For years, founders and investors have used terms like “fintech,” “SaaS,” and “platform” without always having a shared definition. But as venture firms rely more heavily on data to track deals, returns, and portfolio performance, getting that language right matters more than ever.
In this episode of High Stakes, Paige Soya and Nick Duafala are joined by K Street Capital’s Joseph Whang and Jose Cifuentes for a Venture Capital 101 breakdown of how VCs classify the startups they evaluate.
Using real-world examples from Salesforce, Airbnb, Facebook, and Auth0, the team walks through the eight categories that make up K Street’s internal deal taxonomy, why consistent classification matters, and how founders can use the same framework to better understand, and communicate, their businesses.
In this episode:
- The eight categories we use to classify startups
- Why a company’s industry and its customer’s industry aren’t necessarily the same
- How B2B, B2C, B2G, and dual-use define customer type
- Why go-to-market motion—direct, enterprise, product-led, or channel—matters to investors
- How VCs think about business and revenue models
- The difference between product type and technology category, and why AI increasingly cuts across both
- What separates a true platform from a suite of products or services
- How K Street uses AI internally to keep deal data consistent and comparable
Whether you’re a founder refining your fundraising narrative or a new investor learning the language of venture capital, this episode is a practical guide to how VCs actually think about and categorize the companies they evaluate.
Topics: Venture Capital • Startup Fundraising • Startup Taxonomy • Business Models • Go-to-Market Strategy • SaaS • Marketplaces • Venture Investing • Founder Advice • Startup Strategy
Timestamps
- 00:00 – Cold open: The data problem behind bad taxonomy
- 00:58 – Welcome to High Stakes: VC 101
- 02:04 – Meet the deal team: Joseph & Jose
- 05:09 – The 8 categories of startup taxonomy
- 05:50 – Category 1: Industry
- 06:52 – Verticals within industries + the “customer industry” mistake
- 11:27 – Category 2: Customer type (B2B/B2C/B2G) & market characteristics
- 12:26 – Dual-use, government contracting & defense tech
- 14:37 – Category 3: Go-to-market strategy
- 19:19 – Category 4: Business model & revenue model
- 21:44 – Can a services business be venture-backable?
- 26:19 – Category 5: Product type
- 28:16 – Category 6: Technology (AI, quantum, space & robotics)
- 32:01 – How K Street uses AI internally for deal data
- 36:11 – What makes something a true “platform”?
- 38:03 – Rapid fire: Hidden talents, biggest mistakes & best advice
- 41:01 – Final thoughts
