VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Case in point, below are recent examples of European emerging managers who are standing out (from an upcoming report by Dealroom ) For newish VC funds, being in “emerging manager mode” means operating differently from established venture capital firms. They often provide hands-on operational assistance beyond just capital.

Management 103

Management Technical Review Venture Capital Generative AI 103

View from Seed

OCTOBER 29, 2014

The nature of LP investors can vary widely, but the bulk of the capital in the VC ecosystem comes from large institutions like pension funds, endowments of universities and hospitals, charitable foundations, insurance companies, very wealthy families (aka family offices), and corporations. new buildings, etc). Advisory Firms.

LP 335

LP Private Equity Institutional Investors Venture Capital 335

Eric Friedman

DECEMBER 27, 2021

5/ The rise of operator angels + micro VCs explodes in 2021. This is already happening, but there will be an explosion of rolling funds, operator angels, and micro investors who want to co-invest in friends, companies, and cohorts they are a part of. This sort of happened. 6/ I don’t get the vaccine for COVID19 (but want too!).

Balance Sheet 97

Balance Sheet Stock Private Equity Option Pool 97

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

I walk through below how progressive investors are using technology and analytics throughout all of their operations. Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. 1) Manage the firm .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

VC Cafe

APRIL 29, 2020

Many of these businesses operate in the digital realm and have seen limited impact on revenues – some have even seen their revenues explode VC Backed Startups and PPP: Do You Really Need It? They can get sophisticated financial advice and can access the venture debt market (admittedly not right now but probably again in a couple of months).

Israel 124

Israel SBA Technical Review Startup 124

Agile VC

OCTOBER 29, 2014

The nature of LP investors can vary widely, but the bulk of the capital in the VC ecosystem comes from large institutions like pension funds, endowments of universities and hospitals, charitable foundations, insurance companies, very wealthy families (aka family offices), and corporations. new buildings, etc). Advisory Firms.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital LP Private Equity Institutional Investors 279

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

At first glance, you’d think that all LPs pretty much want to buy the same thing. Every fund pitching an LP is pitching this as a baseline. And yet, LP’s get to “yes” in a few cases and get to “no” in most cases. This tends to be how endowments and large foundations operate, for example. Some LPs are buying unique access.

LP 309

LP Customer Early Stage Portfolio 309

David Teten

JUNE 1, 2011

Zubin Avari, Charter Oak Equity LP Christopher A. Sellers may not be as sophisticated in terms of understanding how PE funds think and operate. Charter Oak Equity LP Fee at close Part of management fee Part of carry. Panel 3: Finding Hidden Gems – Four Proprietary Deal Flow Experts Discuss How They Advise Their Clients.

Private Equity 122

Private Equity Deal Flow Equity Developer 122

Haystack

JULY 20, 2018

Fred and his partners Albert, John, Andy, before Brad, now Rebecca have operated headquartered out of New York City, and have invested successfully near home (Esty, MongoDB, Kickstarter), in the Bay Area (Twitter, Coinbase) and in Europe (SoundCloud). On the ground, I am seeing more hybrid solutions.

San Francisco 116

San Francisco Silicon Valley Seattle Venture Capital 116

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

But as an LP you can’t count on that any more than VCs can. The goal of an LP is to get into the top decile. When it went to raise its fund 10 years ago the rumor was that many LPs were disappointed with recent returns and did not re-up. In 2000 our industry had more than $100 billion in LP money. hours / day.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

BeyondVC

JUNE 29, 2005

Every year the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst puts together a show where fund managers can listen to what the LP community is interested in and where they plan on allocating their dollars. In the early morning, a show of hands revealed about a 20% LP audience and 80% fund manager group.

LP 78

LP Private Equity Due Diligence Venture Capital 78

Hunter Walker

APRIL 27, 2014

Last week we held our first annual LP meeting, when venture funds get their investors together with updates on operations and results. I’ve written before about our fundraising process and how it very much resembles that of a startup.

