How Accurate are “Zombie” Valuations?

For LPs considering selling ten-year-old+ funds on the secondary market, the question is: Are GPs clinging to overstated zombie valuations and thus postponing eventual write-downs, or should LPs expec...

Carta Annual Equity Report 2022

Each year, Carta uses its platform with more than 30,000 cap tables to produce this report on the distribution of equity ownership by race, gender, geography and ethnicity. This year's report aims to ...

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...

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 ...

The #OpenLP Podcast Miniseries: Beezer Clarkson, Sapphire Partners

Notation Capital’s Nick Chirls hosts Sapphire Partners’ Beezer Clarkson on the #OpenLP podcast miniseries for a deep-dive on the current state of the LP and VC market, given recent dislocations....

LP Spotlight: Laura Thompson on How Emerging VC Managers Can Stand Out

PitchBook features Sapphire Partners' Laura Thompson in its latest LP Spotlight. Laura discusses the current fundraising environment, how emerging managers can grab LPs' attention and why there is no ...

Seed to Harvest Podcast Featuring Beezer Clarkson

Paige Finn Doherty, Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures, invited Sapphire's Beezer Clarkson on the latest episode of her Seed to Harvest Podcast to share the LP perspective and advice around fu...

State of the LP Market: Q&A with Beezer Clarkson

Shomik Ghosh sits with Beezer Clarkson for a Q&A on the state of the LP market: What GPs should know, portfolio allocation, investment strategy and tips for managing the GP/LP relationship....

Taking the Pulse of the LP Community

Raise Global polled 200+ LPs for their take on the state of venture capital today, preferences and observations. Two key themes emerged....

The Only Bad Bubble is the One You Don’t Learn From

Biz Carson recaps her conversation on Protocol’s Pipeline with Sapphire Partners’ Beezer Clarkson, Redpoint’s Geoff Yang and Menlo Ventures’ Matt Murphy, who shared insights on how this downtu...

AMA Takeaways: What the LPs Want You To Know About the Market Downturn

Sapphire Partners' Beezer Clarkson and Packard Foundation's Stephen Bluestein share their perspectives on best practices for fund managers in recessionary periods and insights on how LPs are thinking ...

The Rocky Road Ahead for Startups

From The Indicator by NPR's Planet Money, Wailin Wong invites Beezer on the podcast to explore how the venture ecosystem has been impacted by the down market. Take a listen for perspectives from the f...

The #OpenLP Podcast Miniseries: Jaclyn Hester of Foundry Group

On the latest episode of the #OpenLP podcast miniseries, Sapphire Partners’ Laura Thompson chats with Jaclyn Hester, Partner at Foundry Group, about how LPs pick funds, what good performance looks l...

Family Offices: Leveraging SPV’s as Alternative Asset Allocations Grow

2021 was a breakout year for Family Office usage of SPVs, and "SPVs are a rapidly emerging component of the family office toolkit," finds a new study from Assure Analytics....

VC distributions are down 90% in Q1, says Industry Ventures, an LP in 450 funds

Deal terms are shifting and LP distributions are down as GPs wait out the market. So says Hans Swildens of Industry Ventures (LP investor in 450 funds). See what else this LP investor has to say about...

“Who Are Your LPs?”

Disclosing who your LPs are is a *very* delicate dance. But as the venture industry, by and large, moves towards greater transparency, the question is increasingly coming to the fore. Here's what LP i...

An LP’s Perspective on the Venture “Slowdown”

Are venture funds starting to pump the brakes on fundraising activity? LP Beezer Clarkson shares her thoughts on what she's seeing in the market nowadays....

An LP Take on VC Portfolio Construction

Is it better to index venture as broadly as possible in the hopes of unearthing winning outliers? Or to concentrate resources on a smaller number of investments, so as to maximize returns on winners? ...

