Learning from and admiring top investors and firms in the VC industry

In episode three of Turpentine VC, Aydin Senkut and Erik Torenberg examine the generalist approach to VC that Felicis pioneered. If you’re looking to make fund administration easy and intuitive, check out: http://carta.com/turpentine

We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com.

---

SPONSORS:

🧲 Learn why Craft, Bedrock, NEA and 100s more trust Harmonic’s data to source deals. Harmonic is the most complete startup database, finding new companies as soon as they incorporate and tracking them through IPO. Head to https://bit.ly/harmonicturpentine and make sure to mention Turpentine VC during your demo.

Carta is the world’s largest venture fund administrator. Carta’s software-based approach takes fund administration out of the spreadsheet and into 2023 and beyond with powerful solutions and intuitive interfaces, all on one platform. Their suite of products and expert services help funds at any stage with up-to-date insights and automated workflows to get them to that next level. Learn more at: http://carta.com/turpentine

Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads, product reviews, and more. It’s your all-in-one source for alternative data that helps you make better investment decisions. To learn how Synaptic can improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, visit http://synaptic.com/turpentine

Pesto Tech is a hiring marketplace that makes finding great remote developers fast and easy. They use large language models to evaluate developers along dozens of parameters, including code quality, performance, and security. If you need to start hiring developers fast, all you have to do is answer 5 simple questions on their website: http://pesto.tech

---

Join our free newsletter to get Erik's top 3 insights from each episode every week: https://turpentinevc.substack.com/

---

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode Preview

(01:18) The three different stages in the evolution of Felicis

(03:42) Felicis' strategy to engineer more hits: being generalists

(05:26) The two key ingredients to finding the right general partners

(08:02) How does Aydin think about balancing mental health and motivation to build a company?

(11:04) Bottom-up vs. top-down approaches to opportunistic investing

(12:54) How Felicis divides and conquers sectors internally

(15:35) Sponsor: Carta

(16:10) Felicis' AI strategy

(18:55) Aydin on not playing the crypto / web3 wave

(20:41) What's the fourth phase of Felicis' evolution?

(25:07) What's Felicis' advantage and special ingredient?

(27:30) Looking at Felicis from an LP perspective

(31:11) Two non-negotiables for Aydin when raising funds

(33:12) Sponsors: Synaptic | Pesto Tech

(35:07) How does Felicis think about decision-making? How do they make such quality decisions?

(38:52) Why virtually all of Felicis' investments are narrative-driven

(40:59) Aydin's recommendations for firms starting in 2023

(43:47) Aydin on Felicis' unique governance model

(47:30) How active is Aydin in the actual investing of Felicis now?

(49:50) What do founders really care about getting from their VCs?

(53:10) The number one factor when founders are choosing investors

(54:20) Other investors Aydin admires

(56:24) The venture landscape in 2030

---

This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co.