Good morning 👋
And Happy Cinco de Mayo.
Especially during downturns, everybody talks about fundraising hacks, but we’ve found that qualifying is one of the most important skills for any managers.
Your pitch isn’t right for everybody; it’s up to you to figure out quickly who you can help and who you cannot.
We break that down in more detail below …
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Today’s highlights
Thoughts on qualifying your LPs
Jeff Bezos on asymmetric opportunities
The agentic revolution
Harvard loses tax-exempt status
TOP
should you take their money?
Endowment Eddie (@endowment_eddie) has quickly become one of my follows on X, and there is so much alpha in this post.
I’ve seen tons of other emerging GP friends spin their wheels and waste time talking to LPs before qualifying them.
Everybody has a different definition of “emerging manager”. Some LPs define that as $10m fund Is. Others define it as a $100m+ spinout from a megafund.
Some LPs evaluate fund managers for a living. Others evaluate them as a hobby. Your diligence process will be different for each.
Some LPs say they are actively investing into new names, but others are tapped out and choose to prioritize re-ups over new managers.
“1-and-done” capital is great in the short-term, but it creates a hole you need to fill for your next fund.
The better you can disqualify bad fits, the more time you can spend with good fits.
Some of the best content I’ve found for this corner of the internet.
ICYMI
The best of the best from last week 👇
thoughts on "negative" signals: Negative signaling risk, partner attribution shifting fund-over-fund, Sarah Tavel is leaving Benchmark, and SPACs are back?
how IA invests: How one of the top seed funds operates, some thoughts around investing in small funds, how Insight trains its new investors, and venture dollars are consolidating back to SF
"how fast you win" vs. "how much you win": Extended fund timelines, how VCs come up with their theses, and Intel reverses course
how much is a seed?(!): Seed rounds are more expensive than they’ve ever been, craft is the antidote to slop, the OpenAI mafia, and lessons from Roelof Brotha
SPONSOR
~$49,000 in pipeline from one email 💰
Harsh reality: if you want to grow your business, you’re going to have to spend.
Good news: the right spending will make you more revenue than what it costs
At least that has been the experience of some of the sponsors we have worked with in the past.
Companies like Brex, Affinity, Sydecar, and Harmonic have seen ROI from advertising in this newsletter.
Check out how we work with advertisers, and see if it’s the right fit for you …
TWEET
HEADLINES
The rise of retail investors in secondaries, and why delayed IPOs will become the norm (TechCrunch)
Defense VCs firm up priorities with $1 trillion Pentagon budget in play (Pitchbook)
Harvard to lose tax-exempt status, Trump says (Pitchbook)
Apollo raises $5.4B for its debut secondaries fund amid liquidity demand (Pitchbook)
RECS
LINKS
🧨 The Agentic Revolution—How AI Agents Will Reshape Software, Startups, and Work: The VC Corner explores what every founder and investor should know about the rise of AI agents—and why this shift may be as big as the cloud and mobile revolutions
🙏 The 100 Most Promising Private AI Companies in the World: CB Insights provides the 9th annual ranking and this year’s cohort is shaping the future of intelligent systems
📈 Why Data-Driven VC Isn’t Dead: Data-Driven VC argues data-driven VC isn’t over and it’s only beginning to fulfill its promise
🔑 Surprising Takeaways from our Private Company Benchmarking Report: Mostly Metrics shares the key takeaways from its new benchmarking report that blends private company performance with public company valuation context and operator relevant commentary
📶 Thoughts on “Negative” Signals: Yoni Rechtman weeds through what is made up “signal risk” and what is real
Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.
Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.
- Clay
(Founder @ Confluence.VC | GP @ Outlaw)
