How to raise from LPs

All about sourcing, building relationships with, and closing LPs

Welcome to Signature Block*, a newsletter for emerging fund managers. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe to get the next one in your inbox.

This is our first edition, starting with one of the most common questions we get asked: How do I raise from LPs?

GPs (General Partners) need capital to invest, and LPs (Limited Partners) are the source of that capital. Venture funds’ customers are founders, and their LPs are our shareholders. But raising money from LPs is one of the most opaque parts of running a fund. This first edition aims to create more transparency on this process by sharing learnings and tips from both sides of the table, GPs and LPs.

If you only have a few minutes, here are three main takeaways:

1. When it comes to raising a fund, "always be fundraising" starts well before the pitch. The work of successfully raising a fund starts with establishing unique advantages, a strong reputation, and trust.

2. Raising a first fund is similar to raising for an early-stage startup: It’s all about the story. LPs are looking for a compelling and differentiated fund manager with a vision and evidence that can deliver outsized returns consistently.

3. The key to closing a first fund is to build credibility through social validation. First-time fund managers started with their first-degree connections, collecting checks from high-trust relationships (see point #1) regardless of check size. From there, they expanded their network through referrals from committed LPs.

Those that read beyond the TL;DR will hear directly from experienced GPs:

• What they were looking for in LPs in their first fund

• How they sourced and built relationships with LPs

• What they think are the top deciding factors for LPs

• Advice, tactics, and tips to successfully pitch LPs 

To share the perspective of the other side, you’ll also hear from LPs: 

• What they look for in fund managers they back

• What advice they’d give fund managers who are looking to successfully pitch LPs like themselves

• How their LP investment strategy has changed in this bear market

Shout out to Andre Charoo (Maple VC), Bobby Goodlatte (LP), Brianne Kimmel (Worklife), Courtney Powell (500 Global), Daniel Rumennik (AirAngels), Hunter Walk (Homebrew), Julia Lipton (Awesome People Ventures), Julian Shapiro (Julian Capital), Linda Xie (Scalar Capital), Michael Kim (Cendana Capital), Monique Woodard (Cake Ventures), Niv Dror (Shrug), Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), Stella Garber (LP) and Varsha Rao (LP) for contributing.

*We changed the name from First Close to avoid confusion with another organization.

How to source and build relationships with LPs

Weekend Fund started in 2017. Back then, very few people were starting funds, which led to even more imposter syndrome. Having no experience raising from LPs, there were doubts about demand and where to find these people.

Fortunately, the relationships built over many years earned us trust from HNW individuals, filling and exceeding our target allocation. “LPs” can be anyone with money and if you’re raising a small fund, large institutional investors that often avoid first-time fund managers aren’t required (although it is a good idea to build those relationships early).

After we exhausted our first-degree network, we asked LPs that commit to invest for intros to one or two others that might be interested. The key is to make this “ask” easy by describing the profile of the ideal LP and providing a blurb that’s easy for them to forward. This was incredibly effective, leading to a few intros per LP and from that ~80% of those intros converted.

The work starts before the raise

“Many of my LPs reached out to me because they had read my blog posts on crypto. I think writing is an extremely valuable tool for connecting with others. Twitter has also been an incredible resource for building relationships. It was surprising to see how many people kept their Twitter DMs open and responded. My advice, if you are reaching out over Twitter, is to keep your message short and direct since everyone's attention is limited. You won't always get a response but it will most likely increase your chances.” — Linda Xie, Scalar Capital (GP)

“For several reasons our [fund one] experience was atypical compared to what many new managers have to navigate. Satya and I were a bit further along in our careers (mid 30s) and he’s been at a larger venture capital firm before, so had a track record so to speak. That said, we still heard more ‘no/not yet’ than ‘yes’ so I think it’s helpful to emphasize that it’s never easy to raise a first fund!” — Hunter Walk, Homebrew (GP)

“Before you raise, study venture as an asset class to better understand where LPs are coming from. Books like Venture Deals, The Business of Venture Capital, Secrets of Sandhill Road are a great start but also consider more LP-centric podcasts like Capital Allocators and OpenLP. LP segmentation is also key…raising from HNWI, Strategics, Fund of Funds or Institutional each require their own strategy and language.” — Courtney Powell, 500 Global, (GP)

