Origins - Inside Venture Capital, Hosted by a GP and an LP

Origins host Beezer Clarkson sits down with her colleague Laura Thompson, fellow LP and Partner at Sapphire Partners, to discuss her recent conversation with Stephen Bluestein, Partner of Primary Investments at Adams Street and formerly Packard Foundation, about what it takes to make (and potentially later break) a franchise fund in venture. Together, Beezer and Laura debrief their top takeaways, including: do the hallmarks of a franchise differ between GPs and LPs (or even amongst different LPs); how does a franchise produce a lights-out 5x or 10x fund at their fund size; is a consistent 2x net good enough; parallels of sports franchises; and, does the right to win with the best founders mean you will then deliver the best returns? Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about Adams Street Partners: adamsstreetpartners.com Read Laura Thompson’s blog on why venture reserves aren’t always a good thing: sapphireventures.com/blog/dirty-secret-venture-reserves-are-not-always-a-good-thing/ Read Laura Thompson’s blog on fund recycling: sapphireventures.com/blog/fund-recycling-moves-the-needle-for-both-lps-and-gps-heres-how/ Read Laura Thompson’s blog on QSBS: sapphireventures.com/blog/how-lps-gps-and-founders-can-leverage-qsbs-to-make-more-money/ Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox.

Stephen Bluestein has had an impressive career in Venture, beginning at Bessemer Venture Partners before moving to TCV, Light Street Capital, and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, before landing in his current role as a partner in the primary investment team at Adams Street Partners. He sits down with Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to discuss what makes a fund a franchise. They discuss the importance of building and maintaining a brand that stands for something in the market, making investments that are consistent with your philosophy, and together, they zero in on the tipping point of when a fund can be officially considered a franchise. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about Adams Street Partners: adamsstreetpartners.com Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox. CHAPTERS: 0:00-Welcome to Origins2:15-Digging into Franchise Funds: Stephen’s Background 6:48-What Defines a Franchise? 15:30-How Long Does it Take to Become a Franchise? 21:06-The Minimum Viable Performance Metric to be Considered a Franchise 27:13-Pivoting From One Exceptional Fund into a Franchise 33:21-How to Inculcate Exceptionality 39:55-Diligencing Franchise Funds 45:28-“Know Thyself”: A Message for Aspiring Franchise Funds

Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners go deep into their recent conversation with Wesley Chan, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of FPV Ventures. They unpack Wesley’s direct learnings from Sergey Brin coming up at Google, how it is the job of the investor to spot greatness, his views on company pivots (and how they oppose another recent guest, Mike Maples’ views on pivots), the difficulties of thinking independently in Silicon Valley, and the serendipitous way Wesley and Sapphire Partners wound up working together in the first place. Plus Nick, it turns out, is kind of a tax guy. He and Beezer discuss the hidden benefits of being an expert on QSBS. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about FPV Ventures: fpvventures.com Read Laura Thompson’s article on QSBS: sapphireventures.com/blog/how-lps-gps-and-founders-can-leverage-qsbs-to-make-more-money/ Listen to Mike Maples & Jai Das discuss pivots: open.spotify.com/show/23H0tOX63xMChV2SErQKnZ?si=a9aab8b3e4c34dde Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox.

Wesley Chan is a true legend in Silicon Valley. He spent time at Microsoft and HP, and in 2002 he jumped to Google. There, he worked as Sergey Brin’s Chief of Staff and founded Google Analytics and Google Voice - all before then founding and leading the seed investing program at Google Ventures as GP. Under his tenure, GV was the first institutional check into companies like Plaid, Gusto, Lucid, and Robinhood. Wesley sits down with Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to discuss his investment philosophy and what motivates him. Wesley discusses his early days at Google being pushed to make products that change the world, finding founders who have a 100-year plan, and being driven not by the desire to prove other people wrong, but to prove himself right. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about FPV Ventures: fpvventures.com Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox. CHAPTERS: 0:00-Introduction & the Burning Question3:11-Working for Sergey Brin: “If you’re not changing the world, you’re wasting your time.” 9:22-They're not there to screw the world, they're there to improve the world. 15:07-I'm not a university or your tuition money. We're giving you a check to go win. 17:05-Knowing just enough to be dangerous 27:58-The Exit Market: No one wants to test the market. LPs, hang on. 33:07-FPV’s take on AI 34:09-Founder success is the gift that keeps on giving

Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, unpack their recent conversation with Jai Das, President + Partner at Sapphire Ventures and Mike Maples, Co-Founder + Partner at Floodgate,  to answer their burning question: What changes in the way seed and growth investors think, and what stays the same? 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 the imperfect information you get at Seed vs the luxury of canvasing an entire landscape at growth via customer calls and key metrics.   Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.sapphireventures.com/ Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about Floodgate: https://www.floodgate.com/ Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox. CHAPTERS: 0:00-Intro & Takeaways 1:20-Is This the Team That’s Going to IPO? 4:02-Early Stage Pivots 7:44-How Hard a Pivot is Too Hard? 12:23-LP Strategy for Picking Managers 13:09-The Importance of Timing 15:59-You Need to Call the Customers 18:05-Outro

With a few dozen software exits under his belt (including Box, Square, Mulesoft & JFrog), nobody knows enterprise investing like Sapphire Ventures’ President + PartnerJai Das. Likewise, Floodgate co-founder + Partner Mike Maples Jr. is often credited with pioneering seed investing as we know it, with names like Twitter, Twitch and Lyft in his portfolio. Together, they join Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to share how they pick winners at their respective stages. What does it take to spot someone who sees the future before it’s here? How do inflection points like AI impact an investor’s thesis? And are there more opportunities in the market for VCs today? Plus, Jai and Mike discuss the one throughline from seed to growth to lead to a successful exit: the management team. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about Sapphire Ventures: sapphireventures.com Learn more about Floodgate: floodgate.com Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox. CHAPTERS: 0:00-Introduction & the Burning Question4:08-Intro to Sapphire Ventures 6:02-Intro to Floodgate7:56-Setting the Stage at Seed 10:30-Inflection Points: We're Going Through a Sea Change of Mass Cognition 13:43-What’s Happening at the Growth Stage 15:17-More Choice in the Market 16:10-Importance of Management Team 17:44-Mike’s New Book “Pattern Breakers” 23:09-The Three Things Floodgate Looks for in a Founder 25:25-Founder Future Fit & Pivots 27:56-In Enterprise Software, You Don’t Always Have to Build a New Category29:52-AI: Over-Valued? Under-Valued? 32:50-Is There Anything Left in AI Non-Consensus? 34:37-How Sapphire Approaches GenAI Investing 37:31-The Exit Market Today 44:10-How to Approach Founder Liquidity

A look at what’s to come on a brand new season of Origins, where we’ll dive into the VC ecosystem with the people who know it best, to learn how the people behind the capital really make decisions. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc

Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, go inside their recent conversation with Alt Capital’s Jack Altman to answer their burning question: What  does the journey look like from VC-backed founder to angel investor to institutional VC? How does one successfully jump from investing their own capital to taking on LP dollars? Where is Jack comfortable taking bigger bets? Plus, the two of them go in-depth for the very first time on Nick’s new firm, Asylum Ventures. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.sapphireventures.com/ Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about Alt Capital: https://www.altcap.com/ Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox.

Jack Altman of Alt Capital has led quite a life in Silicon Valley. He’s gone from angel investing to founding a venture-backed company (HR platform Lattice), back to angel investing today, taking on outside capital as an institutional investor at Alt Capital. Jack sits down with Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures  & Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to discuss learnings from his impressive career arc, including how to build a reputation by avoiding zero sum games, making decisions quickly as a founder, the differences in investing your own money and someone else’s, how to build a track record as an angel, and being a generalist both inside and out of the office. Plus, having just welcomed his third child into the family, Jack discusses the importance of ruthless prioritization - how to say no to the low value-add dinners and meetings if it means you get to be home for bedtime. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.sapphireventures.com/ Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about Alt Capital: https://www.altcap.com/ Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox. CHAPTERS: 00:00-Introduction 02:59-Nick’s new fund, Asylum Ventures, is Live! 07:22-The Burning Question 11:02-Jack Altman Introduction 12:55-Ruthless prioritization: Balancing Work & Family 16:40-The Best Idea You Say No To 19:21-Working with a Wide Scope of Founders 22:07-Building a Reputation in Venture 25:03-Venture is Noisy: Speak Softly but Carry a Big Stick 27:52-The Other Altman 30:42-From Founder to Angel to Institutional Investor 38:11-Fundraising Strategy 42:10-Investing Your Own Money vs LP Capital 45:52-Outro

