“A manager doesn’t generally fit into their ultimate quartile until Year 6.”
Apurva Mehta is the co-founding Managing Partner of Summit Peak Investments, a fund-of-funds that boasts a portfolio of both venture fund investments and direct investments, including the likes of Affirm, Anduril, Airtable, Opendoor, and Wish, just to name a few.
Prior to starting Summit Peak in 2018 with his co-founder, Patrick O’Connor, he previously served as Vice President and Deputy Chief Investment Officer for the Children’s Hospital Endowment Portfolio in Fort Worth, Texa. From 2008 to 2011, he was the Director of Portfolio Investments at The Juilliard School in New York City. Apurva began his career in investment consulting and investment banking at Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. He was recognized for his expertise when he was named to aiCIO Magazine’s Top Forty Under Forty in 2012 and 2013 and honored as a Rising Star by Institutional Investor. He holds a BBA in Finance from The George Washington University.
[00:00] Intro [01:40] Tennis [02:45] Lehman Brothers’ impact on Apurva [05:28] What AI is missing in investment management [14:26] Underestimated qualitative metrics that impact a GP’s story [22:10] Building Cook Children’s Hospital foundation portfolio from scratch [30:24] Moving quickly as an LP [31:32] What does Apurva look for in the first meeting? [37:20] Ugly sweater Christmas parties [39:56] Apurva’s favorite ugly sweaters over the years [41:40] Post-credit scene: What does GFW mean?
“A manager doesn’t generally fit into their ultimate quartile until Year 6.” — Cambridge Associates
“If everybody’s running the other way—running from the fire, let’s run into it and there’s an opportunity here.” — Apurva Mehta
“When you think about the brand-name firms, they are iconic firms, iconic names. We love the fact that they’re co-invested alongside us. Even if we could build relationships with those firms, we didn’t feel like we’d get the transparency—maybe it was because of our check size, but maybe that’s just because of how they operate—that we needed to go to an investment committee.” — Apurva Mehta
“The transparency at the brand-name firm level is not as high as it is with the kinds of firms we back.” — Apurva Mehta
“Back then, everything was white space, building around network and ecosystems […] It was easier then because the landscape was less crowded. There were 150 backable or quasi-backable seed funds in 2012. 2000 to 3000 now backable and quasi-backable funds in the market. But it was easier then to figure out what we were looking for because it was just brand new.” — Apurva Mehta
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The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
“It’s a mathematical reality that the highest performing GPs in this part of the market often also have the highest kill rates, which means some things are incredible and other things are super wonky and you have to be cool with that. You can’t be doing a six across the board.” — Caroline Toch Docal
Caroline Toch Docal backs early stage fund managers as the lead of BCV’s Emerging Manager Program. She believes in investing in funds as early as the first close, which is a rare focus in the LP landscape. She’s a lifelong early stage enthusiast from her time at Venture for America to Techstars to Chief to Dorm Room Fund to now Bain Capital Ventures, where she runs the emerging manager program there which has seen quite the evolution since 2017.