“Given that I was targeting an LP type where the sales cycle was going to be longer, I really optimized for spending time and getting to know LPs. There really was no special trick — I was just willing to spend a lot of my time relationship-building or leveraging relationships that I had already created over my career. Many of those relationships were created in a pre-pandemic time — I met LPs and built the relationship even before I started fundraising in earnest. I have one LP who I got to know pre-pandemic. I was on the board of a company based in their city and when I came in for board meetings, I would make an effort to see them for a coffee or a walk. When it came time to fundraise over Zoom, some of those relationships had already been solidified in person. The only thing that has ever worked for me is using time to my advantage.” — Monique Woodard, Cake Ventures (GP)

“It took me a solid three years of writing, angel investing, and hosting dinners with other VCs before I felt ready to start my own firm. I’m very grateful for that time where I could really invest my time in the ecosystem and meet a lot of people before asking for money. I started with small personal checks to build a track record and to prove out my investment thesis before asking anyone for money. In hindsight, I wish I would have continued angel investing for another couple of years before starting a fund. Raising outside money is very time consuming, especially from traditional LPs, and angel investing is fun, collaborative, and have better personal economics.” — Brianne Kimmel, Worklife (GP)

Start with your network

“I think it's a good exercise to go through for first time fund managers in general, reaching out to people in your network (colleagues, industry friends) and asking them to invest – even if they say no, it's a good way of letting people know that you're now have a fund, which leads to more deal-flow, and new LP connections, among other things.” — Niv Dror, Shrug

Ask fund manager friends and committed LPs for recommendations

“As mentioned in our fundraise overview summary, for Homebrew I we only approached LPs where there was a warm intro available from one of their current managers. Besides the obvious benefit of being walked in the door by someone they were already in business with, it also meant we could diligence the LP before investing too much time in the process. I think we took around ~40 LP intros and even with this process half of them said No without even taking a meeting (no room for new managers, too small a fund, want to see a 1-2 fund track record, etc etc). In almost all those cases we didn’t try to handle the initial objection but instead focused on the people who wanted a meeting.” — Hunter Walk, Homebrew (GP)

“I worked closely with VCs for a while then asked who the biggest-check LPs were that they could warm intro me to.” — Julian Shapiro, Julian Capital (GP)

“We asked our other GP friends which LPs they like and who they could introduce us to. We had already been investing for a while so had a network of GPs we knew and trusted who served as nice intros for us.” — Sheel Mohnot, BTV (GP)

“After closing every LP, I sent them a note says, ‘Can you introduce me to 1-2 potential LPs?’ I also include potential LPs on my LP updates to build relationships across funds.” — Julia Lipton, Awesome People Ventures (GP)

Programs for emerging fund managers can help build relationships

“Maple was part of the first cohort of the Oper8r, a program for emerging fund managers. The program exposed us to 50+ institutional LPs we could start building a relationships with. Despite not raising a fund that would likely be a fit, given our $16.5m first institutional fund is small, we felt that it was still important to start building a relationship with institutional LPs. Other ways we built relationships were through GPs we co-invested with at top funds and intros through emerging manager peer groups.” — Andre Charoo, Maple VC (GP)

It’s a numbers game

“Just don't give up. It's a funnel and a numbers game.” — Julia Lipton, Awesome People Ventures (GP)

What to look for in LPs for your first fund

It’s easier to get a divorce than it is to exit an LP. Similar to raising money as a founder, accepting money from a difficult investor can lead to massive headaches. 

We raised almost all of the capital for Weekend Fund’s first fund from people we knew that understood what they were investing in. We wanted notable LPs that could further our credibility to founders and other LPs but also help with deal flow, diligence, and portfolio support.

It’s easier to get a divorce than it is to exit an LP. Similar to raising money as a founder, accepting money from a difficult LP can lead to massive headaches. 

It was also important to us to avoid “problem” LPs. We wanted people that were familiar with venture and understood how long it takes to get a return. It was important for us to understand their expectations to ensure we were aligned.

Speaking with other GPs, many prioritize LPs who are willing to take a bet on them, build their credibility, and remain committed for the long-term.

