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
The LLM Big Stack Game of Poker
By Sarah Tavel
Sarah Tavel, General Partner at Benchmark, dives into the state of AI investment, the escalating arms race among tech giants to dominate the LLM space, and the transformative potential these models hold for the future of various industries.
Why LPs Use Fund of Funds to Invest into Venture Capital with Fernando Saiz
By David Weisburd
Fernando Saiz, Co-Founder of Azet Capital, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Azet Capital’s fund of funds strategy. Fernando shares his diligence process for selecting venture funds, what differentiates the funds Azet invests in vs those they pass on, and Azet’s strategic value-add to venture GPs.
Understanding the J-Curve and Market Normalization in VC
By David Clark
David Clark, CIO at Vencap International plc, reviews Carta's recent benchmark report to share his insights on the importance of understanding the return of the J-Curve and the market's normalization trends in venture capital performance.
The Art and Science of Reference Checks with Raida Daouk
By David Zhou
Raida Daouk, Managing Partner at Amkan Ventures, sits down with David Zhou, Host of the Superclusters Podcast, to share her journey from banking to leading a firm that empowers family offices and high-net-worth individuals to invest in emerging managers with conviction.
John-Austin Saviano, Founder and Managing Partner of High Country Advisors, shares learnings and common pitfalls after reviewing the highest-rated 150 decks of the nearly 1,000 venture and growth funds vying for an invite to RAISE Global's fall conference.
Input Coffee, Output Code: How AI Will Turn Capital into Labor
By Alex Rampell
Alex Rampell, General Partner at a16z, discusses how AI is transforming capital into labor by automating tasks traditionally performed by humans, potentially creating new software markets and fundamentally altering the landscape of enterprise software and labor economics.
Frank Rotman, Founding Partner and CIO at QED Investors, shares his perspective on one of the most critical yet often overlooked aspects of the VC-backed startup ecosystem—the exchange of value between investors and founders.
By Peter Walker, Kevin Dowd, Michael Young & Alex Lester
Carta's inaugural VC fund performance report analyzes benchmarks for more than 1,800 funds across six recent vintages, sharing fresh metrics on IRR, TVPI, deployment pace, graduation rates and much more.
Global Fund Performance Report with Preliminary Q1 2024 Data
By PitchBook
The temperature is rising in deal rooms as investment activity increases across private markets, promising improvements in fund performance after a relatively subdued 2023, according to PitchBook's latest Global Fund Performance Report.
Being Non-Consensus and Right in VC with Jason Shuman & Will Quist
By Nick Chirls & Beezer Clarkson
What do Primary GP Jason Shuman and Slow Ventures GP Will Quist have in common? At first glance, not much, given how differently their firms approach firm building and VC "platforms." But in a surprising twist, they agree on more than one would expect in the latest episode of the Origins Podcast.
In this bonus minisode, Beezer and Nick go inside their recent conversation with Jason and Will to dive into the answer of their burning question: Do VCs actually add value to founders and companies?
Established firms are raising record funds while most smaller firms struggle to raise money at all. Sapphire Partners' Beezer Clarkson sheds light on the consolidation happening in the ecosystem with Bloomberg's Katie Roof.
Startups Take Longer To Close Rounds, As Funding Cliff Looms
By Joanna Glasner
The time lapse between funding rounds for early-stage startups has reached the highest point in more than a decade. The median time lapse between rounds in 2024 was 28 months — by far the longest span since 2012.
Early-Stage VC Valuations are More Reasonable than They Appear
By James Thorne
Investors hoping for a steep drop in early-stage startup valuations have so far been disappointed, but prices for these companies are cheaper than they first appear—signaling an era for better returns may be on the horizon.
M&A Can Open Up the Playing Field for the Competition
By Anna Heim
No two businesses are the same, and that’s good news: It opens up space for companies to try opposite approaches, join forces or challenge leaders. Keep reading from some of the most interesting startup stories from the month.
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.
Not a subscriber to the OpenLP monthly newsletter?
.png?upscale=true&width=1200&upscale=true&name=OpenLP%20Newsletter%20Header%20%20(1).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=320&upscale=true&name=Minisode%20(1).png)
.png?upscale=true&height=50&upscale=true&name=Nov%20OpenLP%20Newsletter%20Images%20(2).png){kind=small}