Shows
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalFund Commitments, Co-Invest & Secondaries: The $120B LP PlaybookWhat does it look like when one of the world’s most longstanding institutional investors ($120B) decides to go deeper into venture capital? And what happens when one of the most respected LP teams in the business joins forces with them?Thomas Kristensen, who is responsible for the venture capital business at LGT Capital Partners, joins hosts Nick and Beezer for a wide-ranging conversation that doubles as an announcement: the Sapphire Partners team – including Beezer, Laura and Nate – have joined LGT Capital Partners. Thomas explains why the fit made sense.LGT Capital Partners manages over $120 billio...
2026-06-1746 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: The Conversation Happening in Every Early-Stage Boardroom Right NowOrigins hosts Nick Chirls (GP, Asylum Ventures) and Beezer Clarkson (LP, Sapphire Partners) react to their conversation with Nicholas Csicsko, a public/private investor at Trinity. They dig into his framing of “cynical optimism” and why it might be the right posture for venture investing, unpack the growing obsolescence risk for SaaS companies from earlier vintages, and cap it off with a live question: if sovereign wealth pulls back from US venture, what breaks first?For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delive...
2026-05-2713 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: The Brutal Math Behind VC ConsolidationOrigins hosts Nick Chirls (GP, Asylum Ventures) and Beezer Clarkson (LP, LGT Capital Partners) unpack a recent conversation with David Clark, CIO of VenCap International PLC on megafunds vs small funds and a16z returns. They also discuss Beezer’s article “I See Dead VCs,” which explores how VC is in the first meaningful industry-wide contraction in modern venture history, risks to seed formation, and the workstreams required for emerging managers to institutionalize and endure.For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inb...
2026-04-2916 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Does the Data Match the Anecdotes?Origins host Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, and Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, dig into their recent conversation with Dan Gray, prolific venture writer and Research Lead at Odin. They discuss various levels of risk tolerance across the ecosystem – including who the data says can stomach more – whether GPs are giving up on founders earlier than they used to, and whether Dan’s recent deep dive into changing LP behaviors matches anecdotal wisdom in the world of venture.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn m...
2026-02-2412 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalVenture’s Haves and Have-Nots with Dan GrayDan Gray is a prolific thinker, writer and researcher in the VC world, who describes himself as best known for “long walls of text on Twitter about the venture industry.” Now the Research Lead at Odin, he sits down with Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, and Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, to discuss the bifurcation of VC, the different types of risk in venture, and the role geography plays in investing. He also unpacks a survey he recently conducted that dives deep into how early-stage VC is faring in a challenging year.Learn...
2026-02-1045 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalWhat Venture's Top Voices Expect Next in AI2025 was, undoubtedly, the year of AI. In the first episode of 2026 Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures revisit some of their favorite moments from the year before to see what the top voices in VC saw as emerging AI trendlines and how the venture ecosystem and global markets might respond next. In this episode we’ll hear from – among others – Sarah Tavel of Benchmark about what it means to be truly AI native, Sunil Dhaliwal & Mike Dauber of Amplify about finding technical VCs in the age of AI, and Micah Rosenbloom of Founde...
2026-01-2141 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: The Speed of Iteration in VentureOrigins host Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, and Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, dig into their recent conversation with Micah Rosenbloom, Managing Partner at Founder Collective. They discuss the EQ and self-awareness required to switch from operator to investor, how to separate signal from noise in venture cycles, and how the speed of iteration is now such that a window of one or two days can change the entire calculus of an investment.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more about OpenLP: openlp.v...
2025-12-1608 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalStaying Small Despite Billion-Dollar Backings with Micah RosenbloomMicah Rosenbloom is a Managing Partner at Founder Collective, a firm dedicated to seed investing and, crucially, to keeping their fund sizes below $100 million. Micah talks with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, to discuss Founder Collective’s philosophy of keeping their fund size small to avoid the “billions or bust” mentality, how most investors have a bad track record of spotting trends at seed, and how consumer goods are still worthwhile investments even against the backdrop of AI. They also debate a recent post from Nick to get to the fundamental questi...
2025-12-0244 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: What Early Stage Venture Can Learn from Crypto TradersOrigins host Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, and Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, dive into their recent conversation with Kyle Samani, Founder and Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital. They discuss their learnings on crypto, including why Nick is more bullish on bitcoin than Kyle, and how LPs conceptualize investing in firms like Multicoin. They also break down why people who came up as Crypto traders and investors are uniquely positioned to excel in early stage venture.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more a...
2025-11-1810 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalInternet Capital Markets with Kyle SamaniKyle Samani is the Founder and Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital, a thesis-driven investment firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain companies reshaping trillion-dollar markets. He joins Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, to discuss the philosophies that underpin Multicoin’s investment strategies. He also unpacks how blockchain technologies are already reshaping global finance away from legacy systems and towards embedded trading platforms that will sit within traditional messaging and media platforms.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more about Op...
2025-11-1243 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Can LPs Diversify in an AI-Obsessed World?Origins host Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, and Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, unpack their recent conversation with Sarah Tavel, Partner at Benchmark. Together they discuss their takeaways from Sarah’s recent decision to take a step back at Benchmark to fully focus on AI, getting into the lessons they can learn from that approach and what that means for the future of artificial intelligence. They also discuss the current state of venture in light of this decade’s AI boom, and theorize where this will put the ecosystem in the future.
2025-10-2809 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalBecoming AI Native with Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel Eight years after becoming the first female partner at Benchmark, Sarah Tavel recently took on a new role as Venture Partner that allows her more time to fully immerse herself in AI, all while continuing to make new investments on behalf of Benchmark and serving her current portfolio. She sat down with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, to unpack her learnings over the past few months, including what it means to be truly AI native, how the future of AI is social (not solo), and what that means for AI tools a...
2025-10-2142 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Is It 2021 All Over Again?Origins host Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, and Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, dig into their recent conversation with Alex Edelson, LP at Slipstream. They discuss whether a spate of recent 100X multiples means we’re living 2021 all over again, why that’s led people to deploy but not fundraise, and the level of curiosity you need to be an exceptional LP.This episode of Origins is supported by Sydecar. Visit https://sydecar.io/origins-podcast to learn more.Learn more about Sapphir...