LPs willing to bet on you

“The first fund is less about track record and more a bet on you. I needed to find the LPs who were willing to take that bet. The first fund was mostly friends, or friends of friends. These LPs were mostly founders with exits and VCs.” — Julia Lipton, Awesome People Ventures (GP)

“Backing us for the return potential - we didn’t want to be anyone’s scout fund, or primarily a way for our LPs to generate direct co-investment. We challenged our LPs to believe in *us* and the ability for Homebrew to deliver outsized returns. And turned down LPs who we felt had primary goals beyond DPI.” — Hunter Walk, Homebrew (GP)

LPs that help build credibility

“For Shrug I, I first reached out to the 2-3 people I thought would be open to investing, it didn't matter what amount, I knew I wanted to work with them, with the added benefit of being able to use their names. This helped a lot with fundraising, I would think of it as a version of ‘do things that don't scale’ to get those initial people on board, as they help validate the raise for the rest of the LP group. My specific approach was reaching out to a lot of the people I've looked up to in my career, most of whom I had no business trying to raise from, but many of them said yes.” — Niv Dror, Shrug (GP)

“We chose to raise from high profile founders from Cameo, Twitch, Spotify, and Zoom because they were companies that had successfully changed how creative people work.” — Brianne Kimmel, Worklife (GP) 

“We prioritized based on first being part of the Airbnb family and if they were a value-add investor that founders we spoke with would be excited to have involved. There's so many (LP) investors out there, we wanted to build a special group” — Daniel Rumennik, AirAngels (GP)

“Credibility in the ecosystem, sizeable check writers, investors I could learn from and would like to co-invest with, LPs who were aligned and/or acccentuated my strategy and thesis, and LPs who could grow across multiple funds.” — Andre Charoo, Maple VC (GP) 

LPs who take a long-term view 

“[We focused on] long-term committed investors that are helpful but mostly stay out of the way. To put it into startup terms: you'd always want recurring revenue, not one-time revenue. Almost every one of our Fund 1 LP's joined us for Fund 2, mostly with larger checks.” — Sheel Mohnot, BTV (GP)

“[We looked for] proven and credible LPs in top performing funds, ideally committing across multiple funds” — Brianne Kimmel, Worklife (GP)

“When raising a fund focused on a nascent geographic market or new category, it’s ideal to have LPs who are both thesis and mission-aligned—with eyes wide-open on how long the market may take to mature and fully bought in on the long-term financial impact and opportunity that will be created from being early.” — Courtney Powell, 500 Global (GP)

“[We wanted] enduring commitment to the venture capital vertical. We basically wanted them to be professional LPs who had long term commitments to the sector. In our mind this accomplished two goals. First, they would have interesting data, experiences and perspectives that could be helpful to our own firm-building decisions. Second, it was a bet on ourselves. If we performed well at our job, we wanted to assume they would be there to support us for subsequent funds. Corporates, HNWs, other venture funds, and so on. Those folks float in and out of the market as venture LPs.” — Hunter Walk, Homebrew (GP)

“Since my fund invests in crypto specifically, I was looking for LPs that were long term interested in crypto and understood that it was going to be a volatile industry. That way they wouldn't be too concerned seeing an inevitable bear market.” — Linda Xie, Scalar Capital (GP)

LPs you trust with strong reputations

“[We looked for] quality human beings and institutions. Just as we want to put sweat and reputation behind founders, in addition to capital, we asked ourselves similar questions when talking with LPs. Are these folks people we trust? Institutions who are doing good things with their capital? Would our founders be proud to know we’re working on behalf of them?” — Hunter Walk, Homebrew (GP)

LPs that are responsive 

“[We wanted them to be] responsive. There were LPs in Fund I who never replied to a single investor update, so they were excluded from investing in Fund II.We found founders, even the most busy ones, would reply in less than 24 hours with tactical advice and really leaned in to help portfolio companies with a lot of empathy and respect for how hard it is to build a company.” — Brianne Kimmel, Worklife (GP) 

Understanding LPs motivations

As mentioned earlier, it’s important to understand LP motivations before accepting their capital. Misaligned expectations can create years of headaches.

Niv from Shrug does a good job of describing these varying goals below.

“One thing I ask or try to get an understanding for as soon as I meet a new potential LP is knowing what their motivations are for investing. These mostly fall into 4 buckets for what they'd want to get out of their investment:

1. A Return: LPs want to make a return on their investment, although this may not always be the primary motivation.

2. Deal-Flow: This is always the motivation when a large VC fund makes small LP investments, which is not a bad thing and can be quite beneficial for you and the large VC if done well, but it's something to be aware of with individuals or GPs investing personally as well. My advice would be to avoid taking any LP checks from people/firms that you wouldn't naturally want to send deals to, if you know that deal-flow is their primary motivation.

3. Co-Investments: Different than deal-flow, which implies sending deals for a direct allocation, some LP checks are motivated by access to follow-on co-investment opportunities.