[00:00] Intro [01:33] BCV Emerge [02:30] The 13-year summer camp experience [07:46] From VC to LP [09:50] Compare/contrast early stage investing to emerging GP investing [12:51] Behind the scenes of Caroline chose to become an LP [14:36] Caroline’s first investment [16:24] What is a GP-friendly diligence process? [21:27] How Caroline pre-qualifies an investment? [24:50] Understanding if a GP REALLY believes VC is their life’s work [26:25] Examples of long-term language [31:05] The 3 Acts of BCV’s Emerging Manager program [36:44] What the hell is BGH? [38:03] Stand up comedy [39:20] Dogs vs cats
“One of the things that’s not really talked about in this part of the asset class is everything looks pretty good until you see a lot of stuff.” — Caroline Toch Docal
“Sometimes people use the referencing phase to get to know people they’d want to meet. I don’t believe that is necessarily the most GP-friendly thing to do.” — Caroline Toch Docal
“It’s a mathematical reality that the highest performing GPs in this part of the market often also have the highest kill rates, which means some things are incredible and other things are super wonky and you have to be cool with that. You can’t be doing a six across the board.” — Caroline Toch Docal
An example ‘long-term language’: “They don’t celebrate fundraising; they celebrate outcomes.” — Caroline Toch Docal
“The average anchor check for a $10-25M fund today is $4.2M. In 2017 when we started, it was less than $3M. So that’s a huge change. Related, the LP base is just concentrating. Using that same size as a benchmark, they have 25% fewer LPs than in 2020.” — Caroline Toch Docal
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The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
Ever since I became an LP, albeit small, but a dedicated one, when people ask me what kinds of funds I invest in, I, of course, share the usual:
Funds I and II
Pre-seed and seed managers (ideally first checks)
Both emerging investors (limited track record) and emerging managers (extensive track records, but first-time managers)
Industry-agnostic, but little overlap with my existing portfolio
Geographically-agnostic
Bias towards concentrated portfolios
Bias towards sub $50M funds
These are all boilerplate demographics. And I’m happy to qualify each one, but they’re all traits that, more or less, I seek alongside a lot of other emerging manager-focused institutions share. But one additional thing I share with others is that I look for GPs who believe venture is the last job they’re ever going to have.
The world’s best founders bet their entire lives on the success of an idea. The literal definition of all eggs in one basket. Along that journey they’ll raise capital from a variety of people, some of whom will take board seats and be their trusted partners. The last thing a founder would want is someone who “retires” 3-4 years into the job because they didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to stick with the business. They leave a vacant hole in the board. They leave their founders by the wayside. These founders need someone who has their back no matter what.
And even if not, these GPs are the folks founders can call at 3AM in the morning, and these GPs have jumped out of bed before they’ve even picked up the number. They’re primed even on the weekends. Even on vacation. It’s borderline not healthy, but the GPs love this craft as much as the founders love theirs. To them, this job and the all shit that comes with it is the utopia.
The truth is things can change. Will change. But at the time of our investment, I need to believe that every GP I back has no Plan B, that they’re going to figure it out no matter what. And more importantly, they need to believe that. That they’ve been put on this planet to do so. That they will help their portfolio companies figure it out no matter what. And the more concentrated their portfolio, the more they must help. Incentives align.
It’s hard to describe what that exactly looks like because different people exhibit that differently. It’s also one of those things you can’t just say, but comes out in the small things you do, over time. It’s like glitter. Deep and enduring intentions have a way of sticking with you. They’re hard to shake off. And in their darkest, character-building moments, they shine.
And by function of that, we will too. Giving up should not, cannot exist in their vocabulary. I err towards GPs who run through walls. And if they can’t, they need to believe with every fiber of their body they can and will it into existence. Even if they don’t know the answer, they will figure it out quickly. Naturally, they have an extremely high rate of iteration. Their decks, weekly updates, and even their memos will go through sweeping evolutions over the course of a few short months. And that pace will only get faster.
I like investing in people who want long careers in venture. And that will lead us towards two kinds of people:
The kind of person who wants to get rich on fees
And the person who would do this even if they didn’t get rich because they love this craft.
The first cohort will likely have all right answers. They know the jargon. The modelling. The narratives LPs want to. They know exactly how big their Fund III and IV and V looks. How big, their check size. And everything will be explained as a function of today’s dollars, today’s terms, today’s environment. A few deep references will unveil how they treat others. Why they change jobs. What did they say at the job interview every time.
The latter cohort will have a world view. The way the world will look 30-40 years from now. Not in terms of technology, but people. They don’t try to get on top of things though it’s part of their job. They get to the bottom of things. They’re laser focused during conversation. They’re not looking at the notifications on their phone. They’re looking at the small details of the conversation and their mind turns in ways that you haven’t seen others turn. And they often look at things that don’t change. They can go really deep in areas any rational person will have taken at face value. There’s a natural obsessive quality they have about them.
They notice things others do not. And they have a thoughtful reason to things people take for granted. They show evidence that their shower thoughts revolve around this. They wake up in the middle of the night thinking about this. They consume information from various sources and all roads somehow still lead to Rome. In this case, venture.