How LPs are Thinking Through Market Turbulence Right Now

The market is topsy turvy. What conversations are taking place among LP investment committees as a result? Lindel Eakman of Foundry Group sheds some light....

LP Guy Perelmuter of Grids Capital on Venture Unlocked

LP investor Guy Perelmuter chats with Samir Kaji on investment risk mitigation strategies, how new venture investors can capture upside in today’s market, the case for bear AND bull markets, and mu...

2021 Fundraising Trends – The LP Perspective

Where did LPs invest their money in 2021? And what does it mean for venture in 2022? Time to dig into the data! The LP perspective courtesy of Beezer Clarkson....

The LP’s Perspective from Ahoy Capital

This episode is a gem. From crypto, to what makes a great fund manager, to today's "anti-fragile companies"... Venture veteran Chris Douvos shares his LP perspective on the current market moment with ...

The LP Perspective Entering 2022

What questions are venture LPs asking as we enter 2022? Beezer Clarkson provides an insightful Tweet thread on investment pacing, "LP indigestion," the IPO market and more......

Too Much, Too Fast: LPs Fear Fundraising Pace is Unsustainable

How much is too much? LPs fear today's "fundraising pace is unsustainable, and wonder whether they can stay in lock step with their fund managers." Venture Capital Journal dives in....

The Rise of Growth-stage Investing in Europe

Over the past few years, the European venture market has truly hit its stride. Here Sapphire Partners' Laura Thompson shares her LP perspective on European growth-stage investing at this year's Web Su...

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....

Star Endowment Manager’s Next Act at Rockefeller University

Paula Volent, recently named CIO of Rockefeller's $2.5B endowment, takes the hot seat on the Capital Allocators podcast. Learn how she grew Bowdoin’s endowment from $450M to $2B and generated return...

LP Roundtable on the #VentureUnlocked Podcast

The very first LP Roundtable on the #VentureUnlocked podcast is a *must listen* episode. Featuring Chris Douvos (Ahoy Capital), Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners), and Guy Perelmuter (GRIDS Capital) ...

The #OpenLP Podcast Miniseries: Kim Lew, CEO of Columbia University’s Endowment

Episode two of our #OpenLP podcast miniseries just dropped… And it’s an exciting one! Sapphire Partners' Nate Leung chats with Kim Lew, CEO of Columbia University’s endowment. Topics touched on ...

Track Records: How LPs Think About Them and Do They Matter?

Craig Thomas asks a provocative question: Are track records in venture meaningless?...

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."...

Scott Malpass – Building a Great Endowment

We know VC is playing a bigger role in endowment investing. But did you know Notre Dame's venture portfolio (through funds) once helped fund ~35% of NASDAQ-listed companies...

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...

Let’s Talk LP Diversity

LP diversity has been a popular topic of conversation lately, but substantive analysis has been hamstrung by the lack of data. Sapphire's Beezer Clarkson finally sheds some light on the true outlines ...

50 Behind-the-Scenes Investors in the Venture Capital World that Control Billions of Dollars

"The Real Power Brokers of Silicon Valley." Don't miss this list of the top 50 university endowment LPs that invest in venture....

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....

Investment Committees 101

How do investment committees function in the LP ecosystem? Investment offices may *make* the investments, but they are beholden to ICs on risk levels, asset allocation, etc... Excellent peek behind th...

‘How I Raised It’ Podcast With Michael Kim of Cendana Capital

Fund-of-funds LP Michael Kim of Cendana Capital speaks on what he's looking for when meeting a new VC, the evolution of seed investing, tips for raising an inaugural fund, the process for raising capi...

Charmel Maynard from the University of Miami on ‘The First Close’ Podcast

University of Miami CIO and Treasurer, Charmel Maynard, shares his LP perspective in what host Jessica Straus calls, "a new record for insights per minute on the podcast, a must-listen for emerging VC...

LPs Make Most of the Money From VC Funds. So Who Are They?