2025-10-0707 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalFundraising as a Fund of Funds with Alex EdelsonAlex Edelson’s Slipstream is a fund of funds that focuses on firms that are “difficult to find, evaluate and access.” Together with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, Alex unpacks his strategy of investing in funds he believes can outperform, how to raise capital as an LP, and how to remain competitive against LPs investing in more established firms. The three of them also dig into a recent blog post by Beezer titled “Is Venture Broken?” - which explores the role of mega-funds in the early-stage market. You can read that here.
2025-09-1649 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Curiosity, Chemistry, and Keeping Relevance Across the PartnershipOrigins host Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP is rejoined by Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures to unpack her recent conversation with Sunil Dhaliwal and Mike Dauber of Amplify Partners. They discuss partner dynamics, the importance of maintaining relevance for the long haul, and the different ways curiosity can show up. Plus, Nick & Beezer dig into whether they count as extroverts at work and introverts everywhere else.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.vcLearn more about Asy...
2025-08-2614 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalBacking Outliers in Venture with Sunil Dhaliwal & Mike DauberSunil Dhaliwal founded Amplify in 2012, and was joined by his longtime friend and colleague Mike Dauber in 2014. Beginning as one of the first solo GP, early-stage, sector-focused funds, Amplify has now grown to a team of 9 partners investing in the next generation of applications tools and platforms for developers, data teams, and ML engineers focused on AI, cloud infrastructure, and data security. Mike and Sunil sit down with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, to discuss their strategy of building for outliers, shaping founders into leaders, and making it easy for their GPs to back non-consensus companies. They also...
2025-08-1241 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Are Major Incumbents Finally at Risk in the Age of AI?Origins hosts Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, dig into their recent conversation with Will Manidis, SVP at Veradigm AI. They discuss the risks AI introduces to tech incumbents, and its potential to reshape both the healthcare system and improve patient outcomes.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.vcLearn more about Asylum Ventures: https://asylum.vcLearn more about Veradigm: https://veradigm.com/Subscribe...
2025-07-2207 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMerchant Banks: Venture’s Next Act with Will ManidisBefore he sold his company to Veradigm, Will Manidis’s Science.io developed an AI model that allowed doctors to translate mountains of medical documents into usable data to improve patient outcomes. Today Will is the SVP of AI at Veradigm, and he sits down with Nick and Beezer to discuss how AI is impacting healthcare, how we can develop health systems with better outcomes, and what the future of venture might look like when compared to traditional merchant banking.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more about OpenLP...
2025-07-0843 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Innovation Energy And the Future of BiotechOrigins hosts Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, unpack their conversation with Zach Weinberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Curie.Bio. They discuss the “innovation energy” that drives new breakthroughs and take a closer look at Sapphire’s approach to biotech investing.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.vcLearn more about Asylum Ventures: https://asylum.vcLearn more about Curie.Bio: https://curie.bioSubscribe to th...
2025-06-1711 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalBuilding The YC of Biotech with Zach WeinbergZach Weinberg, co-founder and CEO of Curie.Bio, is redefining early-stage biotech investing with an operator’s mindset and a founder-first philosophy. His approach combines funding with operational support and direct access to world-class drug hunters to dramatically increase odds of success. Today, Zach sits down with Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners to discuss the massive risk associated with traditional therapeutics startups, how pairing a drug discovery partner with a seed investor solves those inefficiencies, and how biotech, the global economy and the political landscape are all closely connected....
2025-06-0358 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: How Novel Strategies Become the Venture Industry’s StandardOrigins hosts Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, unpack their conversation with Theory Ventures’ Tomasz Tunguz, discussing how strategies that once set firms apart – like pre-seed or founder-centric investing – become industry standards over time. They dive deep on counter-positioning, adaptability, and the power of differentiation in today’s venture world. CHAPTERS:0:00 Welcome to Origins1:14 Is Tomasz an n=1?5:51 How Do Firms Stay Relevant?9:12 Do Founders Like Counter-Positioning?11:50 Who Is An Emerging Manager/Nick’s Next Career
2025-05-2013 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalAI Agents Will Supercharge the Future of VC with Tomasz TunguzTomasz Tunguz, Founder of Theory Ventures, is widely recognized for his analytical approach to venture investing. Now, he’s building Theory with a philosophy rooted in research and data-driven decision-making. Tomasz sits down with Nick Chirls, General Partner at Asylum Ventures and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, to discuss spinouts and succession in established firms and the value of running high-risk, high-reward experiments at specialist firms like Theory. Tomasz also shares his belief that investors will need to adapt to a future where asking the right questions of LLMs will be critical for success.
2025-05-0640 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Franchise Funds: Index Ventures & Picking Winners EarlyOrigins host Beezer Clarkson sits down with her colleague Nate Leung, fellow LP and Partner at Sapphire Partners, to riff on her recent conversation with Nina Achadjian, Partner at Index Ventures. Together, Beezer and Nate walk through the steps Index took to become a franchise - the decisions they made and the mistakes they avoided, plus the firm’s ability to pick excellent companies early. They discuss the edge GPs gain by investing with a broader purpose, as well as the LP POV on the need for distributions and consolidation in 2025.Learn more about Sap...
2025-04-2210 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalInside the ServiceTitan IPO with Nina AchadjianNina Achadjian is a Partner at Index Ventures, where she invests across seed, venture, and growth stages in AI, enterprise software, and vertical SaaS. She sits down with Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, and the two discuss Nina’s predictions for M&A in 2025, the importance of product market fit and what Nina looks for in a new hire. Plus, the two dig into Index’s recent IPO with ServiceTitan, and how they managed a high-profile exit in the difficult IPO market of 2024.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more abo...
2025-04-0843 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Franchise Funds: Is Venture Broken?Origins host Beezer Clarkson sits down with her colleague Laura Thompson, fellow LP and Partner at Sapphire Partners, to riff on her recent conversation with Thomas Kristensen, Partner at LGT Capital Partners. Together they discuss 2025’s sluggish exit market, and whether or not that’s a sign that venture is broken. They also discuss the importance of reinventing yourself to stay current with the market - even though LPs don’t love big changes - and if emerging managers can use founder product connectivity to their advantage. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-pa...