4. Exposure/Trends: Some LP investments are motivated by learning more about certain sectors/trends through investor updates, access to companies in a certain space (i.e. crypto funds, climate funds), or if an LP already has too much exposure to a certain industry, to get exposure through diversification (i.e. crypto investors investing in non-crypto focused VC funds).

Lastly, some people (such as friends, colleagues, and industry connections) just want to support you and be part of the journey. These are mostly small checks, which both add up + people may surprise you with additional zeros at the end, and often provide some of the best deal-flow for you as a fund manager.” — Niv Dror, Shrug (GP)

Top deciding factors for LPs 

Understanding an LP’s motivation is important to delivering an attractive pitch. We asked some LPs how they make decisions on who to back.

In general, they’re looking for GPs that have unique advantages in sourcing, evaluating, and investing in companies that can deliver outsized returns. Many also deeply value a manager’s motivation, discipline, and thoughtfulness in their portfolio constructions.

An advantage in getting access to high-quality deal-flow 

“If I am going to make an investment in a new fund manager, I really want to see an approach that is unique and differentiated from a value creation context. Either the fund has developed a unique way to source deals, or a unique way to win deals, or help founders create outsize success. Beyond that, the fund needs to have an approach and or align with areas that are important to me and are good investment areas. A few examples: I'm an LP in Unshackled Ventures and their mission around helping immigrant founders backed by the work they do to help founders was a key draw for me to invest in their fund.  Similarly, I'm an LP in Multicoin which is focused on Crypto, which is an area where I don't have much expertise and yet I'd like to have access and exposure so it made sense to invest. And of course Weekend Fund where Ryan and Vedika through their work have incredible founder and deal access. Those are three examples.” — Varsha Rao (LP)

“Our primary filters are portfolio construction, ecosystem, and discernible edges/networks. For ecosystem, we think about the availability of high-quality founders, employees and follow-on capital. For discernible edges, we think about the special networks or experiences a GP has that could provide interesting deal flow.” — Michael Kim, Cendana Capital (LP) 

The fund managers ability to “pick” and get “picked” 

“Picking ability, and “being picked” ability [are important]. Nearly everyone thinks they’re a great picker, so that’s hard to assess without data. An ability to be picked by founders can take a number of forms. Domain expertise, having an audience, or doing tangible value-add work. Even structurally: I mostly back small funds as relatively small checks are often more likely to be included by founders as add-ons in rounds.” — Bobby Goodlatte (LP)

“When I'm investing in a new fund manager it's because we either have a longstanding existing relationship and/or they've demonstrated success in investing either through a previous fund or angel track record. The best is when it's a combination of the two, that way there is a foundation of trust as well as a history of excellence.” — Stella Garber (LP)

Venture is competitive, differentiation matters 

“Every LP varies but at least in crypto where there are so many funds, it can be competitive to get high quality deals and sizable allocations. LPs are often looking for strong relationships and reputation in the industry as well as if there is a clear differentiation for the fund that will make founders want to work with them.” — Linda Xie, Scalar Capital (GP)

“[LPs often want to back GPs that are] differentiated in their sector/geo or that have a material advantage in sourcing and winning.” — Julian Shapiro, Julian Capital (GP)

LPs invest in lines, not dots 

“VC is all about building relationships and having a strong reputation. The earlier you start building relationships, the more successful you'll be. The adage about ‘always be fundraising’ is less about actual capital and more about reputation. Many people who may not have the capital or interest to be an LP when you meet them may become LPs in the future. Or maybe someone who comes in as a smaller LP in your first fund will size up in future funds. The ‘pitching’ process should start a long, long time before you actually do a pitch.” — Stella Garber (LP)

LPs invest in GPs that are committed

“Since VC is a long game, I also want to make sure new fund managers have a passion and understanding of the commitment to this field/industry, and they are launching their own fund for the right reasons.” — Stella Garber (LP) 

LPs care about portfolio construction

“For portfolio construction, we seek fund managers who target initial ownership that is appropriate to their fund size. We think a good baseline is 10% of fund size for seed funds and 20% of fund size for pre-seed funds. For example—a $75MM seed fund should be targeting at minimum 7.5% initial ownership, and our best performing portfolio funds punch above these baselines.” — Michael Kim, Cendana Capital (LP)

LPs have varying opinions and preferences

“[Criteria] varies widely by LP! There were 3 reasons that LP's said ‘no’ to us in BTV 1:

1. Fintech doesn't deserve it's own fund

2. Jake and Sheel haven't spent enough time together

3. They were writing small checks before, will people want them to lead rounds?

The ones who came into fund 2 believed that we'd solved for these 3 things.” — Sheel Mohnot, BTV (GP)

Tips for pitching LPs

Raising a fund has many parallels to raising as a founder: You need a compelling vision and evidence that you can deliver on that vision. However, there are some big differences.

