The LP Perspective: Beezer Clarkson and Chris Douvos

Erik is joined on this episode by Beezer (Elizabeth) Clarkson (@Beezer232), managing director at Sapphire Ventures, and Chris Douvos (@cdouvos), founder of Ahoy Capital.

They talk about:

- The state of the venture industry and the industry from the LP perspective.

- Why venture is “either all about access or audacity.”

- How LPs pick which funds to back.

- Whether there is too much capital in the venture capital asset class.

- What “dilettante capital” is and why there are more “clowns” in the industry than ever for whom lightning struck in the form of an outlier investment.

- The three main ways that venture funds are differentiated.

- Why succession is always a threat in venture and how good firms have been able to manage when a GP "calls in rich."

- Why a good venture firm operates like a basketball team and a bad one operates like a tennis team.

- The difference between building a firm and deploying capital.

- Some impromptu book recommendations of classic works on California.

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Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell was our audio engineer for this episode and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.