View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

They are also increasingly focused on “leading” rounds, because funds that are institutionalizing get LP pressure around whether or not they lead. More and more, I hear seed investors claim that they are increasingly religious about hitting their ownership target in the majority of rounds they are a part of.

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

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). First fund is like a seed round – it’s based on pitch and reputation.

San Francisco 115

San Francisco Private Equity LP Syndicate 115

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. If you have a reputation for cutting corners, not treating employees or partners right, it will become very difficult to do business. ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley. Thursday, November 19, 2009.

San Jose 43

San Jose Silicon Valley Las Vegas Venture Capital 43

Genuine VC

OCTOBER 11, 2011

I hypothesized that, “Perhaps a contrarian statement in this environment: but even though there’s been a dip in fund size due to broad economic factors and LP appetite, it wouldn’t surprise me if the truly top firms raise even larger funds over the coming decade.”

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Seed Stage Entrepreneur LP 150

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

if you have a clear investment framework and partner with founders consistent with that thesis you can quickly build a reputation. Having a strong POV also helps with finding… LP/GP fit. You just have to find LP/GP fit, or the folks who are in the market for your particular POV.

Venture Capital 102

Venture Capital LP Cap Table Portfolio 102

David Teten

MARCH 2, 2013

He surmises that LPs aren’t buying the argument that large funds don’t perform. Beyond the fact that LP capital commitments don’t prove anything about returns, however, large funds are likely much more resilient to a few bad years than small funds are. But why would any LP ever drop out of such a fund?

LP 114

LP Securities and Exchange Commission Silicon Valley Venture Capital 114

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

If you vent to another founder, you either hurt your own reputation or the mentee’s reputation. He’s an LP in several Techstars funds and a direct investor in a selection of Techstars companies. It might be something you say to an investor; which means you’ve now affected the company’s ability to raise capital.

Boston 95

Boston LP Reputation Stock 95

Hunter Walker

APRIL 24, 2017

Four years into Homebrew , we’re fortunate to feel really good about our relationships and reputations — you live and die by those in our business. Coming out of our 4th Annual LP Meeting last week, we’re thinking in particular about #2 and how to implement some new ideas there.

Cap Table 80

Cap Table LP Seed Stage Vertical 80

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

By being in a pool of other fund investors, the LP meetings and co-investment calls could be an opportunity to connect with other like-minded or like-situationed investors—but again, it depends on how a fund organizes its community. b) Reputation for adding value. Access to other investors. So is everyone else.

Portfolio 103

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 103

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Early employees are paid a salary from day 1, don't have to have the reputation/connections to raise money, take on much less risk, and often have much more information about the company (team so far, financials, product traction/progress) when they decide to join than the founders do when they found the company. The investors are VCs.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

Growthink Blog

AUGUST 14, 2010

Main Street Investor, are NOT getting a piece of the next big IPO: The 2 best known venture capital funds –Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins - because of their reputations and massive bankrolls – will continue to get the lion’s share of the deals with rockstar IPO potential. Here's why: You, Mr. or Ms.

Private Equity 67

Private Equity Intellectual Property IPO Venture Capital 67

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 10, 2016

Many founders realize the hard way that reputations of many "top" VCs are little more than smoke and mirrors. I'm very conscious of not demanding too much time from my founders with LP references, so I've asked a few of them at a time to join a group call. There is a downside, however.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Limited Partner LP Reputation 60

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

One response from the LP community might be to demand commitments from new funds that prohibit inside-led rounds and cross-fund investing. They use the reputation of the other investors as a proxy for due diligence. They didn’t call you before when they built their reputation. First, these investors are “pot committed.”

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

David Teten

JULY 12, 2017

GPs strategically invite trusted [Limited Partners and others] to co-invest, often based on the LP’s ability to add value or when the amount of capital required to complete an attractive transaction is larger than they are able to invest alone.”. Private Equity Coinvestment: Best Practices Emerging (PWC).

Syndicate 60

Syndicate Syndication Institutional Investors LP 60

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 19, 2016

All three of these are far from easy, but it is raising capital which is the hardest, particularly here in Europe where the venture industry is only just losing the awful reputation it gained during the 1999-2000 bubble. That said, even once they have money most investors pick bad companies.

Europe 60

Europe IPO LP Venture Capital 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

If you join a fund, you’ll invest your financial capital, but far more importantly, your reputational capital. So I would start by sharing with the fund an institutional LP due diligence checklist , and ask them to share their data room with you. These are many of the steps I went through when I joined HOF Capital.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Partner 60

K9 Ventures

NOVEMBER 30, 2008

Now that’s nothing to snicker over, especially considering that well-reputed and established firms could often have multiple overlapping funds. The LP perspective. Institutional LPs typically diversify their portfolios by investing in multiple asset classes. These partnerships last for a long time and are hard to unravel.

IRR 48

IRR Venture Capital LP Early Stage 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 2, 2016

I’ve written before about our LP meetings – if you want to check those out before hearing about 2016’s version, here you go: Homebrew Annual Meeting 2014. Satya and I wake up each morning 100% ready to put sweat and reputation behind every CEO. Homebrew Annual Meeting 2015. Ok, now back to present day.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board LP Institutional Investors Portfolio 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 2, 2016

I’ve written before about our LP meetings – if you want to check those out before hearing about 2016’s version, here you go: Homebrew Annual Meeting 2014. Satya and I wake up each morning 100% ready to put sweat and reputation behind every CEO. Homebrew Annual Meeting 2015. Ok, now back to present day.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board LP Institutional Investors Portfolio 48

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

Reputation Effect. Relationship Cost of SPVs/Direct Co-Investment and LP Credibility. Highly qualitative but a firm’s brand can be tarnished by their cheerleading and then awkward distancing from a deadicorn. This is less of a problem when the entire vertical falls apart (think of the last generation of scooter startups).

Vertical 48

Vertical LP Syndicate Syndication 48

Venture Chronicles

JULY 16, 2010

I hope that the above scenarios I outlined remain the outliers but the pragmatist in me is led to believe we will see more of the above as venture funds come under increasing scrutiny by limited partners and venture funds as a result are willing to suffer reputation loss in the venture capital community in order to preserve their LP relationships.

Due Diligence 28

Due Diligence Term Sheet Limited Partner LP 28

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 18, 2015

I spoke last week at the annual Cendana VC/LP conference. Too much capital will be allocated to this channel relative to its value until the next down turn when many unsophisticated investors will be burned or until the SEC begins to crack down on the less reputable platforms or investors in these platforms.

IPO 150

IPO Venture Capital LP SEC 150

David Teten

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

I was previously a Partner at two different VC firms, neither of which had any contractual LP mandate to invest in diverse companies. My research has found that Revenue-Based VCs are disproportionately investing in women & underrepresented founders, despite not having (in most cases) any LP mandate to do so.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Partner Technical Review Cofounder 60