Forbes 30 Under 30 Venture Capitalists 2023

From gaming-focused tech startups to companies focusing on sexual and reproductive health, the young investors of Under 30 in 2023 are putting their money to work in companies created by and for their...

VC Terms You Need to Know

The investing world is full of acronyms and terms that are foreign to those that haven’t been in the game for years. The team at Weekend Fund put together a glossary of concepts every fund manager n...

Seed to Harvest Podcast with Jaclyn Hester

In the latest episode of Paige Doherty's 'Seed to Harvest' Podcast, Foundry Partner Jaclyn Hester shares best practices for emerging managers around capital calls, networking, annual meetings, managin...

Fundraising as an Emerging Manager: How to Source & Connect with LPs

Four Cities Capital Operating Principal Mia Nguyen shares Part I of her new blog series, which aims to demystify the fundraising process for emerging managers and shares tips for outreach and relation...

The Importance of Staying Lean in the Early Days

With so much cash flowing during the last 24 months, Ed Sim says it was easy to hire too fast, but onboarding new folks, getting them up to speed on the codebase, and managing internal communications ...

How to Write LP Updates

In this edition of Signature Block, Weekend Fund's Ryan Hoover and Vedika Jain tap five established LPs to share their insights on what makes a good LP update great, what to include, how to get bonus ...

A Deep Dive into the Challenges of Raising Your First Venture Capital Fund

Saka Saddiq Nuru of Funnder VC has spent the last 8 months fundraising for the first time. 1000+ emails, 47+ applications, and 6 newsletters later, he transparently shares a deep-dive on the challenge...

Emerging VCs Adjust to a New Fundraising Reality

Though the cadence of fundraising has slowed, Sapphire's Nate Leung views the last few months as a healthy reset for the VC ecosystem after a frothy 2021. And while this environment places additional ...

Materials & Strategies for the Best Founders (& Emerging Managers)

2048 Managing Partner Alex Iskold shares a fundraising Twitter thread with tactical strategies for early-stage founders, with many parallels for emerging VCs raising from LPs, including deck tips, ens...

10 Resources for Understanding the VC Side of the Table

Before Contrary Capital's Jason Chen became a full-time investor, he founded two companies - a common path for many, but requires a new understanding. Jason shares his top resources for getting up to ...

Why Emerging Managers are Critical to a Well-Rounded Venture Portfolio

EMs have a clear focus on core competency and maximizing returns; alignment with investors  as they're motivated to “emerge," and  the opportunity to generate outsized outcomes from a single posit...

The bull market is over… What are the implications for venture capital? ­­­­­­

The decade-long bull run is over, and while it's uncertain how the markets will play out over the next 12-18 months, history gives us insight, and VC must adjust....

The Benefits of Joining an Emerging VC Fund

Thinking about joining an emerging VC fund? Nicole DeTommaso of Harlem Capital helpfully breaks down the *why* in this great thread....

The “Biggest Shareable Secrets to Raising a New Fund”

With wisdom from some of the most prominent new fund managers in venture, this thread is jam packed with gems for first time GPs navigating the fundraising process....

Solo Venture Capitalists Go Big

Solo GPs increasingly have some serious muscle behind them. Kate Clark of the Information explores....

How Emerging Managers Can Stand Out In 2022

62% of LPs say the risk/return profile for emerging managers is attractive relative to established firms. Still, it remains an uphill battle for emerging managers to raise funds. Here's how to stand o...

How and Why VCs Recycle Management Fees

Hustle Fund's Elizabeth Yin takes on how and why VCs recycle management fees in this super helpful Tweet thread....

I No Longer Want to Be a Venture Capitalist

"I just don’t have that knowledge and expertise to justify allocation on [a founder's] cap table... I can, however, add value to an investor’s cap table." One woman's journey from a VC to a Fund-o...

On VC Scout Programs

The easiest way to work with and for VC funds is as a scout, getting paid for sourcing investments. But how do you do that? Here's how VCs structure scout programs: how much they pay, carry structure,...

6 Simple Principles To Embrace When Building A New Fund

While there’s no established playbook for building a new fund, there *are* some principles that hold value across the board. Miruna Girtu of Syndicate Room shares the principles to embrace while bui...

What LPs Are Looking For When They Invest in a VC Fund

100s of LP meetings, input from many other VCs, and listening to myriad podcasts... It all resulted in these important fundraising lessons from Jarrid Tingle of Harlem Capital. ...

Emerging Manager Fundraising – What the Data Shows

Ready to double click into how emerging managers and first time funds managed last year re: fundraising? Here's what the data shows for 2021 (and what trends might be underlying the numbers), courtesy...

The Great Venture-Capital Resignation is Underway

DIY... *venture style.* "A growing number of influential investors plan to rely on their distinct brands and deep networks to raise individual funds as they call it quits at some of the most respecte...

