Aram Verdiyan is a Partner at Accolade. Previously, he worked on the investment team at Andreessen Horowitz. Before that, Aram worked in BD, sales and marketing at Aviatrix, a cloud native enterprise software company. Aram worked at Accolade from 2012 to 2015 as a Senior Investment Associate and at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He holds an M.B.A from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) and a B.S. from the George Washington University. You can find Aram on his socials here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/aramverdi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aram-verdiyan-8099186/ And huge thanks to this episode's sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:36] How did Pejman Nozad influence the way Aram thinks about people

[04:06] Aram's 'distance traveled'

[05:45] What did imposter syndrome look like in Aram's life?

[06:36] How Aram cold emailed his way into Accolade Partners

[09:03] The first case study Aram did at Accolade

[10:10] When track record is NOT just TVPI, DPI, or IRR

[15:05] The case for concentrated fund of funds' portfolio construction

[22:42] Telltale signs of "great" deal flow

[26:32] When does due diligence start for prospective funds for Accolade?

[27:50] Primary sources of data for Accolade

[29:00] The variables that impact fund of funds' team size

[30:24] How many fund investments should each individual FoF partner have?

[35:13] The case for consistent check sizes

[36:20] The common mistake GPs make when it comes to LP concentration limits

[41:27] How Accolade started investing in blockchain funds

[44:52] Blockchain engineering talent as a function of bear markets

[47:15] Time horizons for blockchain funds

[50:38] Luck vs skill

[53:41] Aram's early fundraising days at Accolade

[57:38] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring!

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