Superclusters - The Emerging LP Podcast

Adam Marchick from Akkadian Ventures joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on 3 GPs at VC funds to ask 3 different questions.Cocoa VC's Carmen Alfonso Rico asks what belief Adam held firmly for years but changed his mind recently on.Good Trouble Ventures' AJ Thomas asks about how GPs can better communicate risk to first-time LPs.1517 Fund's Danielle Strachman asks about the world view Adam has that shapes his investing thesis.Over the past twenty years, Adam Marchick has had unique experiences as a founder, general partner (GP), and limited partner (LP). Most recently, Adam managed the venture capital portfolio at Emory’s endowment, a $2 billion portfolio within the $10 billion endowment. Prior to Emory, Adam spent ten years building two companies, the most recent being Alpine.AI, which was acquired by Headspace. Simultaneously, Adam was a Sequoia Scout and built an angel portfolio of over 25 companies. Adam was a direct investor at Menlo Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures, sourcing and supporting companies including Carbonite (IPO), Rent The Runway (IPO), Rapid7 (IPO), Archer (M&A), and AeroScout (M&A). He started his career in engineering and product roles at Facebook, Oracle, and startups.You can find Adam on his socials here:X / Twitter: https://x.com/adammStanfordLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammarchick/And huge thanks to Carmen, AJ, and Danielle for joining us on the show!OUTLINE:[00:00] Intro[01:22] The anatomy of a good story[02:26] The job of an annual summit[05:35] How often does VC change?[07:25] Narratives LPs are looking for at GPs' AGMs[08:25] "20% overall revenue growth in the portfolio is NOT exciting"[09:01] What founders talk about at an AGM[14:01] How does Adam spend time at an AGM[17:48] Enter Carmen and Cocoa VC[19:35] What did Adam change his mind about[21:09] How does an LP assess GP NPS?[22:16] Picking on-sheet references[24:33] The origin of Cocoa VC[26:08] What is Carmen's superpower?[27:09] What does Carmen want from her LPs?[29:09] The best answers to "what do you want from your LPs?"[31:29] Controversial decisions for the LPAC[33:39] Enter AJ and Good Trouble Ventures[34:25] Communicating risk to your LPs[35:58] What about to first-time LPs?[38:06] Where do first-time LPs come from?[39:50] What inspired AJ's question?[42:14] Is the convo different if LPs reach out vs you reach out?[43:45] The timing of LP conversations: most frequent vs most important[45:59] The trust equation[47:45] How to scale trust with LPs[51:35] How has GPs built trust with Adam?[53:29] How often does Adam keep in touch with his GPs?[56:06] Enter Danielle and 1517 Fund[58:38] What is Adam's mental model?[1:01:43] How does Adam define low entry prices?[1:03:25] Tracking trends as an LP[1:06:55] 80-20 portfolio construction[1:10:37] Would 1517's thesis 15 years ago count as market risk?[1:14:12] Adam's last piece of advice[1:15:46] Akkadian Ventures and RAISE Global[1:17:06] David's favorite moment from Adam's earlier episodeFollow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

“There are a thousand ways to put lipstick on the pig and there are a thousand skeletons [in the closet]. I’ve only seen five or six because I’ve only seen three startup experiences. And so you need to deputize as many people as you possibly can to essentially triangulate.” — Anurag ChandraAnurag Chandra has spent over two decades in Silicon Valley as an investor, operator, and allocator. He has helped lead four venture capital funds, managing over $2.0B in aggregate AUM. Anurag has also been a senior executive in three enterprise technology startups, two of which were sold successfully to public companies. He is currently the CIO of a single-family office with an attached venture studio and a Trustee for the $4.5B San Jose Federated City Employees Retirement Fund, serving as Vice Chair of the Board, and Chair of its Investment and Joint Personnel Committees.You can find Anurag on his socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anchandra/X / Twitter: https://x.com/achandra41OUTLINE:[00:00] Intro[02:10] Why is what Anurag is wearing a walking contradiction?[06:08] The man without a home, but comfortable in everyone's home[10:17] The Stanford Review[12:55] The four @%#-holes of America[20:13] How did Anurag schedule regular coffee with Mark Stevens?[25:31] Mark Stevens' advice to Anurag about staying top of mind[26:42] How often should you email someone to stay in touch?[30:33] Why should you be an asymmetric information junkie?[34:21] Where should you find asymmetric information in VC?[36:02] The 'Oh Shit' board meeting[40:09] How San Jose Pension Plan views GPs[43:55] Defining the 'venture business'[49:09] Process drives repeatability[54:06] How San Jose Pension Plan built their investment process from scratch[58:43] What is a risk budget?[1:01:52] What did San Jose Pension Plan do about their risk budget?[1:05:05] The people who changed Anurag[1:11:10] Post-credit sceneFollow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

