thebarefootvc

JULY 3, 2017

The post The LP Opportunity to Change Tech Culture appeared first on The Barefoot VC. Over the past month, Silicon Valley has been at the forefront of many conversations outside of the technology world. Unfortunately not for groundbreaking technology, but for rampant sexual harassment and predatory behavior. The stories outlined by a number of brave women in the NY Times last week recount investors using their power and position to proposition female founders.

LP 23

LP Silicon Valley Limited Partner Deal Flow 23

Ask The VC

APRIL 27, 2014

Hunter Walk, one of the two founders of Homebrew , a VC firm started in 2013, just wrote a great post about Homebrew’s first LP meeting. So – if you want to learn what a VC annual meeting is like, go read Investors Updating Their Investors: Inside Homebrew’s First Annual LP Meeting

LP 59

LP Early Stage Hosting Partner 59

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2017

I know most startups (or even VCs) tend not to think about this but when you ask LPs the data are clear: Another trend we’ve noticed in LP opinions is regarding seed funds.

LP 76

LP Silicon Valley United States Aggregator 76

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 14, 2017

So with that… I’m pleased to announce the formation and closing of K9 Ventures III, L.P., K9’s last fund, K9 Ventures II, L.P., The post Announcing K9 Ventures III, L.P. 42: The Answer to the ultimate fund size?

LP 34

LP Portfolio San Francisco Incubator 34

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

As an LP, I’ve had the good fortune to be an investor in many funds, including some exceptional ones. As a GP I applauded the approach and accepted that as an LP we had to beg and plead our way into to the fund. Investments fg next founder collective LP

Founder 93

Founder LP Seed Stage Portfolio 93

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

In the early spring of 2009, the fundraising nuclear winter of the previous year hadn't yet thawed. It would be months before Foursquare's first round touched off a NYC venture frenzy. I was out trying to save my startup by talking to as many investors as I could. One particular investor pass--from someone we thought we had a good shot with--felt like a punch in the the stomach. Many of you entrepreneurs know that feeling.

LP 21

LP New York City Chad New York 21

Feld Thoughts

JULY 6, 2016

This prompted me to poke around for other content from the limited partner (LP) side of the LP/VC/entrepreneurship universe. I think the first LP blogger was Chris Douvos who periodically puts up an instant classic post at Super LP. OpenLP is a new site moderated by the gang at Sapphire Ventures that seems to be a collection of all the LP stuff floating around the web. As I continued poking around, I found a few LP firms hosting blogs on their websites.

Limited Partner 25

Limited Partner Open Source SEO Austin 25

Ask The VC

JANUARY 7, 2013

This is compounded by the complexity of VC / LP relationships, private company dynamics, and the optimism of many investors that “something good will come in the future”, more formally known as “maintaining option value.” ” Fund Terms fund gp liquidation lp vc fundQ: What is the best path to take if a VC which has invested in my company closes down, but we have not exited and are still operating profitably ?

LP 73

LP Distribution LLC Operations 73

K9 Ventures

JUNE 18, 2015

Founders Fundraising Opinion Venture Capital GP LP seed stage Series A VentureHere is the video recording of the talk I gave at 500 Startups ‘ PreMoney Conference in San Francisco on 12 June. . Seed Is The New A: What The Seed-Stage Explosion Means For Founders, GPs & LPs.

San Francisco 22

San Francisco Video Startup Seed Stage 22

Feld Thoughts

JULY 9, 2011

On my run today I was thinking about GP – LP interactions. I didn’t know the person, but knew a few people who did, and quickly sent emails getting addition info for my LP. I was also able to get some specific one degree of separation feedback for my LP. I’m an investor in about 30 VC funds (so, in addition to being a GP in my funds, I’m an LP in a bunch of other funds.) I tried to come up with a rationale for blowing off an LP.

