32. Rayfe Gaspar-Asaoka, Canaan - A Generalist VC or a Portfolio of Thematic Specialists

Canaan is a storied, early-stage venture VC fund that has been around 34 years with ~6B AUM across 12 funds, and Rayfe discusses what the macro factors were that led Canaan into expanding a frontier and industrial tech thesis that would drive alpha for their fund. With a large and diverse partnership that is split 1/3 healthcare (digital, biopharma, medtech) and 2/3 tech (consumer, fintech, enterprise/cloud, frontier), he discusses both how to navigate a partnership into a new investment category/thesis and how the diversity of thinking within such a broad partnership leads to the beneficial cross-pollination of complimentary ideas and networks. He discusses how he leverages his thematic specialization to diligence and win deals (hint: a prepared mind from specializing = speed!), how he thinks about financing syndication nuances aligned to the categories of frontier and industrial tech applications (hint: supercharge networks), and finally why he is for off-cycle founder conversations to ensure deep relationships are built long before a fundraising process.