“How you modulate a good story is by inserting dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins at the right times to be able to deliver that story so that the person listening to that story can form an opinion.” — Asher Siddiqui
Asher Siddiqui from the Song Family Office joins me 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.
Inuka Capital’s Gautam Shewakramani asks about what GPs typically overshare and under-share when they’re pitching an LP. As well as how an LP identifies if a GP has great sourcing if they’re a generalist fund.
Unshackled Venture’s Manan Mehta asks if VC is still only one asset class. Is early stage now a combination of discovery and validation capital?
Keymaker VC’s Tim Wang asks what do most LPs overvalue in GPs.
Asher Siddiqui is a global tech investor, M&A dealmaker, and venture fund builder with over 25 years of hands-on experience across venture capital, entrepreneurship, and more than $15B in executed M&A transactions.
He began his career as a software engineer and entrepreneur in the US and UK before spending a decade leading M&A and corporate venture at Etisalat Group (now e& Group), one of the world’s largest listed TMT investment groups. There, he led acquisitions, exits, and strategic transactions across multiple continents.
In 2016, Asher joined the global leadership team at 500 Startups in San Francisco, helping scale the platform to $2B+ AUM, with a portfolio that includes 35+ unicorns and 160+ centaurs.
Since then, he has helped launch and scale several institutional VC firms—including Race Capital, Lumikai, Sukna Ventures, Zayn VC, and Humanrace Capital—and serves on the advisory boards of funds such as FootPrint Coalition Ventures, Merus Capital, and The Treasury.
To date, Asher has made 100+ venture investments (both direct and LP), raised hundreds of millions in LP commitments, mentored hundreds of emerging VC managers globally, and advised countless founders.
You can find Asher on his socials here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashersiddiqui/
X / Twitter: https://x.com/ashercdkey
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch the episode on YouTube here.
OUTLINE:
(00:00) Intro
(02:09) The DOSE framework for underwriting pitches
(04:19) Asher’s new role
(05:38) Who is Gautam and Inuka Capital?
(09:19) What do most GPs overshare and undershare on?
(15:19) How does Asher differentiate sourcing ability in generalist funds?
(20:01) The first date analogy
(22:38) What emotions do each of DOSE represent?
(27:23) Too much dopamine, not enough endorphins
(30:02) Who is Manan and Unshackled Ventures?
(31:33) Unshackled’s most recent big win
(32:46) Discovery capital vs validation capital
(33:31) Is venture still only one asset class?
(43:29) The Song Family Office portfolio construction
(51:41) Asher’s stance on reserves
(55:00) Why it makes sense to go to zero AGMs
(56:23) The ask
(57:27) Who is Tim and Keymaker VC?
(58:45) What do most LPs overvalue in GPs?
(1:04:40) A new way to share the team’s personality on the deck?
(1:08:09) Asher’s last piece of advice
(1:14:57) David’s favorite moment of Asher in S5
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Song United
- “When an Olympic Daydreamer Becomes an LP Whisperer” with Asher Siddiqui on Superclusters
- Dug Song
- Duo Security
- Gautam Shewakramani
- Inuka Capital
- Lumikai
- Aum Ventures
- Chetan Mehta
- Stanford University
- OpenAI
- Sam Altman
- Manan Mehta
- Unshackled Ventures
- PK Gulati
- Faeth Therapeutics
- Sensei Biotherapeutics acquiring Faeth Therapeutics
- Allocate
- Jaap Vriesendorp
- “Exit Windows Matter More Than Entry Windows” with Jaap Vriesendorp on Superclusters
- Jeff Rinvelt
- “The Case for Concentrated Portfolios” with Jeff Rinvelt on Superclusters
- Timothy Wang
- Keymaker VC
- Homan Yuen
- JD Montgomery
- Canterbury Consulting
- “Venture is a Who Business, Not a What Business” with JD Montgomery on Superclusters
SELECT QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
““Happiness is amazing. It’s so amazing it doesn’t matter if it’s yours or not. A society grows great when old men plant trees the shade of which they know they will never sit in.” — from Ricky Gervais’ After Life
“How you modulate [a good story] is by inserting dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins at the right times to be able to deliver that story so that the person listening to that story can form an opinion.” — Asher Siddiqui
“There’s no point of perfect information, especially in venture, where you say ‘I have enough information’, this is the thesis, the timing is now—… No, there’s a lot of belief involved.” — Asher Siddiqui