Stay up to date with the weekly cup of cognitive adventures inside venture capital and startups, as well as cataloging the history of tomorrow through the bookmarks of yesterday!
The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
“The intuition part comes from activities of creativity that change your perspective.” — Yiwen Li
Yiwen Li is a seasoned investor with a successful track record of investing in AI, blockchain, and healthcare tech while developing global business partnerships to fast-scale the business.
Yiwen is currently Head of Venture Investments at Bayview Development Group, a global family office with diverse exposure public market, private equity, venture, and real estate. Prior, she was a Principal at Alumni Ventures, responsible for end-to-end multi-stage investments focused on blockchain and fintech. She was Director for Corporate Strategy at Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI). She built an innovation pipeline in healthcare connectivity and data analytics. She was Director for Corporate Development at NantHealth (Nasdaq: NH), where she established the international business division. Yiwen started her career at Capital Group in equity research.
Yiwen is an Advisory Board member of C-Sweet. She served on the board of Give2Asia as the chairman of the finance committee and a member of the investment committee. She was an advisory board member for the Asia Society where she co-founded the “Asian Women Empowered” initiative. She was recognized as the” Top 50 Women Leaders in San Jose 2024 and 2025”, “Top 50 Women in 2019” and the “Most Inspirational Women in Web 3”. Yiwen is also the author of one of the best sellers “Make the World Your Playground”, inspiring women to find their unique path. She is a frequent speaker on innovation and emerging technology trends.
Yiwen holds a Master from the London School of Economics and a Master from the University of Vienna. She also graduated from the Venture Capital program at UC Berkeley and the Private Equity Program at Wharton. She was selected to be one of the ” Young American Leaders” at Harvard Business School. Yiwen is a recipient of the European Union’s Erasmus Mundus scholarship. She is fluent in Mandarin and German, worked and lived in Europe, Asia, and US.
[00:00] Intro [02:07] Yiwen’s childhood [05:00] Jazz singing [06:14] The value of learning languages [09:01] How to build intuition around emerging managers [14:51] Getting to the bottom of a GP’s motivation [16:33] What percent of GPs are not in VC for the right reasons? [19:47] Does success fuel or inhibit ambition? [24:17] The cost of knowledge is cheaper [24:56] Competitive edges in the current world [27:06] Why creative activities matter [31:21] Advice to emerging LPs [32:42] Post-credit scene
Stay up to date with the weekly cup of cognitive adventures inside venture capital and startups, as well as cataloging the history of tomorrow through the bookmarks of yesterday!
The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
Writing this “Dear Emerging Manager” reached more people than I thought, so people asked me to write the same version for LPs.
You’re not special. No matter what GPs say, you’re not. I’m sorry. Refer to Danny Meyer’s line in Setting the Table: “You’re never as good as the best things they’ll say, and never as bad as the negative ones. Just keep centered, know what you stand for, strive for new goals, and always be decent.”
If you don’t believe me, imagine if you were broke, but you got to keep everything else you have. Knowledge. Network. Would the best GPs still give you carry if you had no money?
You’re likely not going to win the best co-investment. There’s very little incentive for a GP to. An experienced later-stage investor will do better than you. Will likely be more helpful than you. Even if by brand association alone. Will likely be better connected than you.
Even worse is if you can have the full pro-rata amount. Worse still, you get the “opportunity” to lead. If you do, you’re just telling everyone your child is the smartest kid on the planet. If no one else says that, it’s just you. Don’t believe your own bullshit. See Richard Feynman‘s line: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” Do note, it’s different if you get access to a Series D deal through your manager.
