There is indeed a bubble in pre-IPO technology companies says Paul Martino, managing director of venture capital firm Bullpen Capital. But don’t look for it in well-known consumer names like Uber and Lyft. ‘Uber and Lyft’s revenues are growing so rapidly that you can at least make an argument for those kinds of prices,’ says Martino, adding that ‘we see the crazier prices in terms of revenue multiples on the enterprise side not on the consumer side which is the opposite of the bubble in 1999.’ At last report, Uber’s valuation topped $50 billion after a mere 6 years in existence. And while one would believe success stories like the taxi-hailing app would make it easier for venture capital players like Martino to raise and invest funds, he says it’s a mixed blessing. ‘Small, sub $100 million venture capital funds like ours went from 20 to 225 in the past decade. And so that makes it easy and hard,’ says Martino. ‘At 225 firms you need to show differentiation and our thesis around gaming and fantasy sports has separated us from the pack.’ Martino, who previous to starting Bullpen scored as an angel investor in companies like TubeMogul and Zynga, is referring to Bullpen’s $18 million investment in FanDuel, an online service which enables fantasy sports players to win cash. ‘The company has been growing consistently at a 3 to 4 times clip year-over-year,’ says Martino. ‘We did around $70 million in business last year and we will likely do 3 times that this year.’
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