Emerging Managers from the Raise Conference: What Does the Data Say?

At #OpenLP we love ourselves some performance benchmarks! 250+ emerging managers submitted data to the Raise Conference... One 2015 fund is notching a 10.46x TVPI! Check out the stats here....

VC Exit Model

This VC exit model from Nicole DeTommaso is extremely helpful. It allows investors to see their exit potential at different check sizes. Give it a whirl!...

Predictions For 2022 According To Emerging Managers In VC

What does the emerging manager community predict for venture in 2022? Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures helpfully compiles some thoughts from fellow emerging managers....

How 3 Investors Raised Their Own VC Funds in a Year Where That Was Weirdly Difficult to Do

"With US venture firms hauling in a record $128B last year, it was a splendid time to be a venture capitalist... But there was a big exception: those who were raising a brand-new, first-time fund."...

Considerations On How To Build Your LP Base

When building your LP base, there are three main factors to consider: value add, time orientation and due diligence process. Excellent primer on "How To Build Your LP Base" by Blue Future Partners....

“Should I Start A Fund?”

Ready to go it alone as a venture investor? There is much to consider! Ryan Hoover walks through the distinct pros and cons of various fund structures in this very helpful Tweet thread....

5 Things LPs Wish VCs Knew About Fundraising

Raising a fund is always a challenge... but now with the crazy competition of today’s venture market, it’s harder than ever to stand out from the pack. Here are some things LPs wish VCs knew about...

Rolling Funds on AngelList Are The Best Way For Accredited Individual Investors to Start Investing in Venture Capital Funds

Rolling funds can be a great way to dip your toes into VC waters. And "the future of VC is being written by emerging managers and the innovations that enable small individual investors to invest in th...

VC Lolita Taub shares her best advice for underrepresented investors trying to raise their own funds

"Create a mission statement and a clear goal for your fund, because a solid foundation is necessary for outsized returns." Lolita Taub shares her best advice for underrepresented investors trying to r...

How VC Firms Decide: Considerations On Decision-Making Structures

Who decides what deals get done? A VC firm's decision-making process is a critical component of it's overall governance. Here are some different models to consider, courtesy of Blue Future Partners....

How Asset Owners Are Solving the Emerging Manager Problem

Asset owners cite investing in emerging and diverse managers as “one of our biggest priorities.” But... "allocators feel overwhelmed with where to start." More on how asset owners are solving the ...

What is the Best CRM and Marketing Tech Platform for a New Venture Capital Fund?

What's the best CRM and martech platform for a new VC fund? David Teten walks us through his thought process in selecting his preferred tool for fund communications....

Operators Are The New ‘It’ VCs: 10 Lessons On Making The Transition

Operators may be the new ‘it’ VCs, but that doesn't mean it's all smooth sailing. Here are 10 lessons on making the transition from operator to investor, compliments of Deena Shakir and Ann Bordet...

How LP Protections Play Out in First-Time Funds’ LPAs

From bad leaver clauses to provisions on launching successor funds, protections are in place for investors backing first-time funds. Here's how LP protections are making their way into LPAs....

An Emerging Manager’s Not-So-Secret Superpower

A thoughtful choice of foundational software and services can enable first-time investors to invest and operate like the full VC team of yesteryear. More on "an emerging manager’s not-so-secret supe...

LP Thoughts on Emerging Manager Performance Benchmarks

Want to know how your fund stacks up against the rest of the pack? Particularly in the context of newer vintages? Here's a great thread from Beezer Clarkson on just that topic... plus key insights on ...

What I Tell All New VCs About Their First Funds

There is a delicate dance in the interplay between check size, ownership and portfolio management. Great insights from Hunter Walk on this topic, and what else new VC need to know....

Why every first-time fund manager needs a fund administrator

Becoming an institutional VC means knowing when to selectively outsource complexity. Here's "why every first-time fund manager needs a fund administrator."...

An LP Team Assessment Framework For Emerging Managers

Wondering how LPs assess emerging managers? Blue Future Partners has pulled together a helpful framework to shed light on just this topic....

Structural Problems Of Incentive Alignment In VC

Incentive alignment is *fundamental* to VC corporate governance, and also crucial for a firm's long-term success. Here's where misalignments can arise between GPs + LPs, and thoughts on how to best av...

A Simple Framework: The Regulatory Structure and Principles of US VC Funds

The laws and regulations governing venture are NOT simple. Luckily Chris Harvey has provided as clear an overview of venture fund law as is possible....

Footwork Ventures on Capital Allocators

In this episode of the Capital Allocators podcast, Beezer Clarkson chats with Footwork's Nikhil Basu Trivedi and Mike Smith about the nitty gritty of how they closed their (very oversubscribed!) first...

More Startup CEOs Are Moonlighting as VC Investors

Adding to the burgeoning ranks of nontraditional venture investors? Startup CEOs! The Information dives deep on the proliferation of "startup CEOs moonlighting as VC investors."...