LP 112

LP Cofounder Term Sheet Valuation 112

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

This person is an experienced CEO and a veteran of several startups, yet appreciating this nuance of how VC’s operate their business was relatively unfamiliar to him. If Acme Ventures III, LP invests in Startup X then typically Acme Ventures IV, LP would not. Why is this?

LP 178

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 178

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

I went to see several LP funds in Boston. I’m reminded of LegalZoom who was founded in LA but moved it’s headquarters to Glendale and much of its operations to Austin, Texas. So what can a community do? I often point out the story of when we raised our fourth fund a few years ago. It’s true.

Community 369

Community Silicon Valley Chicago Boston 369

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

According to a recent interview with Founding Partner Andrew Oved, Reformation invests in SaaS (vertical and application software) and consumer product businesses that have achieved $1M-$5M in annualized revenue, while operating capital efficiently. The fund’s network of mentors are all invested LPs, ensuring they have “skin in the game.”

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

YoungUpstarts

JULY 15, 2020

and founder and CEO of PHT Opportunity Fund LP. Throughout his career, he has bought, expanded, and sold 23 companies, operating in 44 countries. He also is chairman and CEO of Post Harvest Technologies, Inc. and Growers Ice Company, Inc., The post Afraid To Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone? Then You Can’t Lead In The Age Of COVID.

Harvest 251

Harvest LP Community Founder 251

BeyondVC

JUNE 29, 2005

Every year the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst puts together a show where fund managers can listen to what the LP community is interested in and where they plan on allocating their dollars. In the early morning, a show of hands revealed about a 20% LP audience and 80% fund manager group.

LP 60

LP Private Equity Due Diligence Venture Capital 60

Board Effect

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

Martin Schneider , Chief Audit Executive, META Matt Mabel , Vice President – Internal Audit, American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc Naohiro Mouri , Executive Vice President and Chief Auditor, AIG Global Operations Paul Lee , Sr Manager Internal Audit, Medline Industries, LP Rian Boncay , Program Project Manager, Dell Inc.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Government South Africa LLC 52

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

John Berger, Director Operations & Impact Solutions, Toniic , observed that this has clear investor benefits: “ The grace period became a feature because it benefits investors in regions like the US where there can be tax differences between short and long term gains. Payments are commonly delayed for a grace period of 12-36 months.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Hunter Walker

MARCH 24, 2025

MM: Each quarter I pick a (usually qualitative) research topic that I discuss with many of the brilliant investors, founders, and operators I meet with in the context of my investing role. A memorable piece of advice I received from my first LP was that: the ideal investor is a finance bro with a dash of Engelbart.

LP 75

LP San Francisco Silicon Valley Framework 75

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

This segment of the market is basically mirroring other segments of the venture ecosystem which has operated this way for some time. They are also increasingly focused on “leading” rounds, because funds that are institutionalizing get LP pressure around whether or not they lead. Repercussions for Investors. Repercussions for Founders.

Syndication 267

Syndication Syndicate Cofounder Cap Table 267

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2017

So it was a timely conversation at this year’s Upfront Summit because the week of the Summit, Sequoia had announced that it was transitioning leadership from Jim Goetz to Roelof Botha (and US operations to Alfred Lin). He did what every LP did, looked at returns, talked to portfolio companies, talked with our competitors and so forth.

Leadership 161

Leadership LP Venture Capital Silicon Valley 161

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. Totem is an operating system that makes investors smarter by helping them leverage their knowledge, relationships & insights.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

As a globally focused LP in early stage VC funds, we at Blue Future Partners have observed a growing trend of firms investing substantially in software tools, whether developing proprietary solutions or adopting off the shelf tools. But what tools are they using themselves to automate their own processes?

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Operations. We call these investors “LPs” for limited partners. I had lunch with an LP. I try to bucket my tasks into major categories and spend some time doing each of them. The same kind of tasks that a startup team has. Here’s my day today and how I bucketed it. My core duty.