2025-03-2512 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalFranchise Funds: Is Being a VC Franchise the Ultimate Goal with Thomas KristensenThomas Kristensen, Partner at LGT Capital Partners, has decades of experience backing the top players in venture, but as an LP, doesn’t love the term "franchise fund.” He sits down with Bezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, to discuss why GPs can’t rest on their laurels, that being a franchise shouldn’t be every VC’s ultimate goal, and how LPs can dig deep to find firms with a great founder product– and avoid ones that may look like franchises but could have already peaked. The two also share their predictions for 2025 exits and why they think a lot of foun...
2025-03-1142 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalRevisiting Power Law VC Performance with David ClarkBeezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, revisits her conversation from 2023 with David Clark, Investment Director at VenCap International plc. In this episode, she and co-host Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, dive into David’s nearly four decades of experience in investing in some of the most established VC funds across the US, Europe, China and India. David shares historical figures on where to find performance in venture and his findings from a recently uncovered 30 year trove of data from 400+ funds with 15,000+ underlying portfolio companies. In this data set, he found that 50% of VC investments don’t actually return capi...
2025-02-2056 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Franchise Funds: Grading PerformanceOrigins host Beezer Clarkson sits down with her colleague Laura Thompson, fellow LP and Partner at Sapphire Partners, to unpack her recent conversation with Jessica Archibald, a GP at Top Tier Capital. They discuss Jessica’s engineering-based analytical approach to answering the question “what makes a franchise?” and discuss some surprising things they learned - Jessica’s view that there’s only one real way to do succession, the importance of breaking good and bad news in a way that creates a performance culture, and whether or not they’re going to adopt Jessica’s policy of assigning letter grades to fund...
2025-01-2222 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalFranchise Funds: Metrics To Be Extraordinary with Jessica ArchibaldJessica Archibald is a GP and member of the Investment Committee at Top Tier Capital Partners, where she is co lead of the funds team and participates extensively in the capital formation efforts of the firm. She and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, sit down for the next episode in this miniseries on franchise funds - what it takes to build one, and how some firms lose their franchise status. Jessica digs into Top Tier’s numbers to discuss the importance of getting reliable DPI in a set timeframe, why it’s often better to bet on consistent 3x or...
2025-01-0853 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Franchise Funds: Why do LPs & Founders Care?Origins host Beezer Clarkson sits down with her colleague Laura Thompson, fellow LP and Partner at Sapphire Partners, to discuss her recent conversation with Stephen Bluestein, Partner of Primary Investments at Adams Street and formerly Packard Foundation, about what it takes to make (and potentially later break) a franchise fund in venture. Together, Beezer and Laura debrief their top takeaways, including: do the hallmarks of a franchise differ between GPs and LPs (or even amongst different LPs); how does a franchise produce a lights-out 5x or 10x fund at their fund size; is a consistent 2x net good enough...
2024-12-1717 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalFranchise Funds: Becoming (and Remaining) One with Stephen BluesteinStephen Bluestein has had an impressive career in Venture, beginning at Bessemer Venture Partners before moving to TCV, Light Street Capital, and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, before landing in his current role as a partner in the primary investment team at Adams Street Partners. He sits down with Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to discuss what makes a fund a franchise. They discuss the importance of building and maintaining a brand that stands for something in the market, making investments that are consistent with your philosophy, and together, they zero in on the tipping point of...
2024-12-1050 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Building Google & Betting Big: Lessons from Wesley ChanNick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners go deep into their recent conversation with Wesley Chan, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of FPV Ventures. They unpack Wesley’s direct learnings from Sergey Brin coming up at Google, how it is the job of the investor to spot greatness, his views on company pivots (and how they oppose another recent guest, Mike Maples’ views on pivots), the difficulties of thinking independently in Silicon Valley, and the serendipitous way Wesley and Sapphire Partners wound up working together in the first place. Plus Nick, it turns out...
2024-11-2615 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalFinding Founders Who Will Change the World with Wesley ChanWesley Chan is a true legend in Silicon Valley. He spent time at Microsoft and HP, and in 2002 he jumped to Google. There, he worked as Sergey Brin’s Chief of Staff and founded Google Analytics and Google Voice - all before then founding and leading the seed investing program at Google Ventures as GP. Under his tenure, GV was the first institutional check into companies like Plaid, Gusto, Lucid, and Robinhood. Wesley sits down with Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to discuss his investment philosophy and what motivates him. Wesley dis...
2024-11-1342 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Seed vs Growth Investing - What Changes and What Stays the SameNick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, unpack their recent conversation with Jai Das, President + Partner at Sapphire Ventures and Mike Maples, Co-Founder + Partner at Floodgate, to answer their burning question: What changes in the way seed and growth investors think, and what stays the same? They discuss the crushing importance of team no matter the stage; the parallels in LP land (at the end of the day, you’re just backing people); the difference between small iterations on a business model vs a radical remaking of a company; and the imperfect information you...
2024-10-1518 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalFinding Pattern Breakers & Winners from Seed to Growth with Mike Maples and Jai DasWith a few dozen software exits under his belt (including Box, Square, Mulesoft & JFrog), nobody knows enterprise investing like Sapphire Ventures’ President + PartnerJai Das. Likewise, Floodgate co-founder + Partner Mike Maples Jr. is often credited with pioneering seed investing as we know it, with names like Twitter, Twitch and Lyft in his portfolio. Together, they join Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to share how they pick winners at their respective stages. What does it take to spot someone who sees the future before it’s here? How do inflection points like AI impac...
2024-10-0148 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalMinisode: Jack Altman’s VC Career Arc and the Launch of Asylum VenturesNick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, go inside their recent conversation with Alt Capital’s Jack Altman to answer their burning question: What does the journey look like from VC-backed founder to angel investor to institutional VC? How does one successfully jump from investing their own capital to taking on LP dollars? Where is Jack comfortable taking bigger bets? Plus, the two of them go in-depth for the very first time on Nick’s new firm, Asylum Ventures.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partnersLearn more about Open...