A Comeback of the First-Time Venture Fund? Stay Tuned

"More debut-fund managers are striking out on their own, emboldened by strong returns in the markets... Also, fund investors are looking for ways to back emerging venture firms, which, research shows,...

How To Re-Pitch an LP that Passed Previously

Sometimes GPs need a couple at-bats with LPs before funding is in the offing. Here's a fantastic thread from Beezer Clarkson on what GPs should keep in mind when re-pitching LPs that have previously p...

A Strategic Allocation to Newer GPs

A clarion call for institutional investors to embrace emerging managers, from John Austin Saviano, the former CIO of the Berkeley endowment: "Fiduciary duty actually compels us to embrace innovation."...

How to Get Started as an LP

Interested in being an LP? Maybe you dabbled in angel investing, and it’s not for you. But you still want exposure. Investing in a VC fund is a great idea! Where do you start? Yohei Nakajima provide...

VC Investor Relations

VC investor relations, in the words of Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures: "The VC’s 'customer' is the founder/CEO/portfolio company and our LPs investors are our 'shareholders'. Frequency, regula...

The VentureFizz Podcast: Sara Zulkosky of Recast Capital

How do we create a wider path for emerging managers to break into VC? Sara Zulkosky of Recast Capital chats with Keith Cline on the VentureFizz podcast on this question and much, much more....

Who Are the LPs that are Investing in Underrepresented-Led VC Managers?

Many LPs are actively backing underrepresented managers (primarily women-led firms and people of color) through direct mandates or an increased focus and preference toward investing in underrepresente...

The Opportunity For Family Offices To Outperform Over The Next Decade

"If you’re a fund manager without a strong private wealth pipeline, you’re going to be in trouble. If you’re an institution without a true emerging manager program, you’re also going to be in ...

Multi-Stage Portfolio Construction Tool

Monte Carlo simulations, power law curves, valuation step-ups, and more... This fantastic interactive modeling tool from Kauffman Fellows lets you test out various multi-stage VC portfolio constructio...

How Emerging Managers Should Consider Incentive Mechanisms

This fantastic Twitter thread from Marco Cesare Solinas of Blue Future Partners advises managers on incentive design: "If there is somewhere you should avoid being creative, it's here."...

What LPs Wish GPs Knew

Curious about where LPs' heads are at on the current state of the venture market? Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners shares the LP perspective on the Innovation podcast with Mark Peter Davis....

A Guide To Programs For Emerging Managers

With the explosive growth of the emerging manager ecosystem, a wealth of programs have emerged to support aspiring VCs. Here are the top programs on offer....

What Mistakes Do VCs Make When Fundraising?

Don't neglect the funnel! Enterprise sales and venture fundraising are basically the same muscle, says Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures in this episode of the Venture Unlocked podcast....

The 2021 VC Tech Stack

"What's the best tech stack for VCs?" It's a question that we all ask ourselves routinely. Here's some crowdsourced insight, courtesy of Miguel Pinho of Seedcamp....

On LPs Selecting Venture Capital Fund Managers

There is little transparency on how LPs make decisions to invest in funds. Alexi Malikotsinas spent months talking to different types of limited partners and summarizes his key takeaways here....

GP-LP Matching Tool

The GP-LP Matching Tool is a tool created by Josh and Lolita Taub that introduces underestimated and underrepresented emerging fund managers to LPs....

Top 10 Learnings from an Emerging Manager Program

In this very popular Tweet thread, Paige Finn Doherty shares her key learnings from Sutton Capital's Emerging Manager program....

So What Does LP Due Diligence Actually Look Like?

In this Twitter thread, Winter Mead of Oper8r shares the collective wisdom of LPs from Sapphire Partners and Accolade Partners regarding the due diligence process for emerging managers....

5 Innovative Fundraising Methods for Emerging Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds

When fundraising as a venture investor, sometimes thinking outside the box can help. Here are "5 Innovative Fundraising Methods for Emerging VC and PE Funds" courtesy of David Teten....

LP Wisdom from the Bridge Conference

What do LPs look for in emerging managers? Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners shared a roundup of LP panelist insights from the recent Bridge Conference....

Top Investor Relations Tips from the VC Platform Community

Focused on fundraising or investor relations? This Twitter thread is for you. Huge thanks to Lindsay Knight of Chicago Ventures for assembling this list of top IR takeaways from the VCPlatform communi...

Avoiding Venture Capital Fund Administration Headaches

For venture investors, fund administration and reporting is no joke. Luckily, Elizabeth Kraus of Mergelane is willing to share "some of the easily avoidable administrative mistakes I’ve made over my...

Solving VC’s ESG Puzzle

“How does a venture firm ‘do’ ESG with early-stage startups?” This is a common question from venture firms, limited partners, academics, and the media — and the answer is, well, not so obvio...