Email 314

Email Product Term Sheet Portfolio 314

Haystack

JUNE 1, 2018

Perhaps because of this success and the unique elbow grease they supply to their portfolio, it was shocking to many to see that one of the storied seed franchises would contract, become its own sole LP, and scale back its operations. Yet for many, it didn’t come as a surprise.

LP 116

LP Global Social Media Portfolio 116

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Most of this discussion is about ‘playing offense’ — working towards being a good steward of LP capital and the risk/reward associated with VC. As former product managers Satya and I lean towards having frameworks for these sorts of decisions, for both consistency and speed in internal operations.

Venture Capital 151

Venture Capital Cap Table LP Equity 151

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

I talk to a lot of great women (particularly deeply seasoned operators) who disqualify themselves from pursuing venture because they think they don’t have the finance background for it. Ashley Mayer / Coalition Operators ] [Hunter: I sometimes ask founders to think of their cap table early on as a recipe where investors are ingredients.

Venture Capital 105

Venture Capital LP Cap Table Portfolio 105

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2016

I asked for the responsibility of setting out the firm’s future strategy and our daily operating tasks. I laid out the following goals: Hire investment partners with operating experience combined with investment experience and deeply committed to LA Tech, but with strong relationships in SF, NYC and beyond.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Early Stage LP Community 150

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 11, 2013

I was chatting with a friend last night about the lack of institutional investor (LP) interest in European venture capital as an asset class. We both believe that now is an attractive time to invest in European technology startups and started why we think so differently to most of the people we would like to invest in our funds.

Europe 143

Europe LP Institutional Investors Venture Capital 143

Hunter Walker

MAY 7, 2015

Last week Homebrew held its second annual LP meeting, coinciding with our second anniversary as a fund. 1) Gets All Three Sides of Our Triangle Together: It’s our chance to bring our LPs, advisors and founders together with us. 2) Makes Us Smarter: We learn from the questions and conversations with our LPs.

LP 48

LP Advisory Board Harvest Seed Stage 48

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

The first is that if chosen correctly they should provide operating experience that is relevant to your business that will be represented on your board. The second is that they are usually very experienced operators that can mentor the founding team. VCs most certainly do have skin in the game.

Warrant 187

Warrant LP Cofounder Founder 187

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

Deploying a $10M fund is wildly different from operating a $100M fund. And it’s often to the detriment of everyone involved, but especially to the detriment of founders and LPs. But if you become too LP-centric, you build a soulless asset manager that turns the best founders off. Others won’t.

Venture Capital 103

Venture Capital LP Cofounder Early Stage 103

Hunter Walker

APRIL 4, 2014

Part of our presentation will be portfolio financials, which, because we’re relatively new, aren’t exceptionally volatile (LP speak: most of our investments are still carried at original value since no additional fundraising has occurred). Not all will be in business five to 10 years from now.

San Francisco 119

San Francisco Private Equity LP Syndication 119

Professor VC

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I attended the annual LP meeting for a venture capital firm this week and got into a discussion about the above question. The business environment is much more complex today, and the hopeful entrepreneur need to understand more of the environment in which they will operate. ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley.

San Jose 43

San Jose Silicon Valley Las Vegas Venture Capital 43

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 18, 2011

” But even among large partnerships there is a gradation, where some firms operate as a conglomerate of Lone Rangers and some are more collaborative in nature. If you’re invited to present at the annual LP meeting (which is a good signal), spend time schmoozing with the growth equity team or the clean-tech side of the house.

Valuation 154

Valuation LP Boston Partner 154

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 17, 2018

Having run our own companies, we try to pass on as much of our operations knowledge as possible. And last but not least, we thank our investors, the LPs. Lastly, we will continue our goal to be the most value-add investor for our portfolio founders as they push to create category-leading companies. Acknowledgements and gratitude.

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley North America San Francisco LP 126