2024-09-1725 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalFrom VC-backed Founder to Angel to Institutional Investor with Jack AltmanJack Altman of Alt Capital has led quite a life in Silicon Valley. He’s gone from angel investing to founding a venture-backed company (HR platform Lattice), back to angel investing today, taking on outside capital as an institutional investor at Alt Capital. Jack sits down with Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures & Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to discuss learnings from his impressive career arc, including how to build a reputation by avoiding zero sum games, making decisions quickly as a founder, the differences in investing your own money and someone else’s, how to build a track...
2024-09-1047 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalBeing Non-Consensus and Right in VC with Jason Shuman & Will QuistWhat do Primary GP Jason Shuman and Slow Ventures Partner Will Quist have in common? At first glance, not much, given how differently their firms approach firm building and VC "platforms." At Primary, their Impact team outnumbers investors 2:1, while Slow consists of 3 GPs, and 3 GPs only. But in a surprising twist, they agree on more than one would expect.
They both see non-consensus investing as carrying big risk but also big opportunity. They are both seed investors and their respective firms go to market in very different ways. They sit down with co-hosts Nick C...
2024-08-0639 minOrigins: Inside Venture CapitalEndowment Investing with University of Chicago’s Joanna RuppJoanna Rupp, Managing Director of Private Equity at the University of Chicago, sits down with Nick & Beezer to shine a light on the often opaque world of endowments, including what separates an endowment from a foundation, how they consider small funds v. big funds and the fallout from an avalanche of capital being thrown at VCs. Then (announcement!) Joanna and Beezer evaluate Nick’s new venture fund - the key pieces of diligence, what he needs to prove in the next few years for another investment, how to build a relationship with his LPs, and more.
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2024-06-2738 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalVenture market deep dive with Beezer ClarksonOn this episode of Origins, we sit down with Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners to discuss the current state of the VC and LP markets, given recent dislocations. We cover what Beezer is seeing on the ground, where we might be in the current cycle / downturn, how VCs can respond both strategically and tactically, as well as her outlook for what's to come.
Beezer leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Prior to joining Sapphire in 2012, Beezer managed the day-to-day operations of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Global Network, which then had $7 billion under management across 16 venture funds wo...
2022-09-2053 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalSapphire Partners hosts Jaclyn Hester, Foundry GroupIn this special episode of our #OpenLP podcast miniseries, Sapphire Partners’ Laura Thompson chats with Jaclyn Hester, Partner at Foundry Group, about how LPs pick funds, what good performance looks like and how everything is changing with the shift in today’s markets.
Laura Thompson invests in technology-focused venture funds domestically and internationally. She is passionate about partnering with established and emerging firms to advance the thinking in the limited partner space. Before joining Sapphire Partners in 2018, Laura worked as part of the investment team at Horsley Bridge Partners, where she helped the team make hundreds of millions of fund comm...
2022-06-0951 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalSapphire Partners hosts Saul Klein of LocalGlobe and LatitudeSapphire Partners continues their #OpenLP miniseries takeover by hosting Saul Klein of LocalGlobe and Latitude. With decades of experience in the region, Saul has been, and continues to be, an early champion of the European tech ecosystem. During the conversation, Sapphire’s Thomas Moon chats with Saul on topics including the evolution of venture in Europe over the past 20 years, the road ahead for European venture, and the journey from operator to angel to institutional seed investor.
2021-11-0358 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalSapphire Partners hosts Kim Lew, CEO of Columbia University's endowmentSapphire Partners continues their #OpenLP miniseries takeover by hosting Kim Lew, CEO and President of Columbia University’s endowment. During the conversation, Sapphire’s Nate Leung chats with Kim on topics including: How institutional managers consider and approach risk, particularly in the context of venture investing; Differences between foundations and endowments in terms of liquidity, portfolio construction, and risk allocation; What Kim looks for in new managers for the venture portfolio component of Columbia’s endowment; What quality mentorship and leadership looks like and how she cultivates investment talent; and her views on key investment trends across climate, artificial intelligence, crypto...
2021-09-3048 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalSapphire Partners Hosts - Notation III and BeyondOn this brand new season of Origins, we're passing the torch to our friends at Sapphire Partners to host an exciting new miniseries. Beezer Clarkson, Nate Leung and the team at Sapphire Partners are some of the most knowledgeable and experienced LPs in the industry, and we're extremely excited to listen as they interview a slew of amazing new guests. In this first episode, Beezer and Nate are hosting...well...us :-) They interview us about the history of Origins, Notation, our new fund Notation III, and what we see in store for the future of our firm and the...
2021-08-2459 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalLisa Edgar, Top Tier Capital PartnersLisa 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 investments. Leveraging her 25 years of experience, Lisa is particularly interested in helping up-and-coming micro funds structure themselves for success in the future, including strategic fundraising, thoughtful portfolio construction, effective capital deployment and management succession.
Prior to Top Tier, Lisa was part of the asset management team at WR Hambrecht + Co focusing on new and emerging private equity funds. Before that, she spent ten years at Horsley Bridge Partners. Li...
2020-09-2346 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalFrederik Groce, Storm Ventures & BLCK VCFrederik Groce is a Principal at Storm Ventures and a co-founder at BLCK VC. After finishing school, Frederik spent two years as CEO of Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) with more than one hundred employees and total assets exceeding $18 million – including overseeing Stanford’s accelerator program.
In this episode, we discuss Frederik's path to VC out of college, and how he's learned on the job and been promoted multiple times at Storm Ventures since. We also discuss his work as a co-founder at BLCK VC, which was formed to connect, engage, empower, and advance Black venture investors by providing a focused comm...
2020-09-0950 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalAlex Pall and Drew Taggart, The Chainsmokers + Mantis VCIn this special episode of Origins, we interview Alex Pall and Drew Taggart of The Chainsmokers, one of the most successful artists and producers in the world, and now active VCs through their firm Mantis. We discuss how they got into music, their break as DJs and rising up the early charts of Hype Machine and then Spotify, as well as more recently how they discovered angel investing and how they're building Mantis VC. Safe to say this was one of the most interesting episodes we've ever recorded and hope you'll give it a listen.
As always, a huge thank...
2020-08-1148 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalJosh Kopelman, First Round CapitalJosh Kopelman is the co-founder of First Round Capital, a pioneering seed-stage venture capital firm. He's been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since it's commercialization. He co-founded Infonautics while still an undergrad in 1996, which went public in 1999. He then co-founded and ran Half.com, a fixed price marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of used books, movies and music products, which he sold to eBay in 2000.
