当VC投资的时候，他们不会将全部资金都投向不同的公司，而是会预留下一部分资金用于现有项目的后续投资，以便保持在这些项目中的持股比例不变或提高，直到退出，尤其是某些前景很好的公司。VC管理的资产是私有股权，流动性比较差，每个被投资公司的表现又各不相同，管理难度很大。

目前的金融和经济环境之下，VC的日子也不好过，当然创业者的日子也不会好。好的投资项目不愿意现在退出，因为价格不好，差一点的项目又无法退出，这样就导致投资的周期加长，VC需要预留的资金就不好计算了。

任何时候，VC都会优先把钱预留给表现最好的公司。那么对被投资企业的问题是，你是不是其中之一呢？目前的融资环境下，企业融资时的估值会很低，创业者当然不愿意。那么大家一起等到市场回暖的那一天吧。那么企业需要资金的话，解决办法就是过桥贷款或者现有VC继续追加投资。

参考下文：

VC Reserves: Are you in or are you out?

by Mark MacLeod

When VCs invest in a startup they reserve a certain amount of capital for follow-on rounds so that they can maintain or increase their ownership % and keep funding the company until it exits. Managing a fund made up of totally illiquid (i.e. privately held) investments of varying performance levels over 10 years can be complex at the best of times. These days it's near impossible.

A mix of factors are conspiring to make things tough for your VCs. And when life is tough for them, you'd better believe it is for you too. You know what these reasons are so I won't go into detail. The bottom line is that the good investments don't want to exit now (because they won't get the price they "deserve") and the not so good investments can't exit now. This is extending time horizons and throwing reserve calculations out the window.

Darwinian rules...
Even in good times, reserve anagement follows Darwinian principles. The best VCs will starve their under-performers in order to feed the best ones. This is now going to be happening en masse. So, my question for you is: Are you in (will you get to access more $ from your VCs) or are you out (of cash)?

In this environment, you likely don't want a new VC pricing you (setting a value for you). You want to push that valuation exercise off until the public markets start normalizing and until the biggest buyers of startups start feeling confident and hungry (for deals) again. This means you may need a bridge or inside round from your existing VCs.

Get a bridge
If your cash runway is less than 18 months then you should be talking to your existing investors about a bridge - now. This is always a painful discussion, but better to know than not. Some VCs will tell you to go talk to other VCs to see if they will lead. Unless you have a really strong story (ie. you're in market now and growing and need cash to fund said growth) this is a bad idea. Your story will be shopped and tired. No one will bite. Your current VCs will be reluctant to fund you because their peers will tell them you're a dog.

The better approach is to recognize this reality up front and force the tough conversations with your current VCs. If they're behind you, you'll know it. And if they're not - well, you'll know it and can plan accordingly.

Survive
Jason Calcanis has some great thoughts on both how to have those tough conversations and what to do to extend cash if they're not behind you.

No matter what people tell you, the name of the game is to survive. You can keep fighting, improving, developing and strategizing until you run out of cash. It's very hard to come back from deep cuts to make a big win. But its impossible to win if you're actually out of cash. So, cut as much as you need to in order to survive. Cut through the bone, keep cutting till you have enough runway to make it.

Are you in or out?
So, go ahead and have the tough conversations with your investors. If they're behind now, make them prove it and give you more cash to keep fighting. If not, find out now and make any changes you need in order to survive. If survival is not possible recognize that quickly so you can work to salvage as much as value as possible.