E53: Northwestern University - Harisha Haigh on Manager Selection

Harisha Haigh sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the art of building and managing relationships in venture capital. They delve deep into Northwestern's venture and crypto strategies, dissect common mistakes made by top VCs, and evaluate the ideal characteristics of a venture manager. They also discuss the leading indicators of success of a venture fund, investment decision-making processes within VC firms, and how to approach underwriting the track record of a spin-out manager. (0:00) Northwestern's venture strategy and portfolio size (0:18) Framework for VCs on secondary sales and portfolio performance (1:04) Evaluating and building relationships with venture managers (3:54) Northwestern's approach to crypto investments and associated illiquidity (6:01) Alpha in venture capital and details on Northwestern's venture portfolio (8:37) Systemic bias and impact of capital allocation decisions in LP funds (10:55) Mistakes top VCs make and tools for LP liquidity (13:48) Secondary market dynamics and trust with LPs (16:16) Growing the manager book and understanding portfolio companies (17:28) Timeframe for portfolio performance certainty (18:56) Sponsor: Deal (19:37) Importance of winning in early funding rounds and fund dynamics (21:26) Characteristics and track records of ideal managers (23:39) Communication frequency with managers and closing thoughts (25:08) Announcement of the 10X Capital podcast newsletter