So much of public discussion about VC fixates on relationships between VCs and entrepreneurs. What gets left out: the quiet chats between GPs and LPs. Fantastic article on the push among VCs to name ...

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 ...

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....

New Study: How Family Offices are Investing into VC

Family offices tend to be the most opaque genre of LPs in the venture investing landscape. So what does family office involvement in venture actually look like? Here's a snapshot, thanks to a new stud...

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....

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...

Learnings From the Family Office Perspective

In this fantastic Twitter thread from Magdalena Kala, she shares the family office perspective on pre-fundraising, GP commit, LP decision-making, and post-close must-do's....

Venture Unlocked: The Family Office as an LP

Limited partners come in a few different varieties, one of the largest, but also most opaque groups is that of the Family Offices. On this episode of the Venture Unlocked podcast, Jamie Rhode, CFA, Vi...

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...

Dimple Sahni on the future of public and private board diversity, a global landscape perspective

On this episode of the She-VC podcast: The LP perspective on the current state of global investing and board diversity from Dimple Sahni, Managing Director of Impact Funds Portfolios at Anthos Fund an...

Ted Seides on The LP Perspectiv‪e‬

In this episode of The Pomp Podcast, Ted Seides discusses the Yale Investment Office, Dave Swenson, asset allocation, rebalancing, asymmetry, ESG, Diversity and Inclusion, comfort being different, and...

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....

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

A new podcast by Greenspring Associates about Limited Partners who think differently about allocating to venture....

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 VC “Strips off” – Silicon Roundabout Ventures VC Fund Deck Reviewed Live by Draper Esprit LP

After decades of secrecy and obscurity, the VC world is finally starting to open up (if only a tiny bit). Some funds, for example, decided for the first time to release a copy of the VC fund deck t...

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:...

Limited Partner series on Covid-19

The ‘Limited Partner series on Covid-19’ explores the effects of Covid-19 on the Venture Investment space from the perspective of LP investors....

Lisa Edgar, Top Tier Capital Partners

Lisa Edgar is a Managing Director and member of the Investment Committee at Top Tier Capital Partners. She focuses on manager selection, due diligence and investment monitoring of Top Tier’s primary...

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:...

Origins: Lisa Edgar, Top Tier Capital Partners

Lisa Edgar is a Managing Director and member of the Investment Committee at Top Tier Capital Partners. She focuses on manager selection, due diligence and investment monitoring of Top Tier’s primary...

Venture Capital’s Access Myth

A myth at its core is a story to explain something complex. Over time, the story is broadly disseminated such that popular consciousness can, at times, accept it as true at face value. At Greenspring ...

The Unspoken Rules of Limited Partner Investing

A limited partner (LP) invests money into a fund with the hope of great financial returns, but with no day-to-day involvement or control over that fund....

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...

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...

20VC: How Fundraising for Funds Has Changed in the World of Covid, the Benefits of Managers Selling Part of Their Gp & How to Think Through Your “minimum Viable Fund Size” With Lo Toney, Founding Managing Partner @ Plexo Capital

Lo Toney is the Founding Managing Partner @ Plexo Capital, a very unique firm making both direct investments and fund investments. They have invested in Precursor, Boldstart, Female Founders Fund an...

WhatsApp, Backstage, Revolut & Olivia

On this week's episode, Pete and Eoin dive into payments on WhatsApp, the paradox between investing in underrepresented founders and the current demographics of venture capital, and getting digitally ...

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...

What are Limited Partners thinking about the venture capital sector?

To understand the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the venture capital sector, we recently conducted a survey of limited partners to gauge their sentiment on venture fund investing, plans for 2020 ...

Origins Podcast: Hunter Somerville, Greenspring Associates

Hunter Somerville is a General Partner at Greenspring Associates and is responsible for the sourcing and due diligence efforts on fund, direct and secondary opportunities. He's also actively involved ...