In this episode, we discuss Josh's early career as an entrepreneur and all of the lessons learned having started two companies, taking one of them public at a really young age...
2020-07-0740 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalHunter Somerville, Greenspring AssociatesHunter 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 in the assessment of micro-vc managers for the Firm. Additionally, Hunter serves on the LP Advisory Boards for firms such as Bullpen Capital, Redpoint China, Fika Ventures, Foundry Group, among many others.
In this episode, we discuss Hunter's path at Greenspring (and LP firms in general), leading to his promotion to General Partner, how he spends his time at the firm and evaluates opportunities and managers, how the firm is responding...
2020-06-2451 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalAtul Rustgi, Accolade PartnersAtul 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 Robin Hood Foundation.
In this episode, we discuss Atul's unique experience evaluating VC managers over the past decade, and Accolade's strategy investing in both very small early-stage venture funds and much larger late-stage growth equity funds. We also discuss Atul's deep conviction around portfolio construction, fund size, and ownership. Finally, we discuss his views on the impact of Covid-19 on the venture ecosystem today and his outlook for 2020 and beyond.
As...
2020-06-0246 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalKanyi Maqubela, Kindred VenturesKanyi Maqubela is a Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures. He previously served as a Partner at Collaborative Fund, where he was an early advisor to Tala and Walker & Co., and a board member at Buffer, Camino Financial, Spruce, and True Link. Kanyi is also a co-founder at Heartbeat Health, and has served as a Lecturer and Adjunct at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
In this episode, we discuss everything from Kanyi's childhood to founding his first startup out of Stanford to joining Collaborative Fund to ultimately founding Kindred Ventures with his partner Steve. But in between his...
2020-05-1359 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalCiaran O'Leary, BlueYardCiaran O'Leary is a co-founder and general partner at BlueYard, a thesis-driven early-stage venture capital firm based in Germany. In the past several years, BlueYard has backed companies like Protocol Labs (Filecoin) and Open Source Coin in the Blockchain space, Meatable and Bit Bio at the intersection of science and technology, Pitch and Vectary in open data, among other fascinating companies and theses.
In this episode, we discuss the European tech and venture capital environment over the past decade, what led Ciaran to Earlybird and then BlueYard, raising two funds for BlueYard since, how their thesis and strategy has evolved...
2020-04-1449 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalMark Suster, Upfront VenturesMark Suster is the Managing Partner at Upfront. He previously was the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP, Products. He's also one of the OG VC bloggers at https://bothsidesofthetable.com.
In this episode, we discuss Mark's journey as both an entrepreneur and VC going back to the dot com, how he joined GRP Partners in 2007 and transitioned the firm into what it is now Upfront, and how he plans to grow the firm's team and talent into the future. This was a master...
2020-03-0355 min
Origins: Inside Venture Capital"Portfolio Construction" w/ Beezer Clarkson, Alda Leu Dennis and Trae VassalloThis 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 important topic. Beezer Clarkson is an LP and managing director at Sapphire Partners, Alda Leu Dennis is a partner at Initialized, a seed-stage venture firm, and Trae Vassallo is a founder and partner at defy, an early-stage venture firm focused on Series A investments.
In this episode we cover many of the most critical items related to portfolio construction and how different LPs and VCs might approach different...
2020-01-281h 05
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalChad Byers, Susa VenturesChad Byers is a co-founder and partner at Susa Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund based in SF that has backed companies like Robinhood, Flexport, and Andela. Chad discusses growing up in Silicon Valley, his path to venture, the unusual founding story of Susa with his partners, and how they've strategically planned their funds over time. Chad is one of the smartest young seed investors in SF, and this episode was essentially a playbook on how to build a seed firm.
A huge thank you to Carta, the title sponsor for this season of Origins. It's a core product that we...
2020-01-0752 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalLo Toney, Plexo CapitalLo 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 addition to investing as LPs, Plexo Capital makes direct investments in startups that are funded by firms where Plexo has an LP position. The fund’s investors include Alphabet, Intel Capital, Cisco Investments, the Royal Bank of Canada, Kapor Capital, the Hampton University Endowment and the Ford Foundation.
Previous to Plexo Capital, Lo was a partner at GV and Comcast Ventures, as well as an operator in...
2019-12-1150 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalFabrice Grinda, FJ LabsFabrice Grinda is the founder of FJ Labs, a company co-creation and investment firm, focused on marketplace businesses. FJ Labs has invested in companies such as Flexport, Shippo, Lime, Brightroll, among many others. Fabrice is also a serial entrepreneur, previously founding three companies - Zingy, Aucland, and OLX - All of which scaled to significant size. He was born in France and is an avid traveler, writer, and speaker.
In this episode, we cover what it was like to come to the U.S. for college, starting his first company in the dot com in France at the age of 24...
2019-10-0159 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalPaul Mace, Tufts UniversityPaul 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 strategies to potentially include in the university’s portfolio. Before joining Tufts, Paul was an investment banker evaluating M&A and private equity transactions for a boutique advisory firm.
In this episode, we dig into the many similarities and differences in evaluating private real-estate funds and venture funds, two areas that Paul is responsible for at the Tufts endowment. We also discuss how the Tufts endowment has evolved over the pa...
2019-09-1043 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalBeezer Clarkson hosts Anne Martin, CIO of Wesleyan UniversityIn 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 University, where she oversaw the private and natural resource portfolio. At Wesleyan University, she oversees all aspects of the endowment and reports to the university's board and investment committee.
Over the course of the conversation, Beezer and Anne cover exactly what it means to run and invest a university endowment, Anne's goals for the program, how she thinks about investing across asset classes, and particularly how she approaches venture capital...
2019-08-0649 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalBryce Roberts, Indie VCBryce Roberts is the founder of Indie VC, a 12-month program and venture fund designed to fund and support founders on a path to profitability. Before that, Bryce was a co-founder of OATV in 2005, one of the earliest seed focused VC firms, where they invested in companies like Fastly, Foursquare, Planet, Hipcamp, and others.
On this episode, we discuss the earliest days of seed investing and raising OATV while Bryce lived in Utah, as well as the difficult decision to morph OATV into what is now Indie VC. Bryce has a decidedly different and refreshing perspective on venture capital than...
