August by D'Ornano + Co.: Being a Technology optimist in 2023, Finding the right Path to Liquidity, and a quick S-1 - teardown of high-growth SaaS company Klaviyo

This is our monthly newsletter dedicated to Tech x Investments.

Dear all,

It’s great to be back from the summer break and to start this second part of the year with you.

I wanted to take a step back here and reflect on the first part of the year: so much has happened in both the Private Markets and Technology fields that we went through a whirlwind. Recent figures show the extent of the drop in late-stage and growth funding, and although the NASDAQ continues to show strong performance, keep in mind that companies out of the “Magnificent 7” are still strongly impacted from a valuation standpoint. On the other hand, money keeps pouring into the GenAI space.

I had the opportunity to attend a session on “Investing in The Technology of Tomorrow” at the Milken Institute Hamptons Dialogues, and it was great to confront perspectives with top minds across the VC to Buyout investment spaces. Here are my key takeaways so far this year:

The first change, which we frequently addressed here, is that brought by Macro, which has changed both the path to growth and to…