Why might an LP turn a GP down?

Here are the top reasons according to one LP. In a fantastic Tweet thread, Sam Ettelaie of the British Business Bank parses through what makes an LP push the pause button on a potential investment wit...

Diverse and emerging fund managers in the private market asset class

Aakar Vachhani of Fairview Capital shares the LP perspective on the She-VC podcast....

Capital Gains Taxes May Be Coming, But Probably Not For Emerging Managers & LPs

There has been lots of chatter lately regarding the QSBS exemption in Biden's tax plan and what the downstream effects on early-stage investing might be. Here's the explainer you need to understand th...

VC is performing better than ever. Why are so few first-time funds being raised?

2020 was a record year for venture fundraising, with nearly $80 billion of fresh capital, and this year is on pace to crack $100 billion. But fundraising by first-time managers hasn't been keeping pac...

Fund Recycling Moves the Needle for Both LPs and GPs. Here’s How.

For as powerful of a mechanism as fund recycling can be, we believe it is an under discussed strategy in venture investing. It can transform a good fund into a great fund, and a great fund into an ev...

Metrics that matter most for investors & limited partners

Finding your north star metric as an investor can be confusing. Do you care more about consistent cash flows overtime or a large lump-sum payment later in the future? Do you care about total cash retu...

The Essential Guide to Syndicates

This guide defines what a syndicate is, how to work with syndicates, and why you should consider them as part of your fundraising journey as an organizer, an investor, or a founder....

The LP Perspective: Building an Institutional LP Base

This Carta-hosted panel discussion with Greenspring Associates, Illinois State Treasurer, and Barings shares perspectives from LPs on how they source, evaluate, and work with emerging fund managers an...

Venture Fund Portfolio Construction Tool

This interactive tool from Kauffman Fellows explores venture portfolio construction and the various trade off implications a GP must consider. It enables you to construct your own portfolio to underst...

Does Your VC have an Investment Thesis, or a Hypothesis?

VCs love to talk investment theses: on Twitter, Medium, Clubhouse, at conferences. And yet, when you take a closer look, theses are often meaningless and/or misleading....

How Emerging Investors Can Think About Their Value Proposition To Founders

Venture capital as an offering has long been defined in terms of capital and value-add. This leaves aside important nuances that need to be acknowledged. What exactly are the differences between inves...

Sharing Your Track Record as an Emerging VC

Track records are a key part of any LP’s due diligence process; and many times they are required for LPs to invest into your VC fund. How to share your track record with an LP can be learned, which ...

7 Truths Across Venture Investing Stages

People often talk about how different the pre-seed stage is from Series A and later stage investing. The focus of this post is the opposite: Highlighting things that are true across stages of investin...

Building the “YC for Fund Managers” and Tips for Launching a Firm

As the Emerging Manager world continues to grow, so does the importance of providing these managers with key education, resources, and community. Enter Oper8r, founded by Welly Sculley and Winter ...

The First Close Podcast: Nate Leung, Sapphire Partners

In this episode of The First Close podcast, we interview Nate Leung, Principal with Sapphire Partners, to shed light on the limited partners’ perspective on new venture funds....

Discovering the Next-Gen of Top Venture Investors

On this episode of the Venture Unlocked podcast, Samir Kaji chats with Apurva Mehta, Managing Partner at Summit Peak Investments....

How to use design thinking to raise your fund

We can re-think the LP dynamic from a different perspective– through the lens of design thinking. New funds have a challenging time launching for a few reasons: the institutional investment landscap...

Fundraising Hacks: What type of capital should you raise, and how do you meet investors?

Venture capital is just one of many options to finance your business, and it’s typically the most expensive. The broader question is: what type of capital should you raise, and from whom?...

LPA Terms for Emerging Fund Managers

Raising a venture capital fund is one of the hardest jobs a VC can do. Just like running for public office or enlisting in special forces, it takes an unusual amount of hard work. But even hard work w...

Framework: Not All LPs Invest In Emerging VCs For The Same Reasons

Here’s a test: Ask a handful of LPs why specifically they invest in emerging VCs. Try to get past “great returns” to understand what’s truly motivating them....

The Rise of Challenger VCs: What LPs Need to Know About This New Bet in Early Stage Venture

A guide for LPs to spot opportunities in revenue based financing, profit sharing and other emerging forms of early stage venture financing...

The VC Framework For Optimizing Success: The Kauffman Fellows Four Pillars

The venture capital industry is as asymmetrical an industry as any; the top 1% to 4% of venture investments usually get the outsized (10x+) returns.  However, this begs the question: is investing in...

Brand and AUM: How I think about “Brand” and its relation to fund size

Brand is arguably the only thing that resembles a moat in traditional venture capital. The venture capital flywheel archetype is pretty simple: pick and invest in great companies and founders, supp...