Cendana Capital’s Michael Kim on investing in Seed funds, would Facebook buy Robinhood & more

Cendana Capital's Michael Kim on investing in Seed funds as a serial LP....

Lo Toney has some ideas about how to (really) bring VC into the 21st century

Last week, we suggested that for a truly diverse venture industry, the limited partners who provide investing capital to VCs — institutions like universities and hospital systems — need to start ...

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...

Origins Podcast: Atul Rustgi, Accolade Partners

Atul Rustgi is a Partner at Accolade, working across both early-stage venture and late-stage growth equity strategies. Prior to joining Accolade in 2007, Atul worked at McKinsey & Co. and the Robi...

Crisis Coverage w/ Beezer Clarkson – Platform LP; Allocations in a Down-Market; COVID Strategy Drift; and Emerging Manager Selection

Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Ventures joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss Platform LP; Allocations in a Down-Market; COVID Strategy Drift; and Emerging Manager Selection. In ...

Feeling Stretched by COVID-19? Outsourcing and Delegating with Foundry Group’s Seth Levine

Seth Levine has been a MergeLane investor and advisor since the very beginning. I invited Seth to join the show because we’ve had some nice conversations about the challenge we each have in managing...

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...

Steve Nelson – Assisting Private Equity Allocators Through Turbulent Times at ILPA

Steve Nelson is CEO of the Institutional Limited Partners Association or ILPA, a non-profit that engages, empowers and connects limited partners (LPs) to maximize their performance. It has over 500 me...

A VC Backer Tells It Like It Is

Chris Douvos runs a fund of funds called Ahoy Capital that manages assets on behalf of numerous nonprofit institutions, endowments and foundations throughout the U.S.  Douvos has been at it for nearl...

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!...

#OpenLP: Winter Mead and David Booth

Winter Mead, an LP formerly of Sapphire Partners, and David Booth, co-founder and CEO of OnDeck, join Erik on this episode. They discuss: Assessing fund managers from an LP perspective, and wh...

#OpenLP: Beezer Clarkson and Aydin Senkut

Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Ventures and Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures join Erik on this episode. They discuss: - Their perspectives on the operator-angel and nano-fund trends. - How to think ab...

Good entrepreneurs choose their VCs

Managers (“VCs”) know from experience that getting into a ‘hot’ deal can be a tough challenge. And that it is not enough to source the deal, go through the necessary due diligence and have an ...

CHARLEY ELLIS ON THE YALE MODEL

As former member of the Investment Committee at Yale, Charley Ellis shared what distinguishes the school’s model of investing....

BEEZER CLARKSON – SAPPHIRE GEM OF EARLY STAGE VENTURE (EP.120)

Beezer Clarkson is Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures where she is responsible for the management of Sapphire’s fund investments in early stage venture funds globally.  Her career through direc...

Venture Capital’s Access Myth

A myth at its core is a story to explain something complex. Over time, the story is broadly disseminated such that popular consciousness can, at times, accept it as true at face value. At Greenspring ...

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...

NEAL TRIPLETT AND KIM LEW – ISSUES OF MANAGEMENT AT DUKE AND CARNEGIE (EP.116)

Neal Triplett is the CIO of DUMAC, the organization that oversees Duke University’s $19 billion endowment, and Kim Lew is the CIO of the Carnegie Corporation, where she manages the $3.5 billion foun...

Origins podcast with Lo Toney, Plexo Capital

Lo Toney is the founding managing partner of Plexo Capital, a new $42.5 million fund incubated inside of GV focused on making investments in seed-stage VC firms led by women or people of color. In add...

Perspectives on Carried Interest

While it has been a discussion topic for some 20-odd years, carried interest taxation entered the public consciousness more noisily in 2016, when presidential candidates from both sides of the aisle e...

Chris Douvos: Ahoy Capital’s Founder is One-of-a-Kind

Chris Douvos has a rare job.  There are very few venture capitalists in the world.  There’s an even more scarce job, however:  Several ‘fund-of-funds” exist that provide capital to venture...

