Why EBITDA Remains a Key Metric for Venture Capital & Private Equity | Ep 23

In this episode, host Firas Sozan sits down with Clark Golestani, Founding Managing Director at K2 Access Fund to unpack the real differences between venture capital, private equity, and growth investing, and why the words EBITDA and enterprise value shape everything from fund strategy to founder decisions.

They also dig into cash discipline through market cycles, how to spot bubbles, and why the AI hype cycle feels like the earliest days of mobile, when the “phone” looked like a suitcase.

If you are a founder, operator, or investor, this is a practical framework for making better decisions when the market is noisy and capital gets tight.

In this episode:
• Why cash conservatism matters most when markets freeze
• How to spot bubbles, and why hype and evolution often overlap
• Where AI is right now, and what needs to change for bigger breakthroughs
• The hidden risk of hypergrowth, and why quality breaks first
• When saying no to customers is the smartest go to market move
• Private equity vs venture, EBITDA discipline vs enterprise value upside
• What a “good runway” looks like, and why time is leverage in fundraising
• The book Clark says founders should treat as required reading

Episode Highlights

00:00 Cash discipline, and why rainy day planning wins
00:01 Black Monday lessons, bubbles, and venture funding drying up
00:09 AI hype cycle vs real evolution, and what transforms industries
00:15 Where AI is now, the suitcase phone era analogy
00:18 Superintelligence skepticism, compute and energy constraints
00:24 Oracle hypergrowth, and why growth can kill a company
00:28 Saying no to customers, the Snowflake discipline story
00:34 Private equity vs venture, EBITDA vs enterprise value
00:58 Runway benchmarks, lines of credit, and negotiating from strength
01:05 Book recommendation for founders making hard decisions