As of now, we’re investing in “innovation” when we should be investing in innovation. Let me lay down the incentives. You want liquidity, so you look at deals that generate such. The lowest hanging fruit here is companies who IPO. So you start looking for funds, and sometimes deals, that are in the same sector. And because you are, because you’re looking for that story, large organizations are pitching you that narrative. They restructure and hire teams so that it feeds that narrative. Because the multi-stage funds are doing so, early stage funds and “smart” first checks are pitching strategies and picking companies where they know the multi-stage funds will follow. The co-investor (much less the follow-on investor) slide in the deck gets the most attention these days. The established early stage programs are telling me, in confidence, that they invested in X deal because Big Firm Y will do so. And they’re optimizing for that. The larger platforms are telling me they’re hiring team members around which types of companies are getting late-stage funding and/or going public. Fintech became interesting because of Chime. Prosumer became interesting because of Figma. (Circa 2025). AI is interesting because of large secondary opportunities into OpenAI and Anthropic. Yes, these industries are all transforming the world, but note the incentives. These are the IBMs.
Because of all the above, funds really only have a 10-20% allowance to make venture bets. Any more than that, GPs risk career suicide, at least from the perspective of LPs. These GPs are “unbackable.”
I don’t want you to stake your careers on it. I’m just a stranger on the internet whom you shouldn’t take advice from. But this same stranger is frustrated at the collective risk appetite of an industry that’s supposed to be known for eating risk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Venture has become too big of an asset class if you can describe emerging managers, established firms, growth equity, secondaries all within the same umbrella. The decision-making and the underwriting is different from each. Some see normal distributions. Others do not. Do not conflate a normally-distributed asset with a power-law-driven one.
A slow ‘no’ is worse than a fast ‘no.’ Some will thank you for a fast ‘no.’ Most won’t. But most will talk behind your back if you give them a slow ‘no.’ Time is the only resource we cannot win back. Yours and theirs.
Marks before Year 5 mean very little. You’re welcome to use them as directional headings, but never rely on them. Even if you do, do your own adjusted TVPI and IRR measurements outside of what GPs tell you and keep that methodology consistent across all investors you come across.
Lemons ripen early in venture. Early losses are not always a clear sign of a bad portfolio.
Another LP passing is not always a bad sign. Find out why. Find out how many other similar funds they saw.
It’s okay to pass on a deal if you don’t have the network to diligence the deal. Not having the network means you don’t have people who’ll tell you the cold truth. These are the people who’ll tell you that you have spinach in your teeth.
Don’t ask for data rooms in the first meeting. Or worse, before the first meeting. You’re likely not going to do anything with the data. In the words of my friend, “it’s like asking someone’s net worth on the first date.” Too early. The deck and a conversation is all you need to figure out if the juice is worth the squeeze.
Be transparent with your timing and decision-making process.
If you do not have the time, energy, budget, or network to do the work in true venture, hire someone to do it. Usually that means an oCIO, fund-of-funds, MFO, or a consultant. Make it their job. But make sure it is their ONLY job. The infamous fictional philosopher Ron Swanson once said, “Never half ass two things. Whole ass one thing.”
Your institution will thank you more for whole-assing one job. So, will your GPs.
In the words of Thomas Laffont, “Focus is a luxury.” You sit on more privilege than the vast majority of the world. More privilege than your childhood friends. It’d be a shame to not use the luxury that comes with that privilege.
Don’t torture the data. “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything.” Let the data guide you to questions. Then form your own hypotheses. Understand you cannot grill any hypothesis until it dry ages for at least 7 years. Any sooner and it’s not worth the premium you paid for it.
Trust your intuition enough that you don’t regret in 30 years that you didn’t take the bet of the lifetime, but not enough that you live to regret a lifetime of (undisciplined) bets.
This letter is as much of a reminder for you as it is for me.
Stay up to date with the weekly cup of cognitive adventures inside venture capital and startups, as well as cataloging the history of tomorrow through the bookmarks of yesterday!
The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
“Once you hit a billion dollars, you should probably consider some sort of internal team. Just to mitigate risk. There’s audit risk involved when you have such a small number of people managing a huge pool of capital. It’s going to differ for everyone. That’s probably a good benchmark.” — Trish Spurlin
Trish Spurlin is the Investment Director at Babson’s $800M endowment, covering private markets investing with a large focus on venture. In fact 70% of their private equity portfolio is venture capital. Quite a unique strategy for an endowment to take. Why? An endowment is required to provide, in this case, the university money every single year, anywhere from 5% to 60% of a university’s annual budget. And to invest in an illiquid asset class aka venture capital that doesn’t return capital till a decade later, if not longer, takes courage.