Beezer Clarkson from Sapphire Partners joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on four GPs at VC funds to ask four different questions.Precursor Ventures' Charles Hudson asks what is the one strongly held belief about emerging managers that she no longer believes is true.NextView Ventures' Stephanie Palmeri asks how much should an established firm evolve versus stick to their guns.Humanrace Capital's Suraj Mehta asks what the best way to build brand presence is.Rackhouse Venture Capital's Kevin Novak asks if you've deployed your capital faster than you expected, what's the best path forward with the remaining capital you have left?Beezer Clarkson leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Beezer began her career in financial services over 20 years ago at Morgan Stanley in its global infrastructure group. Since, she has held various direct and indirect venture investment roles, as well as operational roles in software business development at Hewlett Packard. Prior to joining Sapphire in 2012, Beezer managed the day-to-day operations of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Global Network, which then had $7 billion under management across 16 venture funds worldwide.In 2016, Beezer led the launch of OpenLP, an effort to help foster greater understanding in the entrepreneur-to-LP tech ecosystem. Beezer earned a bachelor’s in government from Wesleyan University, where she served on the board of trustees and currently serves as an advisor to the Wesleyan Endowment Investment Committee. She is currently serving on the board of the NVCA and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.You can find Beezer on her socials here.Twitter: https://twitter.com/beezer232LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethclarkson/Check out Sapphire's latest breakdown on if venture is broken: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/venture-broken-what-2000-priced-early-stage-rounds-tell-clarkson-sjvjc/And huge thanks to Charles, Suraj, Steph, and Kevin for joining us on the show!OUTLINE:[00:00] Intro[01:22] Where does Beezer's advice come from?[04:03] Charles and Precursor Ventures[04:47] What's something Beezer used to believe about seed stage venture that she no longer believes in[08:04] Why did Charles choose to bet on pre-seed companies?[10:21] What did LPs push back on when Charles was starting Precursor?[12:18] Definition of early stage investing today[14:38] Steph and NextView Ventures[18:13] When do you stick your knitting or move on from the past as an established firm?[30:48] Is venture investing in AI fundamentally different than investing in other types of companies?[32:52] Does competition for a deal mean you've already lost it?[36:09] Suraj and Humanrace Capital[36:54] How should emerging managers build their brand?[38:38] The audience most emerging managers don't focus on but should[40:39] How much does visible brand presence matter?[43:47] Useful or not: Media exposure in the data room[45:40] Backstreet boys[46:37] Kevin and Rackhouse Venture Capital[47:28] What Kevin is best known for[48:03] Updated fund modelling when you're ahead on your proposed deployment period[58:00] The typical questions Beezer gets on LPACs[1:03:22] Is venture broken?[1:06:41] David's favorite Beezer moment from Season 1Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