2019-07-1656 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalDavid Fauchier, Cambrial CapitalDavid 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 experience as a product leader and angel investor in Europe, and has one of the most thoughtful approaches to investing in the blockchain space that we've seen. We cover a wide range of topics in this episode, including the varied types of strategies that blockchain VC firms and crypto funds are pursuing today, why a fund of funds in this space makes sense, and how David sees the digital assets...
2019-02-2655 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalLindsay Larsen, UVIMCOLindsay Larsen is a managing director at UVIMCO, which represents the University of Virginia's $9B+ endowment. At UVIMCO, Lindsay co-heads the endowment's venture capital investing, as well as hedge fund investing and the growth equity portfolio. She previously held roles at Sequoia Heritage and Bluestem Asset Management, and she started her career at Goldman Sachs after attending UVA as an undergrad.
In this unique look into how a large university endowment is managed, we dig into how UVA sets its return targets and goals, and how that impacts Lindsay's time spent across VC, hedge funds, and growth equity. We discuss...
2019-02-0552 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalManu Kumar, K9 VenturesManu Kumar is the founder of K9 Ventures, a technology-focused Pre-Seed fund based in Palo Alto, California. K9 Ventures was the first "pre-seed" venture firm in the industry, and Manu was the earliest investor in companies like Twilio, Lyft, Carta, Crowdflower, and many more. Manu has a truly unique outlook on the VC business, and has a highly disciplined investment model that he's stuck with since the beginning in 2009.
In this episode, we discuss Manu's time at Carnegie Melon and Stanford, where he received his PhD, his success as an entrepreneur, how he started K9 as a solo GP, his...
2019-01-1554 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalConrad Shang, UTIMCOConrad Shang is a Director at UTIMCO, The University of Texas and Texas A&M Endowment, where he leads the VC portfolio for one of the largest university endowments in the country. He’s been on both sides of the table, having also previously been a VC at Norwest Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. This was a particularly fascinating conversation because Conrad now oversees what is probably the largest VC portfolio of anyone we've had on the Origins podcast to date.
In this episode, we discuss Conrad's background and what led him to this new role at UTIMCO, the st...
2018-12-1855 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalZach Aarons, MetapropZach Aarons is a co-founder and partner at Metaprop, an early-stage venture firm and accelerator focused on real-estate related technology. Zach has been working at the intersection of real estate and venture capital for the past decade, and he's the most active early-stage PropTech investor in the United States, having funded over 60 startups in the space as an individual as well as 40 startups (and counting) through MetaProp NYC's venture capital funds. In addition to early-stage investing, Zach is a project manager at Millennium Partners, and has worked on large-scale mixed-use development projects with experience in real estate development, commercial asset...
2018-11-2758 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalSarah Anderson and Emily Geiger, CintrifuseOn this episode of Origins, we interview Sarah Anderson and Emily Geiger, who are responsible for two critical components of Cintrifuse, a unique organization and public-private partnership established to drive the next phase of growth in the Cincinnati region. Sarah is the Managing Director of the Cintrifuse Syndicate Fund, a fund of funds that invests in VC managers across the U.S. Emily is the VP of BigCo Innovation at Cintrifuse, where she focuses on bridging partnerships, as well as exploring new potential areas for innovation and collaboration between large companies in the Cincinnati region and the broader U.S...
2018-10-3049 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalDavid Tisch, Box GroupDavid Tisch is a founder and managing partner of Box Group, the most prolific angel and seed investing firm in NYC, where they're investors in companies such as Pillpack, Flatiron Health, GroupMe, Plaid, Roman, among many others. He previously co-founded Techstars New York, a fixture of the NYC tech community for many years, and is the head of Cornell Tech's Startup Studio.
In this episode, we discuss how Box Group has stuck to its knitting over the years by continuing to focus on the earliest stages of startup investing, how investors do (and don't) add value to the companies they...
2018-10-0951 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalRob Mazzoni, TrueBridge Capital PartnersRob Mazzoni is a principal and one of the earliest members of the TrueBridge investment team, an alternative asset management firm founded in 2007 and focused on the venture capital industry. Rob first worked with TrueBridge co-founder and general partner Mel Williams at UNC Management Company, Inc. (UNCMC) as an investment and performance analyst.
In this episode, we discuss Rob's professional path as an LP since college, as well as the founding and evolution of Truebridge Capital Partners since 2007. We cover Truebridge's decision to partner early with now top-tier firms like a16z and Founder's Fund, as well as their decision...
2018-09-1857 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalShan-Lyn Ma, ZolaShan-Lyn Ma is the co-founder and CEO of Zola, the fastest growing wedding registry and planning site in the U.S. Before Zola, Shan-Lyn was the chief product officer of chloe + isabel, and an executive at Gilt Groupe. In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics, including Shan-Lyn's experience growing up in Australia, discovering the Internet at a young age, and eventually moving to the U.S. to go to Stanford and pursue her dreams as a technology entrepreneur. We also discuss the many lessons Shan-Lyn learned in product and strategy at Yahoo and Gilt Groupe, her recent...
2018-08-2150 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalMike Maples, FloodgateMike Maples is the founding partner at Floodgate and has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was involved as a founder and operating executive at back-to-back startup IPOs, including Tivoli Systems (IPO TIVS, acquired by IBM) and Motive (IPO MOTV, acquired by Alcatel-Lucent.) Some of Mike’s investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv, ngmoco, Weebly, Chegg, Bazaarvoice, Spiceworks, Okta, and Demandforce.
In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics, including Mike's decision to become a VC and how he raised Floodgate's first fund, how Floodgate's fund strategy and portfolio construction has evolved si...
2018-07-2450 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalRyan Nece, Next Play CapitalRyan Nece is a Managing Partner at Next Play Capital, a mission-driven co-investment and fund of
funds focused on venture capital. He started his career playing football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he played for eight years, winning a super bowl championship as a rookie. After retiring from football, Ryan co-founded Straightcast Media, which he successfully exited to FOX Sports in 2015. Ryan is also the founder of the Ryan Nece Foundation, and a fellow at the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program.
Needless to say, this was one of the most fascinating interviews we've had on the Origins podcast to...