How LPs should really think about GP commits in Emerging Managers

Limited Partners (LPs) use various filters and metrics to assess how investable a venture fund is. One of the more heuristic measures is assessing the GP’s alignment with them through the percentage...

A Framework for Venture Capital Fund Law

Venture capital fund law is a complex system of rules, regulations, and exemptions. But once you get the principles down, it’s not that difficult to understand the law....

VCs: Your LP Is Your Customer – Spend Time Understanding What They Want!

We wrote previously about who invests in emerging VCs. Now we want to talk about why, drawing from insights VCs and LPs shared in our summer cohort....

Here’s how to start a venture fund if you’re not rich

For years — decades, even — there was little question about whether you could become a venture capitalist if you weren’t comfortable financially. You couldn’t. The people and institutions that...

How To Craft Your Elevator Pitch To LPs As An Emerging VC Fund

Fundraising from Limited Partners (LPs) is one of the biggest challenges for emerging venture fund managers to succeed. In my previous post on fundraising strategies, I have drawn from B2B marketin...

A mental model for evaluating VC funds

At the highest level, there are six dimensions of evaluation that I use as part of my framework for investing in venture managers:...

Pitch To LPs As An Emerging VC Fund Manager

Fundraising from Limited Partners (LPs) is one of the biggest challenges for emerging venture fund managers to succeed. In my previous post on fundraising strategies, I have drawn from B2B marketin...

Announcing the Black Venture Institute

Today, we are thrilled to announce our newest and largest program yet: the Black Venture Institute. We’ve been busy working on this initiative all summer with incredible partners that include Oper...

Carta’s definitive guide to the LPA

So, you’ve decided to launch a new venture capital fund. You’ve got an investment strategy, a management team, advisers, deal flow, and some first close investors lined up who love your ...

Analysis: The LPs That Invest In Emerging Micro-VCs

Even though it has been less than a month since we asked about who invests in emerging micro-VCs, we feel we have enough data to start making some observations. A note on methodology:...

Do Emerging Fund Managers Outperform More Established VCs?

Today we address our first question:  Do Emerging Fund Managers Outperform More Established VCs?  The bottom line is that YES, emerging fund managers have a slight edge compared to more establishe...

Virtual Annual Meetings are Here to Stay: Best Practices for Re-Imagining the AGM for our Remote World

Love them or hate them, virtual annual meetings (AGMs) are here to stay for now. Given this shift, and my observations from numerous virtual annual meetings I have attended in the last couple months, ...

The use of placement agents for Emerging fund managers

For emerging managers, the actual capital raise of a fund represents the most significant friction point for getting off the ground (and early on, scaling a firm). This issue has prevented many aspiri...

How Emerging Venture Capital Fund Managers Should Think About Their LP Fundraising Strategies

For many emerging VC managers, fundraising from LPs seems like an obscure procedure that is difficult to comprehend and hard to do right. I think it becomes much clearer if you look at fundraising as ...

How to raise your first VC fund

Having seen successful returns as a fund manager and an early-stage VC (as well as recently raising my own angel fund), I’ve formulated several best practices and strategies for investing in fund ma...

How to Raise a Venture Fund

While the “front” or entrepreneur-facing side of the venture industry has been demystified over the last 10 years, the back-end of the business, or how venture firms emerge and raise funds from li...

Understanding Portfolio Construction

One thing that emerging managers are often tasked with is building a fund model. LPs often ask for a fund model because it forces a manager to think through portfolio construction including fund size,...

Discussing Portfolio Construction with LPs: The Surface, the Math, the Execution

Portfolio Construction is one of the most complex and underestimated aspects in Venture Capital. It is complex for three reasons:...

Should You Raise A Fund? An LP’s View On Challenges And Alternatives

The last few years of this capital cycle have paved the way to an explosive growth of first-time funds in alternative assets including venture capital and crypto. As an LP, I had the chance to speak ...

Liquidity Tools for Emerging VC Managers

We deconstruct the opportunities to provide liquidity to micro VCs and emerging managers. Our analysis explores two questions......

The 4 P’s of Fundraising for Emerging Managers

Raising capital as a first-time venture capital manager (or “VC”) is always challenging – primarily due to a lack of track record and performance coupled with not knowing or having access to pro...

Know Your Edge As A VC, Part Three: Structural Edge

Limited Partners need to assess a GP’s competitive advantage when considering an investment in their venture fund. If you want to raise a fund you need to know your edge. This three-part series prov...

Notes from an interview: What do Big Society Capital look for in emerging managers?

Last week we held our 4th FutureWorldVC event - this time virtual. Diverse VC’s from around the world joined me as together we grilled Dougie Sloan, Investment Director at Big Society Capital, a lea...

Know Your Edge As A VC, Part Two: Analytical And Behavioral Edge

As a venture capital fund manager, you need to convince potential LPs about the attractiveness of a potential investment in your fund. Part of the LP’s due diligence is their evaluation of your edge...

