Chris Douvos founded Ahoy Capital in 2018 to build an intentionally right-sized firm that could pursue investment excellence while prizing a spirit of partnership with all of its constituencies. A pioneering investor in the micro-VC movement, Chris has been a fixture in venture capital for nearly two decades. In addition to successfully identifying and catalyzing nascent funds, he bridges a gap between the providers of capital and the consumers of capital by creating platforms for transparent dialogue. Chris authors the blog SuperLP in which he chronicles his adventures investing in venture capital and private equity; and his brick oven pizza parties, small gatherings of LPs, GPs, and entrepreneurs, are well-known in the Valley. He is sought after not only for investment capital, but also for his advice, and serves on numerous managers’ advisory boards.
Prior to Ahoy Capital, Chris spearheaded investment efforts at Venture Investment Associates, and The Investment Fund for Foundations. He learned the craft of illiquid investing at Princeton University’s endowment. He started his business career as a strategy consultant at Monitor Company. Chris regularly speaks at industry conferences and business schools and is a frequent resource for tech and business media. He earned his B.A. with Distinction in history from Yale College in 1994 and an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management in 2001. He was awarded the CFA Charter in 2004.
You can find Chris on his socials here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cdouvos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdouvos/
And huge thanks to this episode’s sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch the episode on YouTube here.
Brought to you by Alchemist Accelerator.
OUTLINE:
[00:00] Intro
[03:01] What Chris learned from the founder of Greylock and the Chief Investment Officer at Yale’s Endowment.
[06:25] How a timber pitch and losing the nose game earned a Chris a front-row seat to venture capital.
[10:35] How 2001 is similar to 2023.
[12:44] What legislation makes California special?
[13:11] Do firms need to have geographical presence?
[16:44] How did Chris first start to build his deal flow?
[23:17] What needs to go in a good cold email
[24:53] Breaking down how Chris constructed his first opinion on great venture capital firms
[30:04] How did Josh Kopelman build ‘ecosystem as a service’ in 2004
[33:28] How did Chris end up backing Data Collective
[37:52] What are the 4 leading indicators of fund manager outperformance?
[48:46] Which firm of Chris’ recent portfolio is willing to be wrong and alone?
[51:32] Chris’ Peter Dolan impression
[56:09] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring
[58:45] Legal disclaimer
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- The Non-Obvious Emerging LP Playbook
- James Clear
- TIFF – The Investment Fund for Foundations
- VIA – Venture Investment Associates
- Sequoia Capital
- Henry McCance
- Greylock Partners
- PRINCO
- David Swensen
- Yale Endowment
- Seth Alexander
- Ravi Belani
- Walt Whitman
- The House Fund
- Michael Porter
- Clusters and the New Economics of Competition by Michael Porter
- Doug Leone
- Mike Maples Jr.
- Tim O’Reilly
- O’Reilly Media
- Eric Ries
- John Doerr
- Josh Kopelman
- First Round Capital
- Steve Anderson
- Jeff Clavier
- Fred Wilson
- Buck’s of Woodside
- Herodotus
- Data Collective (DCVC)
- Beezer Clarkson
- Matt Ocko
- Zachary Bogue
- Founders Den
- SuperLP.com
- The Incredibles
- Stanford Graduate School of Business
- Rhapsody Venture Partners
- Peter Dolan
QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“Entrepreneurship is like a gas. It’s hottest when it’s compressed.”
“Have an opinion. Have a viewpoint. There are so many investors who are just caught up in these tides. They’re heat-seeking missiles, looking for the new, new thing. The reality is that by the time, the new, new thing is new to them, it’s already a little bit longer in the tooth in the ecosystem — all the great deals have been done.”
“I’m looking for well-rounded holes that are made up of jagged pieces that fit together nicely.”
“OPM is like opium. It’s a hell of a drug.”
Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:
For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters
Follow David Zhou’s blog: https://cupofzhou.com
Follow Superclusters on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperclustersLP
Follow Superclusters on Instagram: https://instagram.com/super.clusters