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
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.
The Investor View on Startup Funding with Kate Shillo Beardsley
By Peter Walker
In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker, Head of Insights at Carta, is joined by Kate Shillo Beardsley, Founding Partner at Hannah Grey, for a wide-ranging conversation on VC, private equity and investor trends.
Benedikt Langer, General Manager at The Sutton Firm, highlights the crucial skill for LPs and equates recognizing potential in emerging managers much like a sommelier identifies fine wines.
Insight Partners' Direct and Fund of Funds Strategy
By David Weisburd
Insight Partners' Dionne Chingkoe and Samer Yousif sit down with David Weisburd, Host of the 10X Capital Podcast, to discuss Insight’s direct and fund of funds investment strategies, the importance of adding value beyond capital to both founders and emerging managers, the landscape of multi-stage VCs investing in emerging managers and more.
Frank Rotman, Founding Partner and CIO at QED Investors, shares insights on the pitfalls of the "Need to be Right" Founder, noting how their dismissal of feedback and resistance to market realities can significantly hinder a startup's success by prioritizing ego over effective, adaptive leadership.
What Are the Implications When There are Only 72 Public Enterprise Software Companies Worth >$5B?
By Ed Sim
Ed Sim, Founder of Boldstart Ventures, dives into the state of SaaS, highlighting deteriorating fundamentals, the impact of AI, and the necessity for investors to reassess their valuation models in light of the excessive supply of unicorn startups.
Vencap's Sion Evans on Big vs. Small Funds, Manager Selection, Performance & Portfolio Concentration
By David Cruz e Silva & Andreas Munk Holm
David Cruz e Silva and Andreas Munk Holm, hosts of the EUVC podcast, sit down with Sion Evans, Senior Investment Manager at VenCap, to dig into manager selection and big versus small funds, a topic we're constantly debating on LinkedIn, as well as how Sion and Andreas thinks about fund sizing in Europe.
Women and nonbinary venture investors have gained a foothold in the technology industry five years faster than advocacy group All Raise expected, but leaders say a national backlash to diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives threatens the progress that has been made.
Hundreds of millions of people have tried ChatGPT, but most of them haven’t been back. Every big company has done a pilot, but far fewer are in deployment. Some of this is just a matter of time. But LLMs might also be a trap: they look like products and they look magic, but they aren’t. Maybe we have to go through the slow, boring hunt for product-market fit after all.
Stay Up-to-Date on the Amount of Venture Dollars Going to Underrepresented Founders
By Dominic-Madori Davis
Venture capital funding has never been robust for women or Black and brown founders. Alongside Crunchbase, we’ve been tracking funding levels to pinpoint moments of progress and regression for marginalized entrepreneurs.
Venture’s Asset Growth Has Become an Albatross Around its Neck
By James Thorne
A huge turnaround in tech IPOs is needed to bring the asset class back to the performance that underpins its reputation, according to PitchBook. Last year, distributions were a mere 5.1% of the net asset value managed by US VC firms, a sharp drop from over 30% in 2021. Over the last decade, the rate of distributions-to-NAV at US VC firms averaged 17.1%.
Shedding Light on Endowment Investing with University of Chicago's Joanna Rupp
By Nick Chirls & Beezer Clarkson
What does it take to build a franchise in venture? Joanna Rupp, Managing Director of Private Equity at the University of Chicago, sits down with Origins podcast hosts Nick and Beezer to discuss the key elements that set top-tier VC firms apart, strategies for emerging managers to achieve long-term success, and the differences between endowments and foundations.
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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