Nick & Beezer go inside their recent conversation with Jason Shuman and Will Quist to discuss the right way to be a contrarian investor, how to do no harm as a VC, and dive into the answer to their burning question: do VCs actually add value? Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about Notation Capital: https://notation.vc/ Learn more about Primary: https://www.primary.vc/ Learn more about Slow Ventures: https://slow.co/

What do Primary GP Jason Shuman and Slow Ventures Partner Will Quist have in common? At first glance, not much, given how differently their firms approach firm building and VC "platforms." At Primary, their Impact team outnumbers investors 2:1, while Slow consists of 3 GPs, and 3 GPs only. But in a surprising twist, they agree on more than one would expect.  They both see non-consensus investing as carrying big risk but also big opportunity. They are both seed investors and their respective firms go to market in very different ways. They sit down with co-hosts Nick Chirls, GP at Notation Capital & Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to talk about zigging when the market zags, identifying truly disruptive companies on day zero, and how much impact VCs actually have on the companies they partner with. Learn more about co-host Beezer and her firm at Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about Notation Capital: https://notation.vc/ Learn more about Primary: https://www.primary.vc/ Learn more about Slow Ventures: https://slow.co/ Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.sapphireventures.com/  Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox. Chapters: 00:00-Introduction & The Burning Question 06:06-Will & Jason Intros 09:13-Defining the S Curve 11:06-Positioning Your Firm to Win 15:08-Identifying Winners on Day Zero 18:31-Being Non-Consensus and Right 25:46-What is the Value Add of VCs? 32:43-Setting KPIs 35:36-”You Sell Something” 38:30-Outro

Joanna Rupp, Managing Director of Private Equity at the University of Chicago, sits down with Nick & Beezer to shine a light on the often opaque world of endowments, including what separates an endowment from a foundation, how they consider small funds v. big funds and the fallout from an avalanche of capital being thrown at VCs. Then (announcement!) Joanna and Beezer evaluate Nick’s new venture fund - the key pieces of diligence, what he needs to prove in the next few years for another investment, how to build a relationship with his LPs, and more. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about Notation Capital: https://notation.vc/ Visit the University of Chicago’s Endowment’s website: https://investments.uchicago.edu/ Read Ted Seides’s blog post: https://www.capitalallocators.com/the-investment-office-playbook-what-managers-dont-see/dinvestors.com/blog/the-three-body-problem-finding-the-new-stable-points-in-venture-capital Visit OpenLP as your go-to resource for LP thought leadership: https://openlp.sapphireventures.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/openlp/ https://x.com/open_lp

Nick and Beezer sit down with Frank Rotman, a founding partner and CIO at QED Investors to talk about his early days as the chief credit officer of Capital One, the fundamental flaw in the way founders and investors have been funding startups, the purpose associates serve and how those associates can better their skills, and how VCs can avoid being left in the exhaust of larger firms. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about Notation Capital: https://notation.vc/ Visit QED Investors’ website: https://www.qedinvestors.com/ Read Frank Rotman’s post on the Three Body Problem: https://www.qedinvestors.com/blog/the-three-body-problem-finding-the-new-stable-points-in-venture-capital

In the first Origins episode of the year, ⁠Nick Chirls⁠ (Notation Capital) and ⁠Beezer Clarkson⁠ (Sapphire Partners) host Scott Kupor, a Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. In his role as managing partner, Scott invests in growth-stage companies building in the bio and healthcare industries, manages the firm’s investor relations team, and is responsible for the firm’s growth initiatives.  Scott was the first employee at Andreessen Horowitz and managed the firm’s growth from $300 million in AUM to more than $30 billion. Prior to joining the firm, Scott worked as vice president and general manager of software-as-a-service at Hewlett Packard. Before that, he held numerous executive management positions at Opsware, including senior vice president of global field operations, vice president of financial planning and vice president of corporate development. Scott is also the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, and serves on the boards of Cedar, Headway, Foursquare, Labster, Ultima, and SnapLogic. He also served as chairman of the board for the National Venture Capital Association. In this episode we discuss:  - The evolution of Andreessen Horowitz as the firm approaches its 15th anniversary - Reflections on how Scott’s role has changed since becoming the first hire at a16z - The state of venture today with AI as an inflection point + valuation corrections - Managing LP/GP expectations in the current environment (e.g. markdowns) - a16z’s decentralized business model and keeping important cultural values - How to think about (and debate) fund size and what is the TAM today …and much more Follow us: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/nchirls⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/beezer232⁠⁠ https://twitter.com/skupor