Origins Podcast with Paul Mace, Tufts University

Paul Mace is the Director of Investments for Private Equity and Real Estate in the Tufts University Investment Office. He is responsible for evaluating private market managers and their investment str...

Leaders Live: Lo Toney, Founding Partner at Plexo Capital

Lo talks about his mentors Shellye Archambeau & Ken Coleman (Mentor to Ben Horowitz) & starting Plexo Capital, a venture fund formed inside GV (formerly Google Ventures). The fund is based on...

20VC: INSIDE THE MIND OF A LEADING LP: HOW LPS EVALUATE NEW FUND MANAGERS ON EVERYTHING FROM FIRST MEETING TO PORTFOLIO CONSTRUCTION TO FEES AND CARRY WITH LISA EDGAR, MANAGING DIRECTOR @ TOP TIER CAPITAL PARTNERS

Lisa Edgar is a Managing Director @ Top Tier Capital Partners, one of the leading venture fund of funds over the last decade. Included in their stellar fund portfolio is the likes of Index, Initiali...

The LP Perspective and the #OpenLP Reboot with Beezer Clarkson

Beezer Clarkson invests in early-stage venture funds primarily in the US, Europe and Israel as the managing director at Sapphire Partners (the division within Sapphire Ventures that invests in ventur...

If Your VC Fund Makes You a Pirate, Should You Abandon Ship?

As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have had many moments of feeling like I am pushing water uphill with a rake. Sometimes, I have kept pushing and have succeeded out of sheer grit. Sometimes, ...

Launching Through the Looking Glass: Underrepresented Limited Partner Views

We could not be more excited to announce a new content series focused on amplifying underrepresented Limited Partner voices....

The Family Office perspective on venture fund allocations

Understanding the family office perspective on venture fund investing Having covered the emerging venture landscape for nearly a decade now (stay tuned for our updated Micro-VC database, which we wil...

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...

Episode #10: Lessons from 300+ Venture Capital Fund Pitches

For the final episode of the first season of the Fund81 podcast, I interviewed Jaclyn Freeman Hester from Foundry Group. As someone relatively new to the industry, she has a fresh perspective o...

Generalized Mining: the LPs perspective

Generalized Mining (or ‘mining 2.0’) has emerged as a catchall term that describes the practice of actively participating in one way or another in cryptonetworks in order to generate returns......

tryb Fintech and Limited Partner Survey 2018

tryb conducted a survey in late October 2018 to obtain views from fintech companies and limited partners (LPs)[1] on a wide range of topics, including market conditions, the fundraising environment an...

The LP Perspective: Alex Bangash

Alex Bangash (@AlexBangash), founder of Trusted Insight, joins Erik as part of our LP series. They talk about: - The myth, according to Alex, that there are such things as “good pickers” in ventu...

The LP Perspective: Michael Kim

Michael Kim (@MKRocks), founder and managing partner of Cendana Capital, joins Erik on this episode to talk about what LPs look for in venture funds and the future of the industry. They discuss......

The LP Perspective: Beezer Clarkson and Chris Douvos

Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) talks to Beezer Clarkson (@Beezer232), managing director at Sapphire Ventures, and Chris Douvos (@cdouvos), founder of Ahoy Capital about: The state of the venture ind...

Episode #13: Mental Health in Venture Capital with Brad Feld

In this Fund81 podcast episode, I invited Brad Feld, founding partner of Foundry Group, to share his thoughts on maintaining mental health in the fast-paced venture capital world and supporting por...

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...

Motivation

My junior year at Notre Dame, I applied to take a finance elective called Applied Investment Management. This elective was always oversubscribed, and comprised the top finance students in their final ...

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...

The Future of Investing from an LP’s Perspective

In this episode, we hosted a panel on the future of investing from a LP. perspective. The panel was hosted by the amazing Female Founders Fund at an event in san Francisco on Monday, March 11th. ...