[00:00] Intro [01:45] Sports in Trish’s life [05:10] How does success fuel inhibit ambition? How does it inhibit ambition? [07:35] How do you underwrite long term motivation? [13:21] How fast you order something might matter [16:04] Can Trish angel invest outside of Babson? [17:08] Endowment with a $80M budget [19:54] Should you hire an outsourced CIO? [24:18] Endowment with a $8B budget [27:47] Babson’s liquidity requirements [30:33] How to ask about a senior partner leaving [34:05] How does Trish build trust with her GPs? [37:48] Trish’s interests vs Babson’s interests [45:24] Hank Sauce [47:26] Why is Ocean City Boardwalk special? [48:51] What serves as a reminder to Trish we’re still in the good ol’ days?
“What have [ambitious people’s] transition periods looked like? A lot of times when people do really cool things, there are 2-3 years after where they just don’t know what to do with themselves. That’s very normal. You see that with Olympians. You see that with astronauts.” — Trish Spurlin
“Once you hit a billion dollars, you should probably consider some sort of internal team. Just to mitigate risk. There’s audit risk involved when you have such a small number of people managing a huge pool of capital. It’s going to differ for everyone. That’s probably a good benchmark.” — Trish Spurlin
“If you want to be told things when they aren’t going well, you can’t freak out when somebody tells you something that’s not going well. No emails in caps. No yelling. Take a moment to digest what you’re being told. You’re collecting information. You can discuss that information when the time is appropriate.” — Trish Spurlin
Stay up to date with the weekly cup of cognitive adventures inside venture capital and startups, as well as cataloging the history of tomorrow through the bookmarks of yesterday!
The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
“There’s this thing called alpha, which is returns driven by skill not market return. And when you start to think about what does that mean, skill means you’re doing something that other people aren’t. You have to be different from the average. What can drive that? How are you going to have that be positive expected value? You need to have unique information, unique insight, unique access, or get uniquely lucky.” — Jacob Miller
Jacob Miller is the Co-Founder and Opto’s Chief Solutions Officer, a key figure in its leadership team and central to its growth strategy. He spearheads initiatives for Opto’s fiduciary partnerships and the systemization of institutional-quality private markets investment techniques and programs.
Before co-founding Opto, Miller spent nearly five years as an investor at Bridgewater Associates. Miller has a passion for sensible long-term investing, systematizing investment processes, and distilling complex market dynamics into clear, logical linkages that help people better understand their investments. Having managed money for family and friends since he was 16, Miller is a certified market junkie. While he has a background in macroeconomics and high-yield debt, he finds the challenges and opportunities in the private markets space far more interesting and important, both for investors and society.
[00:00] Intro [01:49] Why did Jacob start investing at 8 years old? [07:20] The fallacies of storytelling [08:49] Inputs, framework, and outputs [09:21] Jake’s mental framework for alpha [12:31] Pete Soderling’s unique access [13:49] Jacob on defense tech VCs [14:57] How does Jacob underwrite relationships in defense? [16:30] How do you know if someone’s been preaching a story before it became a story? [20:16] The difference b/w an opinion and an insight [23:07] Why does Jacob write? [25:42] Running with Joe Lonsdale at 8:30AM [29:12] 2 wildly different billionaires [31:48] What does Jacob want for the world? [36:23] What keeps Jacob humble?
“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. — William Shakespeare
“If you didn’t have stories or branding, it would take you four hours to choose which cereal to get based on solely merit — if you did cost comparison versus ingredients, nutrition, et cetera. You need the story to make a decision in two seconds rather than six hours.” — Jacob Miller
“You need to know what are the assumptions that underpin those stories so you can know if and when they’ve been invalidated.” — Jacob Miller
“You have inputs; you have a framework; you have outputs. The story is the output. You can be wrong on your inputs. You can be wrong on your framework. Better to be wrong on your inputs than your framework. Because if you were wrong on your framework—and it’s garbage— it’s garbage in, and garbage out.” — Jacob Miller
“There’s this thing called alpha, which is returns driven by skill not market return. And when you start to think about what does that mean, skill means you’re doing something that other people aren’t. You have to be different from the average. What can drive that? How are you going to have that be positive expected value? You need to have unique information, unique insight, unique access, or get uniquely lucky.
