketFit Sales Partners.
Ituran Collaboration: By partnering with global telematics player Ituran, Make My Day expanded its reach while enhancing its core offering — reducing range anxiety and improving route accuracy.
TotalEnergies & WayKonect: Their partnership unlocked new European market access, showing how the right ally can leapfrog cold-start challenges.
Strategic Funding: Make My Day raised $1.4M as part of an $8M Series A round. Investors clearly saw GTM execution, not just a cool product.
GTM Execution: Behind the scenes, MarketFit worked closely with the founders to sharpen the sales motion, messaging, and partner playbooks — translating product innovation into sales traction.
Google Impact Certification: Sustainability storytelling was not just ethical — it was commercial. Recognition here boosted visibility and aligned with regulatory trends.
Case Study: Octopai's Acquisition and GTM Positioning
Octopai, a platform offering automated data lineage and cataloging, scaled strategically toward acquisition — and MarketFit Sales Partners played a critical role in building a GTM motion that converted.
Acquired by Cloudera (2024): Octopai was acquired to strengthen Cloudera’s data governance and metadata offering — a strategic buy aligned with real enterprise pain points.
Market Differentiation: With MarketFit’s guidance, Octopai developed a focused sales narrative around operational visibility, not just data insight — giving them a clearer position in the crowded data tooling space.
Customer Validation: Their clients raved about reduced reporting time and simplified compliance — key buying triggers in enterprise. MarketFit helped crystallize those outcomes into outbound messaging and sales plays.
Recognition: By the time of the acquisition, Octopai had been named a top-tier platform in the data governance space — thanks in part to the clear GTM roadmap developed in collaboration with MarketFit.Case Study: Octopai's Acquisition and GTM Positioning
What This Means for You, Founder
This shift creates a rare advantage — if you’re ready.
Now is the moment to tighten your narrative around how you’re attacking the market. Start by asking:
What pain are we solving and how are we inserting ourselves into that conversation?
Do we have early design partners or lighthouse customers who validate our wedge?
Can our founder team execute the GTM motion ourselves for the first 10–20 deals?
If you can show early traction, unique insight, and a sharp distribution plan — even with imperfect tech — you’re fundable in this new wave.
And no, you don’t need a polished product or a massive sales team. What you need is a clear understanding of who you’re selling to, how they buy, and why they’ll bet on you early.
Don’t Just Ride the Wave — Learn to Surf
VCs are dipping their toes back into bolder bets — but that doesn’t mean the game is easy.
The teams that will thrive are the ones who’ve learned to treat go-to-market like a core competency, not a last-minute hire. The teams that treat messaging, early sales cycles, and buyer psychology as part of their product roadmap — not an afterthought.
Key takeaways:
Market risk is back on the table — but it requires GTM precision, not just vision
Your go-to-market motion is now part of your fundability, not just your roadmap
Distribution is a skill you can build — and founders who do will raise better, faster
Work With MarketFit Sales Partners
We’re not just GTM advisors — we’re builders.
At MarketFit Sales Partners, we help founders turn vague GTM slides into clear sales strategies that close real deals. From outbound strategy to founder-led sales playbooks, we work side-by-side with teams to test, validate, and scale repeatable motions. No fluff. No over hiring. Just practical support from people who’ve done it before.
If you’re ready to build a real sales engine — without lighting your runway on fire — let’s talk. Book your Free Strategy Session now
FAQ: What Founders Ask Us Most
Q: Do I need a VP of Sales to start building my GTM motion? A: No. In fact, hiring too early is a top reason early-stage sales fails. Founders should lead the first deals — then build the system that scales.
Q: We don’t have product-market fit yet. Should we even be selling? A: Yes — but you should be learning through selling. Early conversations reveal what the market really cares about. That’s your R&D.
Q: How do I prove “market insight” to investors before I have customers? A: By showing you’ve talked to your market. Show patterns. Show pain. Even 10 high-quality conversations can build a compelling thesis.
Q: What if I’ve already burned too much trying to grow without results? A: That’s common. The key is to reset with a GTM hypothesis you can test in weeks — not months. We can help you design that reset.
Conclusion
The fundraising tides are shifting — and for once, they’re shifting in favor of sharp, go-to-market-driven companies.
Founders who embrace this change will raise faster, build smarter, and scale more predictably. Those who wait for their product to be “ready” may miss the window. If you’ve got the insight, the plan, and the grit to execute — this could be your moment.
Next up: Want to learn how to actually build a repeatable GTM engine? Our next post breaks down the three founder-led sales archetypes — and how to win with each one.
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