Origins – Episode 42 – Notation hosts David Fauchier, Cambrial Capital

David Fauchier is the co-founder of Cambrial Capital, an investment firm based in London deploying a thesis-driven fund of funds strategy focused on the digital assets space......

#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...

Venture Capital’s Access Myth

A myth at its core is a story to explain something complex. Over time, the story is broadly disseminated such that popular consciousness can, at times, accept it as true at face value. At Greenspring ...

Origins Podcast: David Fauchier, Cambrial Capital

David Fauchier is the co-founder of Cambrial Capital, an investment firm based in London deploying a thesis-driven fund of funds strategy focused on the digital assets space. David has previous experi...

A Churning LP Landscape

As a venture investor, we often bemoan churn in our SaaS companies but we’re also seeing churn in our LP base too. Increasing staff turnover in the LP world has been a trend for several years and it...

Origins Podcast: Lindsay Larsen, UVIMCO

Origins is a podcast about Limited Partners, the firms and institutions that invest in venture capital funds. Through a series of interviews, we explore what has historically been an opaque corner of ...

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

...

20VC: The Framework LPs Use To Assess Emerging Managers & The Current State of Seed Today

20VC: The Framework LPs Use To Assess Emerging Managers, What Concerns and Excites LPs in Potential Opportunities & The Current State of Seed Today with Hunter Somerville, Partner @ Greenspring As...

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

Learn more about 500 Startups...

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...

The LP Anti-Portfolio

The idea of an “anti-portfolio” reflects some of the great investments where you had the opportunity to participate but missed for one reason or another. There are many excuses, as you’ll see be...

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...

Origins Podcast – Launching Season 4 with Ryan Nece of Next Play Capital

Two years ago, we launched an experiment called the Origins Podcast, a series of interviews focused on the Limited Partner ecosystem. We did this for a few different reasons — (1) We wanted to f...

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...

An Unintended Consequence Of Capital Efficient Companies

I recently read an analysis that brought together several important industry trends. On the one hand, there’s nothing in it that the public didn’t already “know”. On the other, the analysis pr...

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...

Ability, Sensibility, Repeatability, And Authenticity

I originally wrote this meditation on fund evaluation for my quarterly letter to investors, but thought I’d share it more broadly because people frequently ask me about my selection criteria. Hope ...

Pre-Seed Investing: Venture Capital’s Draft Day

The evolution of early stage VC ecosystem has led to the proliferation of many new venture funds started by former angels, operators, and existing VCs. According to Pitchbook, since 2014, there have ...

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...

Making the System Work For Everyone

When I was young, my dad used to tell me that there was a proverb in Greek that went something along the lines of: “there is a special shame in taking the last morsel of food.” The lesson was an a...

Origins S2-E10: Aaron Gershenberg — SVB Capital

On this final episode of season two of Origins, we sit down with Aaron Gershenberg, a founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s fund of funds and direct investment group, SVB Capital. Aaron joined SVB in 199...

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:...

Guest Series On StrictlyVC: Q&A With Limited Partners In VC

As longtime readers may recall, for the past few summers (2014, 2015, and 2016) when Connie Loizos from StrictlyVC takes off for a few weeks in the summer to meander around coastal Maine with her kids...

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...

Parsing The Maddening Venture Capital Market

In my previous two posts, I took a look at venture-backed value creation across enterprise and consumer investments since 1995, highlighting that enterprise has traditionally been more attractive as a...

Over-Done Diligence

The best laugh I’ve ever had in a meeting came courtesy of my buddy Gordon Ritter. For those who don’t know Gordon, he’s got this awesome and disarming zany earnestness that would probably make ...

The Importance Of Storytelling, VC EQ And The Importance Of The LP-GP Dating Game

Trey Hart, SVP of 50 South Capital at Northern Trust, joins Nick for a deep dive on the relationship between LPs and GPs. In Part 1, we will address questions including:...