2018-06-2651 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalJeff Fagnan, AccompliceJeff Fagnan is a founder of Accomplice and more recently Spearhead, in partnership with AngelList. Jeff is well known as a founding investor, working with most of his portfolio since inception, sometimes as a co-founder including Veracode (Sold to CA Technologies for $614M in 2017). Jeff sits on the board of many scaling startups including AngelList, Carbon Black, InsightSquared, PillPack, and others. He's also the founder of Spearhead, a program that provides funding and mentorship for new angel investors; Maiden Lane, the first investment vehicle built on top of AngelList; Boston Syndicates (BOSS),a federated movement to create stronger angel substr...
2018-05-1548 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalLeah Busque, Fuel CapitalLeah Busque is a General Partner at Fuel Capital, an early-stage venture firm based in SF. Before Fuel, she was the co-founder and CEO of TaskRabbit for eight years, and before that an engineer at IBM. In this episode, we discuss Leah's path to founding TaskRabbit, moving to SF, and partnering with Chris Howard as Fuel's second GP just over a year ago. We also dig into how she discovered and has navigated the LP community, how she plans to support the founders she works with as a former founder and engineer herself, and finally how Leah and Chris plan...
2018-04-1850 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalRo Gupta, CarmeraRo Gupta is the co-founder and CEO of Carmera, a street-level intelligence platform. The company's flagship product is CARMERA Autonomous Map, which delivers real-time, 3D maps and navigation-critical data for autonomous vehicles. Ro previously spent six years with Disqus, the web's largest community discussion network. He's also the first Notation portfolio company founder we've had on Origins! In this episode, we discuss Ro's path to co-founding Carmera, the explosion of interest in autonomous vehicle technology, angel investing, and of course the limited partner ecosystem.
2018-04-0351 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalChristian Motzfeldt, Danish Growth FundAs CEO of the Danish Growth Fund since 2001, Christian Motzfeldt has been instrumental in building the new Danish ecosystem of entrepreneurship. Through the Danish Growth Fund, he has built one of the largest portfolios of venture and small-cap funds in the Nordics, and now has 2 Billion USD under management. This is the first sovereign wealth fund that we've had on the show, so we dive deep into exactly what that means, as well as the strategic and financial goals for a public fund like the DGF.
2018-03-1332 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalNick Chirls and Alex Lines, NotationIn this episode of Origins, Beezer Clarkson turns the tables and interviews Nick Chirls and Alex Lines of Notation. Having just closed Notation II, we figured this would be a good time to explain who we are, what we do, and why we do it. We cover our time working together in the early days at betaworks, our decision to ultimately leave and start Notation, the process of raising our first and now second funds, and how we think about the future of the firm.
* One small footnote - We recorded this episode almost a year ago, when we first...
2018-02-2054 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalSemil Shah, HaystackOn this episode of Origins, we sit down with Semil Shah of Haystack, an early-stage venture firm based in SF. Semil has a non-traditional background for VC and has been vocal about the unique way he's building the firm, recently making the transition into an institutionally backed fund. He's an active blogger, and an investor in startups like Instacart, Giphy, Carta, and many others. In the interview, we focus on how Semil has approached each of the Haystack funds, the stories behind some of his best investments, and lessons learned along the way as he's grown the firm.
2018-01-2345 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalRoland Reynolds, Industry VenturesOn this episode of Origins, we sit down with Roland Reynolds, a managing partner at Industry Ventures. Industry Ventures is a fascinating “full stack venture capital firm.” Their funds invest into companies and venture capital partnerships through both primary and secondary transactions, which is an important part of the venture ecosystem that we have yet to cover on the Origins podcast.
We cover a lot in this episode — including Roland’s experience working earlier in his career at JP Morgan and Columbia Capital, as well as founding one of the first dedicated micro-VC fund of funds more than ten years ago. Roland’...
2018-01-091h 03
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalBruce Ou, Grove Street AdvisorsOn this episode of Origins, we sit down with Bruce Ou, a Managing Partner at Grove Street Advisors. GSA is a unique type of investment firm in that they build customized private equity fund portfolios to address each of their LP clients’ individual investment needs. Their sole business is to manage discretionary separate accounts, investing in lower middle-market buyout, growth equity and venture capital.
Bruce is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee, and leads investments across all segments of private equity and venture funds. Bruce also co-leads GSA’s strategy and portfolio development in China and is actively involve...
2017-12-1945 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalAndy Weissman, Union Square VenturesIn this episode, we sit down with Andy Weissman, a managing partner at Union Square Ventures. Previous to USV, Andy was a co-founder of betaworks, and earlier in his career an executive at AOL. Andy’s one of the most thoughtful and admired VCs in the industry, and this was plain and simple one of the best episodes we’ve ever recorded.
2017-10-3151 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalMichael Larsen, Cambridge AssociatesMichael Larsen is a managing director at the global investment firm Cambridge Associates, based in Boston. Mike works with endowments, foundations and other large institutional investors on their private investment programs, particularly focused on venture capital exposure. He spends his time meeting with managers, sourcing new ideas, and implementing VC programs for his clients’ portfolios.
2017-10-1050 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalDavid Frankel, Founder CollectiveDavid Frankel is a managing partner and co-founder of Founder Collective, which launched in 2011 with a simple mission: To be the most aligned fund for founders at the seed stage. In the years since, they've become one of the most respected and highest performing venture firms in the industry.
Before starting Founder Collective, David spent most of his life as an entrepreneur, co-founding Internet Solutions, the first ISP in Africa, at the ripe old age of 23. When Internet Solutions was acquired by Dimension Data, he served as a key executive and on the board through its successful listing on the...
2017-07-1855 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalAaron Gershenberg, SVB CapitalAaron Gershenberg is a founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s fund of funds and direct investment group, SVB Capital. Aaron joined SVB in 1999 and has been part of the venture capital industry since 1996. Under his leadership, the group has over $3.3 billion under management across fund of funds, direct funds and separate accounts.
In this episode, we sit down with Aaron and discuss SVB Capital's beginnings, surviving through the dot com, and how they differentiate their fund of funds practice by being part of the broader SVB bank and ecosystem. Because of SVB's vital role in the technology industry and as a...