Email 29

Email Conversion LP Entrepreneur 29

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 5, 2012

I know how hard it is myself because I used to vet VCs for a living when I was on the insitituional LP side. Picture this: Your family builds a tremendous business in Nebraska over four generations making black socks. You make more black socks for more people in the western world than anyone. The next generation isn't interested in socks. One daughter is touring nationally with her punk band. The son is off in Africa combating disease with Doctors without Borders, and the other son.

Nebraska 3

Nebraska Due Diligence SEC Africa 3

K9 Ventures

APRIL 28, 2010

I’m pleased to announce the formation of K9 Ventures, L.P. K9 Ventures, L.P. – a seed-stage fund. is a $6.25M fund that is designed to do concept and seed-stage investments in technology companies. The fund will be deployed over a period of 3-4 years, with initial investment in the range of $100K – $250K, while reserving capital to participate in the follow-on round.

IP 3

IP San Francisco Limited Partner Venture Capital 3

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

And we felt terrible not being able to let every LP in but we were forced to make some hard compromises yet we opened up our fund to Sapphire even though they were a first time LP. We have many LPs who come from industry and this is truly a value-add in a LP/VC relationship 3.

LP 113

LP United States Partner Entrepreneur 113

Florida Venture Blog

MAY 7, 2007

Inflexion had our Limited Partner (LP) Meeting tonight and it was a good one. lp entrepreneur inflexionHearing all of our entrepreneurs share their stories reminded me how much I enjoy building companies with these visionaries and how much I appreciate the LPs who make it all possible. Onward and upward. Let's get to know each other, Join FVB , my venture capital blog community!

Limited Partner 0

Limited Partner Venture Capital Community Partner 0

View from Seed

OCTOBER 29, 2014

The nature of LP investors can vary widely, but the bulk of the capital in the VC ecosystem comes from large institutions like pension funds, endowments of universities and hospitals, charitable foundations, insurance companies, very wealthy families (aka family offices), and corporations.

LP 155

LP Private Equity Institutional Investors Portfolio 155

Agile VC

OCTOBER 29, 2014

The nature of LP investors can vary widely, but the bulk of the capital in the VC ecosystem comes from large institutions like pension funds, endowments of universities and hospitals, charitable foundations, insurance companies, very wealthy families (aka family offices), and corporations.

Venture Capital 155

Venture Capital LP Private Equity Institutional Investors 155

Mark Birch

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

“Today’s LP environment remains committed to buying mostly the same products they’ve been buying for 15 years, almost irrespective of recent performance or an honest assessment of likely future performance.” - “ The VC Industry Is Very, Very Screwed Up ” by Brad Svrluga. VC Venture Capital LP investments

LP 0

LP Product Venture Capital 0

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 18, 2016

Maybe the next one will be called “I’m an LP.” It’s Sunday and it’s -8 degrees in Boulder. Egads. As I sat in my warm office catching up on email from the week, I sent links to our Foundry Group videos to a friend that had never seen them.

LP 104

LP Partner Email Video 104

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 19, 2012

The LP Update Meeting. We have around a dozen LP update meetings a year across our four funds and they are the most important moments of contact we have with our investors. My latest column for The Kernel. It was published last Thursday. Everybody answers to somebody, Nic Brisbourne reminds us. What happens when VCs are hauled into the boardroom to justify their investment decisions?

Portfolio 0

Portfolio Europe Private Equity Merger 0

Florida Venture Blog

MAY 3, 2007

This time it's the Top Ten LP Lies. 10: We don't invest in first or second funds, see #1 9: We have committed this years allocation 8: We don't believe in this asset category unless we can get into Sequoia 7: My committee would never let me do a deal outside of the valley 6: Our diligence is very deep (bottomless unless you are about to close and any of my close LP friends are in) Check out Paul's blog for the top 5. paulkedrosky lp vcfaq vc 2.0

Venture Capital 0

Venture Capital Restful Community Conversion 0

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

While I’m not an LP, the following post represents my discussions with more than 100 LP firms – specifically ones that do fund VCs – and full survey data from 73 firms , so I’ve tried to capture the essence of what I’ve learned.

