What you need to know about fundraising this year

We’re a little over half-way through 2020 and COVID-19, rollercoaster equity markets and record unemployment rates have dominated the 2020 fundraising narrative.  The fundraising discussion seems t...

The LP Perspective on the Current Business Environment

Semil Shah and Beezer Clarkson talk about the LP perspective on current business environment for GPs raising new funds, and more!...

Beezer Clarkson hosts Anne Martin, CIO of Wesleyan University

In this special episode of Origins, Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners hosts Anne Martin, the Chief Investment Officer of Wesleyan University. Anne was previously a Director of Investments at Yale U...

#OpenLP 2.0 – The Reboot

Many aspects of venture funding remain a mystery, even to those working within the industry.  When we launched Sapphire Partners to invest in venture funds, we noticed the role of limited partners (L...

#OpenLP: When Money Isn’t Enough: How to Distinguish Yourself as a VC in a Crowded Market

In 2018, U.S. venture funds invested over $130 billion in startups — crossing the $100 billion mark for the first time since the dot-com boom in 2000. In addition, U.S. venture funds themselves also...

#OpenLP Video: How Does Data Influence LP and GP Decisions?

Last month I had the opportunity to speak at SuperReturn365 on a panel focused on how LPs and GPs use data in our respective business. Some of the questions Tom Henriksson, Suranga Chandratillake, Mi...

The LP Perspective with Beezer Clarkson, Lisa Edgar, Chris Douvos, & Teddy Schleifer

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The Shifting Funding Landscape – Slush 2018

Should VCs fight against the incentive of growing? How do ICOs and other instruments affect traditional equity investing? To what scale does the role of a VC expand to nowadays? A group of prominent i...

Europe’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem – Looking to the Future by Understanding the Past

Beezer Clarkson and Colette Ballou will draw on their myriad of experience as investors and entrepreneurs, and discuss the up and down cycles in European technology landscape and where they think thin...

Building Billion Dollar European Companies

Hear the learnings and observations from Magnus, Co-founder of iZettle and Måns, CEO and Chairman of Qliktech, on what it takes to build companies of such stature in terms of talent management, manag...

Raising A Fund? 9 Questions That Help Get You To GP/LP Fit

This post serves a part two of a two part series that samir kaji and I are co-authoring to help VC’s navigate through fundraising cycles and engender better and more relevant relationships with LP�...

LP survey results: What LP’s are saying about emerging venture manager funds

This post serves a part one of a two part series that Beezer Clarkson at Sapphire Ventures and I are co-authoring to help VC’s (specifically emerging managers) navigate through fundraising cycles an...

Turning the Tables on Notation Capital

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Nicholas Chirls and Alex Lines of Notation Capital on their Origins podcast about raising their new $27m fund, Notation II. Notation is a“first check” ...

Notation II Pitch Deck + Origins Episode

A few years ago, shortly after we announced the launch of Notation, we decided to publish the pitch deck that we used to raise our first fund. Many startups do this in order to share best practices, s...

The A to Z on Series A: Part Three | The Exit

This is our third and final post on Series A investing. As a quick recap, in addition to direct growth-stage investing, Sapphire Ventures invests in early-stage venture funds, specifically those focus...

The A to Z on Series A: Part Two

In my first post on Series A investing, we looked at active investors at the A-level and found that while there’s a recent downward trend in the number of Series A deals done, there are three times ...

The A To Z On Series A: Part One

At Sapphire, as a matter of good investment discipline (and our personal love for geeking out over venture data), we routinely set aside time to stress test our investment assumptions. And as many of ...

Beezer’s Breakdown – Take II

Last month Harry Stebbings invited me back on The Twenty Minute VC to talk about venture fundraising activity for Q1 2017. We had a great time talking about things like:...

TechCrunch Equity Podcast

Welcome to the second episode of TechCrunch’s newest podcast, Equity, our venture capital-focused show focused on the numbers, people and companies driving the technology industry....

Exiting The Exit

Everyone in the venture-backed technology industry — entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and limited partners — can probably agree that a healthy exit market is critical. Without sufficien...

Venture Capital In 2017 Is When The Rubber Hits The Road For Returns

In the United States, VC funds raised a whopping $40.6 billion in 2016[1]. It was the largest year for VC fundraising since 2000 when the venture industry raked in a jaw dropping $101.4 billion[1]. Ye...

One Year Later: Our European Report Card

A little over a year ago I published in TechCrunch “A Closer Look At European Investing”. In the article, I outlined reasons why we at Sapphire Ventures are bullish on Europe, particularly as a li...

Speaking At Slush And TechCrunch Disrupt

I just got back from 10 days on the road in Europe, where I was invited to speak at two conferences, Slush in Helsinki and TechCrunch Disrupt in London....

Twenty Minute VC Podcast: Beezer Clarkson, Sapphire Ventures

Yesterday was my second time going on The Twenty Minute VC to share my perspective as a limited partner (LP) in venture. I always love conversations with Harry Stebbings, a good friend who is always f...

Breaking Our Rules

Yesterday, Nicholas Chirls and Alex Lines at Notation Capital launched the first episode of Origins, a new podcast about limited partners (LPs). As a sponsor of the series, I’m very excited for them...

Origins: A Podcast About Limited Partners – Episode 1

Eighteen months ago, we set out to raise our first fund for Notation Capital. We knew bits and pieces about the Limited Partner community (the firms and people that invest in VC funds), but boy did we...

Dear VCs, There’s Something You Need To Know About Raising Funds This Year

Times are changing. Startups and VCs are facing tougher times, layoffs, down rounds and eroding valuations. However, already a record amount of money has gone into U.S. venture funds this year. As an ...

The Money Behind The Money: A Conversation With LPs and GPs

Two LPs, a GP and a managing director from Cambridge Associates walk into a bar. Sounds like the opening to a killer gag that would be appreciated by dozens....

(Some) LPs Speak Up

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Reading The Venture Tea Leaves For 2016

Investing in the future is what limited partners (LPs) do for a living. It’s inexact, yet over the years Sapphire Ventures has developed a process to identify trends — in technology, and the v...

Emerging Managers Can Bring Top-Tier Returns

You asked and we answered. More emerging managers than ever seem to be raising venture funds. And so a number of readers emailed their questions of how to stand out in a crowded fundraising market. ...

A Closer Look At European Investing

We’re bullish on Europe, and that strikes some folks in the U.S. as a bit strange. It’s not that Europe is all we know — we’re an investor in early venture stage funds (an “LP”) in the...

Be Fair And Transparent In Your Fee Structure 

A new feature launched by pehub and affiliate publication VCJ allowed you, dear reader, the opportunity to Ask an LP questions about the hottest topics in venture. Anything was on the table and open f...

Top 10 Tips For Pitching An LP

Money is flowing into the venture industry at near record levels. More than 250 venture capital funds raised nearly $30 billion last year, more funds than in any year since 2001, according to the ...