“You need to make space for weird types of conversations to happen on the fringes that really inform you what’s going on at the frontier.” — Thorsten ClausThorsten Claus is a venture investor and builder with more than 15 years of private equity and venture capital experience. He has raised nine funds, managed over $4.8B across global platforms, and led or overseen more than 120 direct investments, generating returns of 3x–7x net to investors.His current work focuses on dual-use technologies at the intersection of defense, security, and national resilience. Guided by the discipline of Howard Marks, the systems-level thinking of the Consilience Project, and a commitment to internalizing externalities, he invests in teams and technologies that strengthen sovereign capability and long-term societal stability.Beyond capital, Thorsten is a hands-on builder. He machines defense-critical and space components, restores historic race engines, and writes on production systems and resilience at blog.thinkstorm.com. This grounding in physical production complements his investment practice, keeping judgment tied to real-world constraints.You can find Thor on his socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thorstenclaus/X / Twitter: https://x.com/thinkstormOUTLINE:[00:00] Intro[02:31] Downhill skateboarding[05:58] How do you see behind a corner when downhill skateboarding?[07:42] Hill hunting[10:15] How long does it take to go down the Sierras?[11:41] The most important part of the body for downhill skateboarding[16:02] David's dumb question of the day[17:25] The accident that pivoted Thor's life[19:34] The first race car Thor bought[20:51] Why Thor is a terrible race car driver?[23:52] How did Thor come to use the race oil that Porsche Racing uses?[24:59] The 3 things you need to welcome fringe conversations[27:07] Just another David misattribution[27:34] Truth is difficult these days[29:20] How do you prioritize which advice to take?[30:33] Thor's weird definition of risk[31:59] How do you know if someone is giving you authentic advice?[34:40] How does Thor understand someone's past without asking about it?[39:42] Lessons from fictional storytelling in diligencing GPs[43:22] Questions and responses that reveal a GP's past[46:10] Books that Thor read to ask better questions[49:18] What is the USMC Christmas Tree?[53:40] The Christmas Tree in an investor's portfolio[57:49] Can beggars be choosers?[1:00:41] The difference between capital formation and fundraising[1:03:00] Production vs product for a GP[1:06:54] Thor and cardistry[1:10:21] What are moments that reminds Thor we're still in the good old days?[1:13:50] The post-credit sceneFollow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

Kelli Fontaine, a partner at Cendana Capital, leads the discussion alongside Amber Illig from The Council and Steven Rosenblatt of Oceans Ventures. They tackle deep questions about the future of venture capital, such as the importance of data versus relationships in decision-making. Amber shares her insights on the challenges faced by solo GPs, while Steven explores networking's role in niche sectors. Additionally, they delve into the dynamics between LPs and GPs, emphasizing the need for trust and open communication to enhance investment outcomes.

Vijen Patel, an entrepreneur and investor behind The 81 Collection, and Grady Buchanan, a venture capital strategist with NVNG, dive deep into America’s investment landscape. They discuss how 81% of the economy remains underfunded and emphasize the need for venture capital to tackle social issues like housing and food insecurity. The duo reflects on their personal journeys, the significance of community engagement in finance, and innovative investment strategies aimed at revitalizing local businesses in the Midwest.

Join John Felix, General Partner at Pattern Ventures, and Chris Leiter from Atria, as they dive into the world of venture capital. John shares his expertise on the importance of focusing on specialized funds and what makes smaller funds more adaptable in the market. They tackle listener questions about common pitfalls for LPs when evaluating solo GPs and how to balance sticking to investment strategies with making justified exceptions. The conversation is rich with insights on niche investments and the challenges of transitioning from established firms to independent ventures.

Wendy Li, Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at Ivy Invest, shares her journey from building a $4 billion portfolio at the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to creating an accessible investment platform for everyday investors. She discusses the critical distinction between probability and consequence in venture capital, cautioning against common mistakes made by LPs. Wendy also highlights the innovative ‘endowment in a box’ concept, which democratizes investing, and reflects on the importance of mentorship and emotional control in investment decision-making.

Join Samira Salman, Founder & CEO of Salman Solutions, as she discusses her transformative journey from corporate tax lawyer to entrepreneur. She emphasizes the importance of pursuing personal passions and building genuine relationships in family offices. Samira highlights the challenges these offices face and the significance of trust and collaboration in wealth management. She shares her love for journaling, touching on its emotional depth, and dives into light-hearted memories, showcasing how fashion can connect us with our past.

Join Lisa Cawley, Managing Director of Screendoor, Layne Johnson, Partner, and Jamie Rhode, Partner, as they dive into the intricate world of venture capital. They discuss why LPs bet on emerging managers over established funds and tackle the opaque aspects of venture investing. The trio highlights the importance of personal connections nurtured through casual conversations, even in a post-pandemic landscape. They also explore strategies for scaling VC funds, balancing growth ambitions with lean operational approaches, and unpack the complex dynamics between LPs and GPs.