2017-06-0642 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalBradley Tusk, Tusk VenturesBradley Tusk started Tusk Ventures to help startups work with governments at scale. To date, this unique venture capital firm has worked with companies like Uber, Fanduel, Handy, Eaze, and others to help them navigate regulatory challenges. Tusk Ventures grew out of Tusk Strategies, which Bradley started in 2010 to help major institutions run multi-jurisdictional campaigns to shape their public reputation, overcome regulatory hurdles, and proactively engage governments to solve problems and seize opportunities.
Previously, Bradley served as the campaign manager for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s successful re-election bid in 2009, and before that he served as the Deputy Go...
2017-04-2553 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalWinter Mead, Sapphire VenturesWinter 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 Hall Capital Partners. Prior to Hall, Winter founded Mead and Mead, an international food distribution and logistics business, and also spent a number of years working for several early-stage technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
2017-03-2842 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalEva Ho, Fika VenturesEva Ho is a General Partner and co-founder of Fika Ventures, a new $40M seed fund based in LA. She's also an EIR of the City of Los Angeles and a board member of the California Community Foundation. She was previously a co-founder of Susa Ventures, and before that an operator and early employee at Factual and Applied Semantics, and a co-founder of Navigating Cancer.
2017-03-1444 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalGraham Pingree, Cendana CapitalGraham Pingree is a limited partner at Cendana Capital, where he works with Michael Kim and invests in micro-VC funds. We discuss Graham's background working both at startups as well as firms such as Horsley Bridge and Cambridge Associates, and backing and working with funds such as Forerunner, Founder Collective, and IA Ventures.
2017-02-2147 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalHunter Walk, HomebrewWe talk with investor Hunter Walk, founding partner at Homebrew, about his experiences building product as one of the first hires at Second Life and then at YouTube after the Google acquisition. We also dig into what it took to get Homebrew off the ground in 2013 with his partner Satya Patel.
2017-01-311h 00
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalLindel Eakman, Foundry Group NextFor over a decade, Lindel Eakman managed the private investment program for the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), one of the largest endowments in the world. After 13 years at UTIMCO, Lindel left and joined Foundry Group to lead investments in other early-stage VC funds through FG's new fund, Foundry Group Next . We talk about his work at UTIMCO, where he backed iconic firms like USV, Foundry Group, Spark Capital, and True Ventures, and his decision to move to Boulder to work with Foundry Group.
2017-01-1852 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalJonathan Abrams, NuzzelJonathan Abrams, founder and CEO of Nuzzel, is a busy man. Jonathan previously founded Friendster and Hotlinks, is an active angel in companies like AngelList and Docker, co-founded Founders Den in San Francisco, and is an LP in some great VC funds. We discuss Jonathan’s move to Silicon Valley in the late nineties to work for Netscape as an engineer, starting his first companies, and discovering the layer of capital and people behind the venture community.
2017-01-0442 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalThomas Lenehan, Rockefeller UniversityThomas Lenehan is Deputy CIO at Rockefeller University, helping to manage their $2B endowment. We discuss how managing an endowment compares to his previous LP roles and committing long-term to the private markets and venture, through good and bad cycles.
2016-12-0644 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalBrad Feld, Foundry GroupWe’re very excited to have Brad Feld to help us kick off season two. In addition to co-founding Foundry Group, and Techstars, Brad also co-founded Mobius Venture Capital in 1996. So he’s as qualified as anyone in the world to discuss starting venture firms, and that’s exactly what we did in this episode. Brad has already spoken at length about starting companies and angel investing, so we dug into getting a first fund off the ground, building a firm that’s consistent with one’s belief system, and investing as a personal LP into dozens of funds including Lowercase...
2016-11-211h 12
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalEvan Jaysane-Darr, Invesco Private CapitalEvan Jaysane-Darr is a Partner at Invesco Private Capital, a public asset management company where he focuses primarily on investing in venture. We discuss what's different about investing in venture as a public company, his experience investing in private equity vs venture funds, and why emerging managers are still important even though Invesco is in great funds like USV, Foundry, Greycroft, and LHV.
2016-10-1845 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalJudith Elsea, Weathergage CapitalJudith Elsea is a co-founder and Managing Director at Weathergage Capital. Judith and her Weathergage partners are investors in some of the most respected venture firms in the world. We discuss building out a venture practice at the Kauffman Foundation, where she was previously Chief Investment Officer, starting Weathergage Capital, what they look for in venture partnerships today, and Weathergage’s unique approach to backing managers, which is partially informed by an internal product they’ve built called “Weathervane.”
2016-09-1452 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalMichael Kim, Cendana CapitalMichael Kim is the founder of Cendana Capital, one of the first fund of funds focused entirely on backing micro-VC firms. Since 2010, Cendana has been a very early institutional backer of firms like Lerer Ventures, Forerunner, Founder Collective, IA Ventures, SoftTech VC, K9 Ventures, among others. In this episode, we discuss Michael's path to starting Cendana and how he thinks about and decides to back venture capital firms.
2016-07-2652 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalJoelle Kayden, Accolade PartnersJoelle Kayden, Managing Director and Founder of Accolade Partners, joins us to discuss her deep experience as an investor in venture funds.
2016-07-121h 04
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalJosh Abramson, TeePublic, Connected VenturesJosh Abramson, co-founder of Connected Ventures (CollegeHumor, BustedTees, Vimeo) and TeePublic, joins us to discuss founding and operating companies as well as investing as an Angel and as a Limited Partner.
2016-06-281h 00
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalChris Douvos, VIAChris Douvos, Managing Director and member of the General Partner at VIA (Venture Investment Associates), joins us to discuss growing up in Brooklyn, investing courageously, & being the first institutional backer of First Round Capital.
2016-06-1055 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalNaval Ravikant, AngelListNaval Ravikant, CEO and founder of AngelList, joins us to discuss sources of capital from the founder's perspective.
2016-05-3151 min
Origins: Inside Venture CapitalElizabeth Beezer Clarkson, Sapphire VenturesElizabeth "Beezer" Clarkson, Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures, joins us to discuss her path to becoming an LP, what she looks at when considering investments, and why we're starting to see the LP world become more open and transparent.
2016-05-0547 min