GP and LP Alignment, Challenges for Emerging Fund Managers, and How the Explosion in Seed Fund Volume Plays Out

Jaclyn Hester of Foundry Group joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss GP and LP Alignment, Challenges for Emerging Fund Managers, and How the Explosion in Seed Fund Volume Play...

Know Your Edge As A VC, Part One: Informational Edge

The relationship between venture capitalists and founders is well discussed and understood. But another side is also critical in venture capital: the VC’s relationship with limited partners, or LPs�...

A New Platform For Emerging Managers

Previously, we examined the unmet needs of micro-VC and emerging managers, and the opportunities this may bring for an enterprising, emerging manager-focused LP....

Insights for Emerging Fund Managers

Raising your first venture capital fund is challenging. It can take an average of 17 months to close and over 100 meetings. Recognizing this, Level Ventures, in partnership with Signature Bank, Runway...

How investors approach fundraising from LPs

If you’re an emerging fund manager, finding the right limited partners (LPs) early on can be a challenge. Even with robust networks from past operating and investing experience, it can be tough to i...

Greg Bohlen on what does an LP look for in a venture capital fund manager

Greg Bohlen is a managing partner at Union Grove Venture Partner who has invested in top VC funds like Lightspeed, Founder Collective, Mayfield Fund, Battery Ventures and top startups like Poshmark, B...

10 Practices of Sustainable Diversity in VC Partnerships

The last several weeks have been eye-opening into the systemic racism that exists across our society. Unfortunately the recent events are not a new phenomenon — just more visible in a world of socia...

Fundraising Advice for Emerging GP’s Post-Coronavirus

In part two of this webinar series, we hosted a group of venture experts to discuss how emerging managers can navigate the COVID-19 crisis. The conversation was led by:...

Industry Ventures riding its bets on emerging managers and seeing them pay off

The firm's hybrid fund-of-funds makes primary investments in small emerging managers....

Starting A VC Fund: 7 Key Criteria To Consider

Starting a VC fund is no easy feat. Even when faced with favorable macroeconomic conditions, many of the typical sources of capital available for established VCs are essentially out of reach for first...

The VC Tech Stack: Tools for your investor soul

As everything these days seems to move online, it may be a good moment also for investors to sit back and re-evaluate the ways they run their businesses....

How much to charge for an SPV

Many VC managers use single-asset, special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to give their LPs access to direct investment opportunities in their portfolio companies. SPVs increase the manager’s fee-generatin...

Advice for Emerging Managers in the times of COVID-19

As one of the founders of Equity Summit, I reached out to 59 institutional LPs with a short survey regarding the fundraising climate for emerging managers. Here is what I found out....

Use of Capital call lines for Emerging Managers during economic downturns

The use of capital call lines by venture capital funds has seen a dramatic increase over the last few decades --- Today >50% of VC funds that qualify are using these lines....

Learnings from a failed attempt at raising a VC Fund

In my case, this lockdown has allowed me time to write about a failure I'd been meaning to share for a while. My career in venture capital started in 2012 with a short spell at Startup Leadership Prog...

A Better LP Model for Micro-VC and Emerging Managers

Raising capital from limited partners is hard. It’s harder if you are pitching a micro-VC strategy. But it becomes the hardest to raise during a global crisis like we are in today. But outside of th...

‘A perfect storm for first time managers,’ say VCs with their own shops

Until very recently, it had begun to seem like anyone with a thick enough checkbook and some key contacts in the startup world could not only fund companies as an angel investor but even put himself o...

FUNDRAISING FOR EMERGING GPS POST-CORONAVIRUS: ADVICE FROM SEASONED LPS

Led by Jim Marshall, Head of SVB’s Emerging Manager Practice, this workshop features an engaging conversation on how to navigate current and future fundraising conditions given the recent developme...

Emerging Manager Q&A mailbag

I’ve spent a considerable amount of my shelter in place time having discussions with some very smart people in the market about what this economic dislocation might mean for the emerging venture fun...

Micro VC fundraising and COVID-19

As we move into month three of the COVID-19 outbreak, the impact on the global economy has been unmistakable, and arguably the most significant since the US came out of the last recession. Conferences...

The Hard Questions Venture Capital GPs Need to Be Prepared For

As a GP, courting LPs can be a very ambiguous process. You might go in with the full range of optimism and skepticism. Regardless, if you haven’t done the inner work of evaluating yourself, your par...

Choosing a Venture Capital Fund Administrator

With MergeLane’s new fund and the growth of our portfolio, we’re improving our fund administration processes and considering a few different solutions. Through this process, I’ve realized that I...

“Portfolio Construction” w/ Beezer Clarkson, Alda Leu Dennis and Trae Vassallo

This is a special episode of Origins focused entirely on the concept of VC portfolio construction. We recorded this discussion as a panel with three guests that provide different perspectives on this ...