“As investors, we probably don’t want to bet on getting uniquely lucky. And access and information counts as insider trading in public markets. And so if you’re going to a public market asset manager who claims to have alpha, you need to be defending why you have unique insight. Why can you take information that everyone else has and derive conclusions that other people won’t, which is a very high bar. […]
“But in private markets, we can look to what are unique sources of access and information. Are you in founder networks that other people are not in? How can you show me you see deals before other people do? Do you have benefits as an LP or GP that you can bring to founders that might lead to preferential pricing that would lead to them choosing you first? Do you have a reputation that will attract the right kind of talent? And then on top of that, do you have really insightful frameworks about what makes a great founder, about how to assess TAM, about how to help a company scale through product-market fit to expansion and et cetera? I always start a private market analysis with: ‘Let’s talk about access and information. What do you see that others don’t? What do you know that others don’t?” — Jacob Miller
“Too much source-citing is honestly a red flag for me. This should be stuff you’re learning in the market that’s evidence of your unique access to information.” — Jacob Miller
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler
“That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away.” — Seneca
Stay up to date with the weekly cup of cognitive adventures inside venture capital and startups, as well as cataloging the history of tomorrow through the bookmarks of yesterday!
The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
“I hate checklists. I like outlines. I don’t like checklists. A checklist says ‘I have to have this, and then I’m good. An outline is ‘This is my starting point. These are the kinds of things I want to talk about or kinds of things I need to look at.” — Eric Sippel
Eric Sippel currently runs his family office and is an active investor in and adviser to many venture capital, private equity, hedge and real estate funds. He is a member of the RAISE Global selection and steering committees (the premier emerging VC manager conference) and often speaks to emerging venture manager groups. Previously, Eric was the COO of Eastbourne Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund firm, and a Partner at Shartsis, Friese & Ginsburg, where he was a nationally recognized hedge fund and venture capital lawyer. Eric serves on more than a dozen LPACs and has served on many for profit and non-profit boards.
[00:00] Intro [02:13] Why Eric’s name on LinkedIn is lowercase? [02:44] Oceanside [04:18] Eric’s grandfather and education in the family [07:06] Basketball [07:58] Eric’s first venture fund investment in 1996 [12:05] How does Eric invest below the minimum check size requirement? [14:51] How to decide your LP check size [17:47] Today, when does Eric invest in a new GP? [21:14] Time x capital 2×2 matrix [24:32] Tough conversations with Eric [27:00] The minimum viable value-add for LPs who write small checks [32:02] Eric’s most impactful mistakes [35:11] How do you know if a GP is GOOD at adding value? [43:42] How many other funds in the same space does Eric look at before investing? [46:36] Breaking down Eric’s deal flow [49:35] How many references does Eric do? [50:27] Who does Eric trust for LP references? [52:34] Other references for diligence [55:23] How does Eric approach a founder reference? [59:09] Biggest lessons from CIA training [1:05:16] Mike’s Pizza [1:06:18] If everything were to change tomorrow, what would Eric photograph?