In the last Origins episode of the year, Nick Chirls (Notation Capital) and Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners) host David Clark, Investment Director at VenCap International plc. With nearly four decades of experience in investing, David has backed some of the most established VC funds across the US, Europe, China and India and shares historical figures on where to find performance in venture. David recently uncovered 30 years of data from 400+ funds with 15,000+ underlying portfolio companies and found that 50% of VC investments don’t actually return capital. So how does an LP unlock performance and find the enduring managers? Three individuals with three unique strategies - Nick (emerging manager), David (LP investing in established), and Beezer (LP investing in emerging & established) – find out how their models differ, where perspectives intersect and what David’s return data shows. Follow us: ⁠https://twitter.com/nchirls⁠ ⁠https://twitter.com/beezer232⁠ https://twitter.com/daveclark85 Links: David on TVPI vs DPI: https://twitter.com/daveclark85/status/1729188482919383202?s=20 David on power laws: https://twitter.com/daveclark85/status/1693976973079462366?s=20

In this episode of Origins, Nicholas Chirls (Notation) and Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners) host Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart and Seyonne Kang, Partner at StepStone. Ed is the founder of boldstart ventures, a day-one partner and true believer for developer first, enterprise infra, & SaaS founders. He is currently a board member/observer of Snyk, Blockdaemon, Kustomer (sold to Meta), BigID, Protect AI, Env0, among many others. Seyonne is a member of the private equity team, focusing on venture capital and growth equity investments. Prior to StepStone, she was a partner with Greenspring Associates, a venture capital and growth equity investment firm that merged with StepStone in 2021. We cover a wide range of topics, including our predictions for Q4 fundraising, when the market will bottom (if it hasn't already), what happens to multi-stage firms, AI (and other) hype cycles, and how VCs can and should think about liquidity in a market like this. Enjoy! Links to articles discussed: Best startup locations in the US Raise Less, Build More

Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners and Nick Chirls of Notation host Adam Valkin, Managing Director of General Catalyst at their NYC office. Adam Valkin is a Managing Director at General Catalyst. Adam leads the firm's global early-stage practice and co-led its international expansion. He has been at GC for over ten years after joining the firm from Accel London. He has a uniquely global perspective on venture and entrepreneurship and has experience as both an operator and investor.  In this episode, we cover a variety of topics, including how founders and VCs can navigate difficult moments faced in 2023, how he approaches investing, firm building, and partnering with founders, and why perhaps the current market is not as bad as many have feared. There was a wealth of wisdom in this episode, and many thanks to Adam for agreeing to do his first pod with us.

Melissa Lucas currently serves as the CIO for the investment vehicles of two extended families. She has decades of experience handling the unique investment needs of extended families, and investing across asset classes from venture capital to credit to equities. Prior to her work for families, she spent nearly a decade working at several subsidiaries of The Capital Group – first, as an investment analyst of, and later, as an investor in, the healthcare and chemical industries. In this episode we dive into topics such as where venture fits into her portfolios, the current state of the market across asset classes, how she finds new managers, and how to think about and consider family offices as LPs.

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. We're joined by our guest Beth Ferreira, a Partner at FirstMark focused on seed and Series A investing in a broad range of consumer companies, including next-generation commerce, consumer tech, and mobile startups. Prior to FirstMark, Beth was the Managing Partner of WME Ventures, was Chief Operating Officer at Fab and ran operations in the early days of Etsy. In this episode, we do a deep dive on the current state of the series A market, including what founders need to prove between seed and A for Firstmark to gain conviction, valuation compression, how to think about the tradeoffs between growth and efficiency, and why Firstmark is as excited as ever to continue leading seed and Series A rounds, even in a difficult environment. Follow us: https://twitter.com/nchirls https://twitter.com/beezer232 https://twitter.com/bethferreira Links: https://carta.com/blog/state-of-private-markets-q1-2023/

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. In this episode, we are joined by Atul Rustgi, managing partner of Accolade Partners, a top-performing venture capital, growth equity, and blockchain fund of funds. Prior to joining Accolade in 2007, Atul worked at McKinsey & Co., a leading strategy consulting firm, where he advised senior management on issues of strategy, organization, technology and operations. Before McKinsey, Atul worked at the Robin Hood Foundation, a venture philanthropy that funds and supports innovative poverty-fighting organizations in New York City. Atul holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan. Follow us: https://twitter.com/nchirls https://twitter.com/beezer232 https://twitter.com/AccoladePrtnrs