Limited partner due diligence on VC and private equity funds

As a VC, I have a standard due diligence list for companies I’m reviewing.  Similarly, our limited partner investors have their own due diligence standards, and we manage our firm to keep in lin...

What to look for in LPs

Selecting the right Limited Partners (LPs) for your fund is a critical component for a successful, long-lasting venture capital firm. This is the second of a two-part series that explores how to partn...

ANNE MARTIN – PULLING THE OARS AS CIO OF WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY (EP.114)

Anne Martin is the Chief Investment Officer for Wesleyan University, where she manages the school’s $1 billion endowment.  Anne’s career started in the tech world and shifted to endowment managem...

6 Lessons Learned 6 Years Into Co-Founding a VC Fund

In honor of 6 years of Work-Bench, here are 6 lessons learned from co-founding and scaling a VC fund:...

VC Funds 101: Understanding Venture Fund Structures, Team Compensation, Fund Metrics and Reporting

Managing a venture capital firm has many similarities to managing a startup. Just like startup founders, VC firms’ founders pitch investors and raise money continuously. Carry Pools are equivalent t...

BFP #OpenLP Series — How we assess fund investments: (2) MoIC & DPI

What are MoIC and DPI? Multiple on Invested Capital (MoIC) is calculated by dividing the fund’s cumulative realized and unrealized value by the total dollar amount of capital invested by the fund....

Emerging Manager ‘Must-Dos’: The Path to Your First Fund

Capital is a great amplifier. When great ideas meet the right people, the proper application of capital helps startups commercialize incredible products and services. The great news: there is an incre...

Fundraising tips – How to build a better data room

Because of our role in the venture ecosystem,  we often find emerging and established GPs asking us for best practices in putting together a data room. So, in the spirit of #OpenLP, this blog is our...

A data driven view on what Emerging Manager LPs are thinking today

Last week during the 4th annual emerging manager RAISE conference, my colleague Hana Yang gave a great presentation covering the results of a LP survey that was conducted to assess LP temperament h...

What Makes a Good Annual Meeting? An LP’s Point of View

Annual meetings are simple in concept but can be difficult to execute well. At Sapphire Partners, we are constantly asked what makes a good annual meeting, which makes sense given the typical GP atten...

Micro VC Allocation Models

We’re always curious to see how rounds come together when there is limited capacity for both new investors and existing investor pro-rata. For the most part, there is supposed to be one core investo...

Intimacy and Transparency: Part 1 on VC/LP relations

In the opening chapter of Adam Grant’s “Give and Take”, Grant reminds us about the opaque nature of the venture business just 2 decades ago at the turn of millennia. Since then, we’ve seen an ...

Communication Strategies with Existing LPs: Part 2 of VC/LP Relations

In this second part of Intimacy and transparency: VC/LP relations with Chris Douvos, we dive deep into the actual output LPs want to see from their GPs. Meaning quarterly emails, annual meetings, comm...

6 Common Pitfalls VCs Make With LPs: Part 3 of VC/LP Relations

In this last part of Intimacy and transparency: VC/LP relations with Chris Douvos, we dive deep into common pitfalls that VCs and their firms oftentimes fall into when engaging with LPs during the fun...

Do Institutional Limited Partners Back First time Venture Funds?

I recently posted this Twitter thread about the role institutional LP’s play within the emerging VC fund market (Side bar: I’m likely going to push more content through Twitter threads this year, ...

#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...

Five Questions for Vetting an Investment in a New or Emerging VC Fund

While most of the money that goes into VC funds comes from institutions that are highly experienced in the asset class, some family offices and high net worth individuals also invest in VC. They’re...

3 Things that Make a Great Limited Partner For A Venture Fund

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A data driven view of Emerging VC

Recently, we surveyed a group of US emerging manager venture firms to assess a variety of metrics including performance, fundraising experiences, and portfolio construction strategies....

Due Diligence the VCs: Part Two, The Founder Perspective

I started off my previous post with an acknowledgement of a few trends, including the institutionalization of pre-seed and the increase of early stage capital generally. Despite, or perhaps because of...

How I raised my $11.5m VC fund

A couple months ago, we announced that we finished fundraising for fund 1 of Hustle Fund. Hustle Fund is my new venture capital firm, and our fund 1 is an $11.5M fund dedicated to investing in pre-se...

Due Diligence the VCs: Part One, The Limited Partner Perspective

With the recent rise in the number of emerging mangers raising new funds, as well as the trend towards the institutionalization of pre-seed, I’ve been thinking more about frameworks through which to...

Going from a proof of concept fund to an “institutional” venture fund

Over the past several years, we’ve spent considerable time studying and writing about the rapidly evolving emerging manager venture landscape. As illustrated by the chart below (data courtesy of ...

