Our biggest roundup ever of the greatest hits from the year (plus what's
on the industry horizon) from OpenLP, a resource for the venture community
to learn from a diverse group of LP and GP thought leaders.
Happy Holidays & see you in the New Year!
LP & GP Voices
The Art & Science of Portfolio Construction
By Mark Mullen
Mark Mullen, co-founder of Bonfire Ventures, distills 30+ years of investment wisdom into a resource for emerging and established GPs: "The Art & Science of Portfolio Construction,” created exclusively for Kauffman Fellows and shared with OpenLP.
Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures on Investing in VC with Erin Harkless Moore
Hosted by David Weisburd
Erin Harkless Moore, Senior Director at Pivotal Ventures, discusses the firm's $1B mission to drive equality and returns, how Pivotal works to close the gender gap, ways to manage teams more thoughtfully, and more.
Rumors of the Death of Software are Greatly Exaggerated
By Christoph Janz
Christoph Janz, Managing Partner at Point Nine, debunks the myth that SaaS is dying, citing the significant growth of public SaaS companies from $690 billion in 2018 to over $1.7 trillion today.
MITIMCo's Ryan Akkina joins Harry Stebbings on the 20VC podcast to share the manager evaluation process for MIT, how MIT builds its portfolio and his perspective on the LP markets today.
Reflecting on his 2015 blog, "Confronting the 'S' Word: Dealing with General Partner Succession," Vintage Investment Partners’ Founder and Managing Partner Alan Feld initiated a robust succession plan seven years ago, ensuring a seamless transition for the firm. He now shares with TechCrunch a ‘how to’ for planning.
In 2013, Cowboy Ventures assembled and studied a dataset of U.S.-based, VC-backed startups that had grown to be worth more than $1 billion, coining the term “unicorn" to describe how magical these companies were. Now, a decade later, Aileen Lee reflects on what’s happened in the ecosystem since.
The Grand Reset: VCs & LPs Are Starting To Internalize Reality
By Frank Rotman
The vast majority of the high-flying ZIRP-era startups are unlikely to deliver great financial outcomes for their investors and employees. QED Investors' Frank Rotman shared how the ecosystem is adapting.
Meghan Reynolds, Partner at Altimeter, shares a slide on fundraising that struck a chord with VC LPs. GPs, if you're finding fundraising challenging, this simple equation lays it out. Complexity is frequently misjudged by GPs, yet LPs can spot it instantly.
How LPs, GPs & Founders can Leverage QSBS to Make More Money
By Laura Thompson
LPs don’t often talk about QSBS. Sapphire Partners Partner Laura Thompson dives into how it can make a big difference on the tax burden – and thus cash in the bank – to certain tax paying investors, as well as company employees and founders.
Four Criteria for Startups & VC Investors When Evaluating Secondaries Options
By Nate Leung
Nate Leung, Partner at Sapphire Sapphire Partners, shares insights in a recent Secondaries Investor byline by PEI Media on four key questions for startup founders, employees, LPs and GPs to ask before considering secondaries.
Building a Venture Firm with a16z Managing Partner Scott Kupor
Hosted by Beezer Clarkson & Nick Chirls
In the first Origins episode of the year, co-hosts Nick Chirls and Beezer Clarkson sit down with Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to discuss the evolution of a16z, the state of venture with AI as an inflection point, managing LP/GP expectations in the current environment (e.g. markdowns) and more.
Endowment Investing with University of Chicago's Joanna Rupp
Hosted by Beezer Clarkson & Nick Chirls
Joanna Rupp, Managing Director of Private Equity at the University of Chicago, shines 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. Plus, Joanna and Beezer evaluate Nick’s recently launched venture fund Asylum Ventures.
From VC-backed Founder to Angel to Institutional Investor with Jack Altman
Hosted by Beezer Clarkson & Nick Chirls
Where is an investor willing to take more risk: As an angel investing your own money, or institutional VC taking on LP capital? Nick and Beezer asked Jack Altman, Founder of Lattice and GP at Alt Capital, about his impressive career arc from founder to angel to institutional investors - and learnings along the way.
The Journey from a First to a Sophomore Fund Has Never Been More Daunting
By OpenLP
Historically (2006-2018), 63% of first-time managers were able to raise a second fund, but the current environment suggests a much tougher road ahead. We dig into emerging manager fundraising data in our recent thread.
The opposing paths taken by two firms - Benchmark and Andreessen Horowitz - embody a profound debate about the future of an industry that funds and fosters American innovation.
Are/aren’t emerging funds facing insurmountable fundraising hurdles? Will a large percentage of them be unable to raise a subsequent fund? When will the number of active managers start to materially decline? StepStone breaks it down with some helpful charts.
How to Be Helpful: A Guide to Delivering on Your Value-Add
By Ryan Hoover & Vedika Jain
VCs love to boast about their “value-add,” and an investor, especially in today’s competitive market, is expected to help beyond capital. Weekend Fund's Vedika Jain and Ryan Hoover share a deep dive into the tools and processes investors use to support their portfolios, best practices to follow when helping and more.
In the last Axios newsletter of the year, Dan Primack shares 2025 predictions he solicited from newsletter subscribers around the venture community. Topics span deal activity, AI, fundraising, impact from the new administration and much more.
2025 stands at a crossroads. Will the impressive performance of US equities continue? Can private equity and venture capital achieve better results? What does the future hold for credit markets? We answer these questions and many others across all asset classes as we present our 2025 Outlook.
5 Trends in Tech & Startups We’re Watching In 2025, From an M&A Rebound to a Defense Tech Boom
By Crunchbase News Team
Every year, we offer up some predictions for the startup world in the coming year. Sometimes we’re right — as in last year, when we correctly predicted that IPOs would not come roaring back in 2024. Sometimes we’re wrong — also last year, when we expected the AI frenzy to cool (lol). So, along with a big grain of salt, here are the five top trends we’re watching in the new year.
AI Startups Will Need Quality of Revenue to Raise in 2025, Seed VCs Warn
By Julie Bort
Fundraising in 2025 will continue to be a “tale of two cities,” says Renegade Partners' Renata Quintini. “There is no key number that if you achieve it you’re going to raise a successful Series A. What we’re looking for is the quality of the ARR, and not the quantity of ARR," added Corinne Riley, Partner at Greylock. Catch the full panel of this powerhouse group of GPs on stage at TC Disrupt, sharing what you'll have to do to raise a Series A in 2025.
that will spur innovation in 2025. From the resurgence of nuclear and harnessing earth observation data, to the next phase of robot data collection and more, dive into the key themes they believe will change technology in the year ahead.
Launched in 2012, Sapphire Partners is a Limited Partner seeking to invest in elite early-stage venture capital funds, across the U.S., Europe, and Israel.
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