How One of VC's Biggest LPs Builds Relationships | Abe Finkelstein | Superclusters | S2E1

Abe Finkelstein, Managing Partner at Vintage, has been leading fund, secondary, and growth stage investments focused on fintech, gaming, and SMB software, among others, leading growth stage and secondary investments for Vintage in companies like Monday.com, Minute Media, Payoneer, MoonActive and Honeybook. Prior to joining Vintage in 2003, Abe was an equity analyst with Goldman Sachs, covering Israel-based technology companies in a wide variety of sectors, including software, telecom equipment, networking, semiconductors, and satellite communications. While at Goldman Sachs, Abe, and the Israel team were highly ranked by both Thomson Extel and Institutional Investor. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Abe was Vice-President at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, where he helped launch and led the firm’s Israel technology shares institutional sales effort. Before joining Piper, he was an Associate at Brown Brothers Harriman, covering the enterprise software and internet sectors. Abe began his career at Josephthal, Lyon, and Ross, joining one of the first research teams focused exclusively on Israel-based companies. Abe graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Economics and a concentration in Finance. Vintage Investment Partners is a global venture platform managing ~$4 billion across venture Fund of Funds, Secondary Funds, and Growth-Stage Funds focused on venture in the U.S., Europe, Israel, and Canada. Vintage is invested in many of the world's leading venture funds and growth-stage tech startups striving to make a lasting impact on the world and has exposure directly and indirectly to over 6,000 technology companies. You can find Abe on his socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abe-finkelstein/ And huge thanks to this episode's sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[03:22] How did Abe get his first job?

[15:30] The currency of trust

[17:12] How does Vintage view mistakes and weaknesses?

[20:03] How Vintage organizes team offsites

[28:42] The lessons Abe gained on people and long-term potential

[33:47] Type 1 and Type 2 errors when evaluating GPs

[36:00] How does Vintage work with their GPs and the GPs' portfolio companies?

[45:06] What Abe likes to see in a cold email

[49:33] Funds that Abe says no to

[51:18] When does fund size as a function of stage not make sense for Vintage?

[54:51] Carry splits within a fund

[1:02:08] What kinds of funds does Vintage not re-up in?

[1:05:23] How did Abe become a Pitfall Explorer?

[1:07:38] What Abe has learned over the years about patience?

[1:11:05] One of Abe's biggest blows in his career

[1:16:23] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring!

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