My Fund Is Old Enough To Drive…

After talking to CEOs, LPs and consultants during several recent annual meetings, it has become clear that liquidity is the hot topic. CEOs who have been running companies over 5+ years said more than...

What Do LP’s Think About Micro-VC?

A little over a year ago, we participated in the inaugural RAISE summit, an event conceived by Akkadian Ventures, Top Tier Capital, Weathergage Capital, and Core Ventures Group and primarily developed...

Origins S2-E8: Winter Mead — Sapphire Ventures

Winter Mead is a Vice President at Sapphire Ventures, where he focuses on Sapphire’s fund investments in the United States and internationally. Before joining Sapphire Ventures in 2014, he worked at...

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....

The (Not So) Limited Partner

First, let’s get something straight. General Partners of venture capital funds are responsible for setting strategy, making investment decisions, running their firms, and all other decisions that co...

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...

Origins S2-E6: Graham Pingree — Cendana Capital

Graham Pingree joined Cendana Capital in 2014 to return to his roots as a Limited Partner. Combining his past few years in an operating role with his time at Horsely Bridge and Cambridge Associates, h...

Origins S2-E4: Lindel Eakman — Managing Director, Foundry Group Next

For those that know the Limited Partner community well, Lindel hardly needs an introduction. He spent thirteen years running the private investments group at the University of Texas (UTIMCO), so he’...

For The Moment Mellow …

Since I too often bellyache on these pages, I thought I’d share something I wrote for a quarterly letter at the end of last year. Ironically, the poem I reference is called Temporary Well Being. Co...

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....

Origins S2-E2: Thomas Lenehan — Rockefeller University

We’re really excited to announce a new episode of Origins with Thomas Lenehan, the deputy chief investment officer at Rockefeller University, helping to manage all aspects of the $2 billion endowmen...

Origins S2-E1: Brad Feld — Managing Director, Foundry Group

Welcome to season 2 of Origins! In this season, our goal is to continue to peel back the curtain on the venture capital LP community, a historically opaque corner of the startup ecosystem. The hope is...

Twenty Minute VC Podcast: What LPs Look For In GPs

Beezer Clarkson is Managing Director @ Sapphire Ventures where she leads Sapphire’s investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Prior to joining Sapphire, Beezer managed day-to...

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...

FeldThoughts: Content from LPS

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Why Mum’s the Word in the LP World

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Origins: A Podcast About Limited Partners – Ep. 6

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Origins: A Podcast About Limited Partners – Episode 5

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Be Local

There have been some recent posts and tweets from Fred Wilson, Bill Gurley and others about the first, second and third tier cities for start-ups. While we agree that Silicon Valley is clearly the fi...

Twenty Minute VC Podcast: What LPs Want In VCs

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What Investors Want From Venture Capital Firms

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Origins: A Podcast About Limited Partners – Episode 2

Today we’re releasing episode #2 of Origins: A Podcast about Limited Partners. We’re thrilled with the reaction to episode #1, particularly given the historical dearth of LP content and other reso...

Deliberate Speed

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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...

Don’t Look Now … Your Assets Just Walked Out The Door

This is a follow-up on the post we made earlier this week that discusses the difficulty in analyzing past performance of VC funds because of team changes. In that post we said, “[Evaluating] Perfor...

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....

An Open Letter To Founders

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The Circle Of Life And The Exit Sphincter

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Why Billion-Dollar Startups Still Charm Us Today

With all this talk of unicorns in venture capital, it’s easy to assume that every venture firm’s portfolio is shimmering with billion-dollar companies. But just because they’re breeding like rab...

The LP POV: Perspectives On VC From The Hand That Rocks The Cradle

Katherine Barr, General Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures Fred Giuffrida, Managing Director, Horsley Bridge Partners Joanna Rupp, Managing Director, University of Chicago - Office of Investments Jeff ...