Haven’t a bunch of VC firms raised new funds recently? I remember the announcements rolling in one by one a couple months ago.

Could this be a result of those fresh new funds eager to deploy their new capital?

I don’t have accurate data on this to be sure if my hypothesis holds up though. Especially at the seed/early stage specifically.

VCs seem to be making a greater effort to fund startups outside the valley these days. Could explain the discrepancy.

Could you provide any more information about this trend, and how they are making a greater effort?

Honestly I haven't done any analysis of this, just going off a gut feel. When I look at this data my claim seems to not be true:

http://ssti.org/blog/useful-stats-share-us-venture-capital-a...

But there are programs like Google Demo Day and Rise of the Rest that are reaching beyond SV for value. Several accelerators trying to copy the YC model have emerged across the US - in Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, Detroit, Raleigh-Durham, Boulder, etc.

https://events.withgoogle.com/demoday/siliconvalley/

https://www.riseofrest.com/

The other day Capital Factory in Austin announced they are kicking off a program pulling Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio under one big startup umbrella:

https://austinstartups.com/the-texas-startup-manifesto-42f06...

Without digging more I don't have much else to say on this :)

As my ex-journalist friend so eloquently put it, journalists have to pump out stories no matter what because they have to sell you stories or their editor will fire them. So most of the stories are clickbait busybody rubbish.

It's no different than youtube vloggers or bloggers or anyone other content creator who has to pump out content to make money.

That's why the media loves trump, kim jong il and drama. It gives them something to write/talk about.