First, it’s difficult to create urgency to close LPs quickly because fund investing is less “zero sum”. In startups, investors know there’s finite allocation and rounds can start and close in days. On the other hand, LPs know it typically takes months and sometimes over a year for a GP to close a fund and that there’s often no benefit in being early to commit.

Second, feedback loops are much longer than in startups. A founder can quickly show objective progress through engagement or growth metrics. A GP’s progress is often reported as markups and performance metrics like TVPI (Total Value to Paid In) and IRR (Internal Rate of Return). But it takes years before many LPs will trust in these numbers and DPI (Distributed to Paid-In Capital) is what really matters.

For these reasons, we set our target fund size small for Weekend Fund 1 to reduce the number of allocations, effectively, creating more urgency and momentum toward fully subscribing the first fund. And in lieu of objective metrics or prior investment experience, we also focused telling an authentic story about why founders want us on the cap table.

Raising a fund has parallels to raising for a startup

“Get LPs excited about the vision, prove you have the right team to deliver on your promises, and keep following up with LPs you'd like to work with. The most helpful relationships I have today came from a DM, finding a way to work together, and a truly two-sided relationship where I’m learning a lot as the younger VC and they’re learning a lot because we’re tapped into a different, but powerful network of young builders.” — Brianne Kimmel, Worklife (GP)

“GPs should be able to articulate the above 3 areas (portfolio construction, ecosystem and discernible edges/networks) in a highly credible and personable way. LPs need conviction that the GP can execute, and that they have the hustle to find and work with great founders often before the founders know they are great.” — Michael Kim, Cendana Capital (LP)

Focus on what makes you special

“Focus on the things you do that other investors can't.“ — Julian Shapiro, Julian Capital (GP)

“Lindel Eakman at Foundry’s advice really stuck with me. He said ‘Figure out your hook that differentiates you.’ Your hook should be uniquely specific to you and your experience. Also, get as many mutually top-tier investors to vouch for you when connecting with LPs (ie. send in a good word in advance or after).” — Andre Charoo, Maple VC (GP) 

“I believe the fundamentals to being a strong VC hold true for funds of all stages and sizes - i.e. the power law - and also the elements of being a strong VC: 1) Sourcing Deals 2) Winning Deals and 3) Helping Founders succeed and exiting. Therefore fund managers need to convey how they can uniquely help in each of these stages and how they've demonstrated aspects of this in their past lives/experiences. “— Varsha Rao (LP)

Pitch the right type of LP

“In general, try to understand who you’re pitching and what they look for. For example, pitching me is obviously very different from pitching an endowment or fund-of-funds. If you understand the constraints that different types of LPs face, it may help you identify the right ones for you right now.” — Bobby Goodlatte (LP)

“My biggest learning was to know what type of LP my pitches resonated with the most and focusing more of my time there. When I first started, I met with many different types of LPs from angels to traditional institutions. However, I spent far too much time meeting with traditional funds that were skeptical about crypto when it was probably clear from the start there was a small chance they would even invest in the sector.” — Linda Xie, Scalar Capital (LP)

Get trusted referrals

“Get people who they trust to vouch for you. This was critical. We had other funds in network and founders proactively reach out and put in a good word for us.” — Sheel Mohnot, BTV (GP)

Get trusted referrals

“Get people who they trust to vouch for you. This was critical. We had other funds in network and founders proactively reach out and put in a good word for us.” — Sheel Mohnot, BTV (GP)

How to close LPs that are slow to commit and wire

We raised Weekend Fund 1 in a few months. It was relatively quick in part because the fund was small ($3M total) in a favorable environment. By keeping the first fund small, we made quick progress filling a large percentage of the allocation and followed up with LPs with our status. This momentum from 0% to near 100% of our goal helped drive urgency.

In contrast, some first-time fund managers start with large $50M+ fund sizes. While that might be the right size for their strategy, it makes it very hard to illustrate momentum quickly and typically requires one to attract institutional LPs which tend to take much longer than HNW individuals.