BFP #OpenLP Series — How we assess fund investments: (4) PORTFOLIO CONSTRUCTION

Having in previous articles in this series looked at performance metrics, we will now turn to other important aspects of our due diligence process. How a VC fund manager plans to construct their fund�...

Micro-VCs: A worthwhile investment?

This article presents a top-down analysis of the Micro-VC space in the US and Europe, defined as venture capital funds under $100 million. The article seeks to answer the key question of whether Micro...

A New VC Crop of Series A Firms

Believe it or not, this will now be the second blog post on this site about a billion-dollar exit for a shaving-related startup. It was just about three years ago when the startup world learned that U...

BFP #OpenLP Series — How we assess fund investments: (3) IRR

IRR reflects the Internal Rate of Return, taking into consideration the capital returned and the time at which the capital flows. It is designed to take into account the time value of money, reflectin...

BFP #OpenLP Series — How we assess fund investments: (2) MoIC & DPI

Multiple on Invested Capital (MoIC) is calculated by dividing the fund’s cumulative realized and unrealized value by the total dollar amount of capital invested by the fund. Distribution to Paid-...

BFP #OpenLP Series — How we assess fund investments: (1) TVPI

Total-Value-to-Paid-In-capital (TVPI), or the investment multiple, is calculated by dividing the fund’s cumulative distributions plus its residual value by the amount of paid-in capital (as opposed ...

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...

Realistic Fundraising Targets For Emerging Venture Funds

of early stage venture and start-ups. The recent article I posted about the current fundraising environment focused primarily on the macro conditions driving limited partner appetite into emerging ...

Micro-VC, Strictly By The Numbers

In my last post, I described the icy fundraising market as it relates to emerging venture fund managers that are seeking capital for the first time. While I recognized that the post was particularly d...

How VCs Get Measured

VCs measure the performance of startups all day long. Many of the metrics that are used to evaluate companies are reasonably well understood and publicly known. But few people realize how VC funds ...

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...

How To Win In Micro VC

In the business of investing, ownership matters — a lot! At Accolade Partners, a private equity fund of funds, we believe that portfolio company ownership is a significant driver of returns in t...

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 ...

How To Transform A VC Fund Capital Base From Individuals To Institutional LPs

Lots of people have raised small VC funds. There are more startups, and there’s more LP capital from various sources to meet that demand. After the rise of institutional seed funds in the late 2000�...

What You Need To Think About Before Starting A Venture Firm

Along with the reasons I’ve previously discussed, this list and chart below clearly suggest that becoming a venture investor (or more specifically a seed stage VC) is easier than it’s ever been. Y...

Creative Strategies for Finding LP Investors for Your Venture Fund

When talking to first-time fund managers, Precursor Ventures’ Charles Hudson often shares this piece of advice: “If you’re new to fundraising, chances are you’ll run out of one of four thin...

What You Need To Know Before Raising A Micro-VC Fund Today

Although I’ve never raised a venture fund myself, I can claim having worked closely with managers on nearly 200 fund raises over the past 5+ years. These raises, coinciding with the incredible growt...

Practical Advice: VC Annual Meetings

Depending on the annual meeting, I both love them and dread them. First, let me just say that every venture capital firm should have an annual meeting. No matter what the size of the fund(s) or size...

Practical Advice: VC Annual Meetings

Depending on the annual meeting, I both love them and dread them. First, let me just say that every venture capital firm should have an annual meeting. No matter what the size of the fund(s) or size...

The 80/20 Rule In Venture

The Pareto principle states that when thinking of cause and effect, 80% of the effect is driven by 20% of the cause. In our industry, this can be translated to 80% of the returns are driven by 20% of ...

Emerging Managers: Minefields Or Diamond Mines?

Are emerging managers risky? Many investors in venture funds treat them as if they are not only risky but toxically so. And yet, we find that many of the best performing funds of all time have been �...

What Investors Want From Venture Capital Firms

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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 ...

Key Criteria For Creating A Successful First Time Fund

Managing Director and CEO of Top Tier Capital Partners, David York, wraps up the venture capital fundraising session at SuperReturn International 2016, outlining some of the key criteria for creating ...

(Some) LPs Speak Up

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Cheap Startup Costs For Tech Firms And Low Valuations Made Micro-VC Irresistible

We spoke to the best and brightest in private equity on the West Coast and beyond - Here's Judith Elsea of Weathergage Capital SuperInvestor US 2016 took place at the Four Seasons in San Francisco, 1-...

How To Market A Fund And Pique An Investor’s Interest

The latest batch of questions from readers has them asking about marketing a fund, as well as the nitty-gritty of 506(c) offerings, which came about as a result of the JOBS Act signed in April 2012. R...

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. ...

How To Raise An Institutional Seed Fund In Europe

Sapphire Ventures’ Fund Investments team backs emerging and established fund managers with deep expertise in enterprise and consumer technologies. As a member of this team I have the pleasure of mee...

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 ...