“The best way for an LP to construct a venture portfolio is to be diversified across a large enough number of firms and funds. And in particular, those funds should be concentrated. 20-30 companies per portfolio, maybe less in some cases. And they should be diversified across sectors, geographies, vintages, and firms/GPs. You need to have a minimum of 15, but 25-40 feels right to me.” — Eric Sippel
“When I’m thinking about who am I going to say yes to, I’m comparing that to the people I’m cutting out who I think are great and I’m comparing it to the other people who would love to have my capital who I think are great. One of things that drives me is the relationship I have with a GP.” — Eric Sippel
“Never follow your investor’s advice and you might fail. Always follow your investor’s advice and you’ll definitely fail.” — Hunter Walk
“My advice to GPs is to do what they believe is right for maximizing performance and not to listen to their LPs.” — Eric Sippel
“The best way to make money in any asset class is to think differently.” — Eric Sippel
On references… “I’ll talk to as many founders as I can get my hands on that are not on-list. I do not want GPs to introduce me to founders.” — Eric Sippel
“I hate checklists. I like outlines. I don’t like checklists. A checklist says ‘I have to have this, and then I’m good. An outline is ‘This is my starting point. These are the kinds of things I want to talk about or kinds of things I need to look at.” — Eric Sippel
Stay up to date with the weekly cup of cognitive adventures inside venture capital and startups, as well as cataloging the history of tomorrow through the bookmarks of yesterday!
The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
Adam Marchick from Akkadian Ventures joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on 3 GPs at VC funds to ask 3 different questions.
Cocoa VC’s Carmen Alfonso Rico asks what belief Adam held firmly for years but changed his mind recently on.
Good Trouble Ventures’ AJ Thomas asks about how GPs can better communicate risk to first-time LPs.
1517 Fund’s Danielle Strachman asks about the world view Adam has that shapes his investing thesis.
Over the past twenty years, Adam Marchick has had unique experiences as a founder, general partner (GP), and limited partner (LP). Most recently, Adam managed the venture capital portfolio at Emory’s endowment, a $2 billion portfolio within the $10 billion endowment. Prior to Emory, Adam spent ten years building two companies, the most recent being Alpine.AI, which was acquired by Headspace. Simultaneously, Adam was a Sequoia Scout and built an angel portfolio of over 25 companies. Adam was a direct investor at Menlo Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures, sourcing and supporting companies including Carbonite (IPO), Rent The Runway (IPO), Rapid7 (IPO), Archer (M&A), and AeroScout (M&A). He started his career in engineering and product roles at Facebook, Oracle, and startups.
[00:00] Intro [01:22] The anatomy of a good story [02:26] The job of an annual summit [05:35] How often does VC change? [07:25] Narratives LPs are looking for at GPs’ AGMs [08:25] “20% overall revenue growth in the portfolio is NOT exciting” [09:01] What founders talk about at an AGM [14:01] How does Adam spend time at an AGM [17:48] Enter Carmen and Cocoa VC [19:35] What did Adam change his mind about [21:09] How does an LP assess GP NPS? [22:16] Picking on-sheet references [24:33] The origin of Cocoa VC [26:08] What is Carmen’s superpower? [27:09] What does Carmen want from her LPs? [29:09] The best answers to “what do you want from your LPs?” [31:29] Controversial decisions for the LPAC [33:39] Enter AJ and Good Trouble Ventures [34:25] Communicating risk to your LPs [35:58] What about to first-time LPs? [38:06] Where do first-time LPs come from? [39:50] What inspired AJ’s question? [42:14] Is the convo different if LPs reach out vs you reach out? [43:45] The timing of LP conversations: most frequent vs most important [45:59] The trust equation [47:45] How to scale trust with LPs [51:35] How has GPs built trust with Adam? [53:29] How often does Adam keep in touch with his GPs? [56:06] Enter Danielle and 1517 Fund [58:38] What is Adam’s mental model? [1:01:43] How does Adam define low entry prices? [1:03:25] Tracking trends as an LP [1:06:55] 80-20 portfolio construction [1:10:37] Would 1517’s thesis 15 years ago count as market risk? [1:14:12] Adam’s last piece of advice [1:15:46] Akkadian Ventures and RAISE Global [1:17:06] David’s favorite moment from Adam’s earlier episode
“Venture is made on the exception, so if each company is growing at 20%, it’s not an exciting portfolio. If 3 companies are growing at 300%, that’s an exciting portfolio.” — Adam Marchick
“I always go back to tenets of venture. It’s backing great people, tackling large markets at low entry prices.” — Adam Marchick
