October 2024 Recap 

The latest perspectives from OpenLP, a resource for the venture community to hear from a diverse group of LP and GP voices.

LP & GP Voices

Do Startups Have a Chance vs Big Tech in the Age of AI? History Says Yes... In Due Time 

By Aileen Lee

Aileen Lee, Founder of Cowboy Ventures, explores whether startups can take on big tech in the AI age. While tech giants may dominate early in platform shifts (web, mobile, cloud), they often set the stage for agile startups to eventually out-innovate them. 

How the $3.5B University of Rochester Endowment Invests

By David Weisburd

Rob Rahbari, Senior Investment Officer and Assistant Treasurer at the University of Rochester, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the hidden potential that diverse fund managers offer, the missing ingredient in a successful investment strategy, and what role will diversity, equity, and inclusion play in the future of institutional investing.

Survivorship Bias

By David Clark

VenCap International PLC’s David Clark shares fresh data underscoring the ongoing debate on fund size and emphasizes the importance of examining the original data source to truly understand its insights and reliability before using it to shape an investment strategy.

VC's Power Law

By Meghan Reynolds

Meghan Reynolds, Partner & Head of Capital Formation at Altimeter, shares insights from VC LPs. With data analysis from StepStone VC, spanning 25+ years, the findings reveal that even the top 5% of VCs underperform on about 75% of deals, highlighting the power law's impact in venture returns.

Lessons from DoorDash's Series A Pitch Deck

By Alfred Lin

Alfred Lin, Partner at Sequoia, highlights DoorDash Co-founder Tony Xu’s clarity and conviction in DoorDash's early days. Despite a crowded food delivery market, Xu saw a gap—85% of restaurants couldn’t afford delivery staff, and existing solutions didn’t meet their needs. By 2013, the rise of smartphones and app-based economies made the timing perfect to rethink local logistics.

Investing Lessons from Seeding Uber, Airtable & Coupang

By Harry Stebbings

Harry Stebbings sits down with David Frankel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Founder Collective, widely regarded as one of the greatest seed investors of our time. Here are Harry's 7 lessons learned from their conversation, plus the full episode is linked within.

Featuring Sapphire Partners

Minisode: Seed vs Growth Investing - What Changes & What Stays the Same

By Nick Chirls & Beezer Clarkson

Nick Chirls and Beezer Clarkson unpack their recent conversation with Jai Das, President & Partner at Sapphire Ventures, and Mike Maples, Co-Founder & Partner at Floodgate. 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 more.

Credit Due: The 50 Over 50 Reflects on 50 Years of Equal Credit Access for Women

By Vickie Chachere

This week marked the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), which made it illegal for lenders to require that women have a male cosigner when applying for credit cards, mortgages or bank accounts. Forbes highlights this landmark legislation with reflections from this year’s cohort of ‘50 Over 50’ women, including Sapphire Partners' Beezer Clarkson.

What We're Reading This Month

The US Presidential Election Will Affect Venture Investing. How Much is the Question

By Chris Metinko

Like most of America, those in the venture and startup realm will watch the returns of the U.S. presidential election pour in next week with a keen eye on who wins — and what it could mean for big issues in the industry such as M&A, taxes and even crypto.

A Year On, War Has Not Undone Israeli VC—but Leaves Indelible Mark

By Leah Hodgson

After more than a year of war, Israel’s venture capital ecosystem has proved resilient, but the conflict with Hamas is set to have a lasting impact on its future.

VC Megadeals are Booming — and AI is Surprisingly Not the Top Category

By Julie Bort

Ask any VC if we’re still in a venture capital bear market and that investor will almost certainly tell you no, and that funding is still flowing for good companies. That might sound like spin, because anecdotes abound about how rough it still is for those raising now. And for good reason.

OpenLP is supported by Sapphire Partners.

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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