It’s generally much easier to raise consecutive funds so starting small doesn’t mean one needs to stay small. Our first fund was tiny but served as a stepping stone toward our second fund ($10M) and third fund ($21M), with the majority of LPs continuing their participation in consecutive funds.

Fundraise timelines vary widely (and the macro matters a lot)

“100 days.” — Hunter Walk, Homebrew (GP)

“It took 3 months for our first close. Since crypto was in a bear market in 2018, it was very difficult to fundraise and took another several months to raise the remaining amount.” — Linda Xie, Scalar Capital (GP)

“6 months.” — Julia Lipton, Awesome People Ventures (GP)

“It took me 20 months to raise $16.5m for Maple 2 (my first institutional fund).” — Andre Charoo, Maple VC (GP) 

Create “FOMO” by sharing updates

“Send LPs that are slow to commit and wire deal updates to create FOMO, nudges, and reminders that you're going to close the fund asap.” — Julia Lipton, Awesome People Ventures (GP)

“I did multiple closes and used prospective investments that were in line with my strategy and thesis to nudge investors to commit and wire in time to make those investments (ex. I used the fact that there is only one seed round for Uber and if you miss it, then you've missed one of the biggest winners in that vintage).” — Andre Charoo, Maple VC (GP)

Focus on LPs that are likely to invest

“I learned the hard way that some [LP] follow-ups are just not worth the time and effort, and it's much more productive to focus on the people that are already into it and likely want to invest.” — Niv Dror, Shrug (GP)

Hire help

“To be honest, even the best LPs are slow to commit and even slower to wire. I find having an EA or even a virtual EA through UpWork is helpful, so you’re not the one bothering someone else for money. A hire I wish I would have made earlier is someone to drive investor relations, everything from sourcing LPs to maintaining relationships and attending important industry events.I want to spend as much time as possible with founders and early career operators who take a big risk in joining an unproven person with a big idea.” — Brianne Kimmel, Worklife (GP)

How LP investment strategy has changed in this bear market

It’s a tough time to raise a fund as the macro climate softens (to put it lightly). A GP friend of ours recently shared:

“To be 100% honest, the past few months have been tough, and I'm now figuring out exactly what my next fund will look like. I did a first close in Q2 and have had my soft/hard commits drop from $35m in March to $10m over the past three months. This includes my three $5m anchor checks backing out a few others dropping check sizes from $1m to $500k, $100k, etc. I decreased my target size by 60% and am now not sure if I'll do a traditional 99 LP fund or go the parallel route to have up to 249.”

We asked LPs how their investment strategy backing funds has changed as we’re entering a bear market. While there is less capital in the markets overall, the LPs we asked are doubling down on backing earlier stage funds who invest early enough to still deliver outsized returns. Later-stage funds are more susceptible to lower valuations in the public market.  

“In the 2nd half of 2021, we decided that we will tilt toward Pre-Seed funds. So now, we make $10MM commitments to Seed VC funds and up to $15MM commitments to Pre-Seed funds. We also have our Pilot program which are $1MM checks for Seed and Pre-Seed funds where we like the GP but have questions about geo or sector or model. In early 2021, we launched Cendana Nano, to anchor with 20% checks to funds under $15MM. We think this has been a great way to work with the smaller operator-run funds, and we have recently opened the aperture to $20MM. Overall we think the next few years will be a great time to be investing.” — Michael Kim, Cendana Capital (LP) 

“The bear market has made me entirely focused on seed & pre-seed funds. It’s unclear where valuations will settle at later stages. When you invest in great managers at the bottom of the stack, you can still expect growth & multiples. Those multiples may be re-adjusted to a new benchmark, but can still deliver returns. Later-stage is so affected by the rapidly shifting public market that it’s hard to participate there at the moment. All that said, I’ve certainly pared back lately to focus on managers I already support.” — Bobby Goodlatte (LP)

“I'm being more focused on where I invest funds overall but having said this, my view is that it could be a great time to be NEW VC/fund where one doesn't have the baggage of overvalued companies in the portfolio with down rounds and downsizings to have to work through and one can start with a fresh slate of companies in a new valuation expectation environment. That could be an important part of a pitch as a new fund raises.” — Varsha Rao (LP)

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If you’re a new fund manager, thinking of starting a fund, or just curious about this nerdy topic, subscribe to Signature Block if you haven’t already. If you think this might be useful for emerging managers, please share.

Lastly, let us know what topic you’d like us to cover in the next edition. 

Until next time,
Ryan and Vedika :)