“Similar to a founder, their job is to communicate upside potential. At worst, you can lose 1X. At most, the returns can be inspiring. I think your job is to talk about what can go right and what are the inputs required to make it go right.” — Adam Marchick
“The bulk of your conversations with an LP happen negative 6 months to time of investment. The most important conversations you have with an LP are Year 2 through 6 of your investment.” — Adam Marchick
“Trust equals credibility, reliability, and intimacy and the dividing factor of building that trust is whether or not you feel that self-orientation is only geared for the other person’s agenda or actually something that you’re co-creating together.” — AJ Thomas
“When something is getting really heated, it’s a great time to learn because so many people are working on something.” — Bryne Hobart
“When there is hype, you have to look at metrics that can’t be hyped.” — Adam Marchick
On portfolio construction… “80% should be on-thesis, and 20% should be ‘you couldn’t sleep at night if you didn’t do it.” — Adam Marchick
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The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
“There are a thousand ways to put lipstick on the pig and there are a thousand skeletons [in the closet]. I’ve only seen five or six because I’ve only seen three startup experiences. And so you need to deputize as many people as you possibly can to essentially triangulate.” — Anurag Chandra
Anurag Chandra has spent over two decades in Silicon Valley as an investor, operator, and allocator. He has helped lead four venture capital funds, managing over $2.0B in aggregate AUM. Anurag has also been a senior executive in three enterprise technology startups, two of which were sold successfully to public companies. He is currently the CIO of a single-family office with an attached venture studio and a Trustee for the $4.5B San Jose Federated City Employees Retirement Fund, serving as Vice Chair of the Board, and Chair of its Investment and Joint Personnel Committees.
[00:00] Intro [02:10] Why is what Anurag is wearing a walking contradiction? [06:08] The man without a home, but comfortable in everyone’s home [10:17] The Stanford Review [12:55] The four assh*les of America [20:13] How did Anurag schedule regular coffee with Mark Stevens? [25:31] Mark Stevens’ advice to Anurag about staying top of mind [26:42] How often should you email someone to stay in touch? [30:33] Why should you be an asymmetric information junkie? [34:21] Where should you find asymmetric information in VC? [36:02] The ‘Oh Shit’ board meeting [40:09] How San Jose Pension Plan views GPs [43:55] Defining the ‘venture business’ [49:09] Process drives repeatability [54:06] How San Jose Pension Plan built their investment process from scratch [58:43] What is a risk budget? [1:01:52] What did San Jose Pension Plan do about their risk budget? [1:05:05] The people who changed Anurag [1:11:10] Post-credit scene
“You seem like a good guy. I’d love to find ways to work with you, but I’m going to forget you in two or three weeks. And you got to make sure that you stay in the front of my mind when I’m in a board meeting and there’s a company that could use your money. The best for you to do that is to shoot me an email from time to time and let me know what you’re working on. But do not make them long. I don’t need dissertations.” — Mark Stevens’ advice to Anurag
“There are a thousand ways to put lipstick on the pig and there are a thousand skeletons [in the closet]. I’ve only seen five or six because I’ve only seen three startup experiences. And so you need to deputize as many people as you possibly can to essentially triangulate.” — Anurag Chandra
“You can do two weeks or two years of due diligence on a company, in particular if you’re a mid-stage or later-stage investor. And it’s after the first board meeting—I have a friend who affectionately refers to it as the ‘Oh Shit!’ board meeting where you show up, and now you’re on the inside and you learn all the bad stuff about the company that was hidden from you. Now is that to suggest you should just invest after two weeks because even after two years you’re still going to end up with skeletons you were unable to uncover? No. I still think process matters.” — Anurag Chandra
“Look for GPs who are magnets, as opposed to looking for a needle in a haystack.” — Noah Lichtenstein
Stay up to date with the weekly cup of cognitive adventures inside venture capital and startups, as well as cataloging the history of tomorrow through the bookmarks of yesterday!
The views expressed on this blogpost are for informational purposes only. None of the views expressed herein constitute legal, investment, business, or tax advice. Any allusions or references to funds or companies are for illustrative purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment recommendations. Consult a professional investment advisor prior to making any investment decisions.