Venture Capital 123

Venture Capital LP Valuation Silicon Valley 123

Feld Thoughts

JULY 31, 2014

In addition to being an incredibly supportive investor in us from the beginning, this LP has become an extremely close friend. As I was walking home after dinner, I thought about the person who had introduced us to this LP. This LP is also a long time investor in Union Square Ventures and was one of the first people Fred introduced us to when we started raising the first Foundry Group fund in 2007.

LP 108

LP Advisory Board Colorado Early Stage 108

A VC : Venture Capital and Technology

JANUARY 8, 2017

That means if your company raised money from USV 2004, LP (the name of our first fund, a $125mm fund), it will be hard for us to invest in your company out of USV 2008, LP (the name of our second fund, a ~$150mm fund). Reserves is the term VCs use to describe funds they “reserve” for follow-on financings of their portfolio companies.

Portfolio 98

Portfolio LP Cap Table Dilution 98

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

Up next I’ll publish all of the LP (people who invest in VCs) data we gathered and what we believe this signifies. Every year at Upfront we try to analyze the venture markets. We try to look at the sources of capital, the valuations, exits and trends.

LP 140

LP Burn Rate Curation Valuation 140

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

” There are a lot of data points that one can observer to get a sense of the venture capital markets – both LP fundings into venture and VC financings of startups. We surveyed 73 LP firms to get their views on the market.

Valuation 94

Valuation LP Burn Rate Pre-Money Valuation 94

Ask The VC

JANUARY 9, 2017

Fund Terms gp lp reserves vcFred Wilson has a spectacular post up on how VC funds should think about reserves. It’s even more valuable to entrepreneurs so they can understand how the best VCs think about reserves, giving the entrepreneurs ammunition to ask their investors how they are thinking about reserves. I only noticed one thing missing from Fred’s post which is a statement about cashflow which I commented on. “Fred – phenomenal.

Entrepreneur 2

Entrepreneur Management LP 2

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2015

Most importantly – this should encourage LP funds to back more local firms and I would hope to see more indigenous funds to develop. There are so many great, young funds in the market and many of them are attracting LP capital. If you’re an LP and want to know who these emerging funds are please call me and/or attend our Annual VC Summit.

LP 49

LP Los Angeles Startup Partner 49

Feld Thoughts

JULY 30, 2015

Yesterday we closed our fifth fund, Foundry Venture Capital 2016, L.P. As with all four of our other funds, it’s a $225 million fund. In 2007 we raised our first fund – Foundry Venture Capital 2007.

Portland 97

Portland Minneapolis LP Phoenix 97

Southeast VC

JUNE 26, 2014

We are really excited to announce the closing of Bull City Venture Partners III, a $26 million venture capital fund. David and I sincerely appreciate the commitment from all of our LPs and the overwhelming support from the entreprenurial community.    Now, more than ever, we believe there is a big opportunity in front of us. The region we serve has less capital than in the past. However, the level of activity in entrepreneurship has never been stronger.

Venture Capital 0

Venture Capital Mobile Community Software 0

Agile VC

DECEMBER 6, 2012

If Acme Ventures III, LP invests in Startup X then typically Acme Ventures IV, LP would not. 1) LP Bases Change Over Time – Most healthy VC firms tend to have stable relationships with the limited partners investing with them.

LP 36

LP Balance Sheet Differentiation Limited Partner 36

Feld Thoughts

MAY 28, 2014

That means that if an LP invests $1 in the fund, they get back $3 over time. I’m an investor in a bunch of VC funds. Some of them recycle their management fees; others don’t. I’ve never really understood why funds don’t recycle their management fees.

Management 139

Management .Net LP Distribution 139

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 6, 2016

When I went to add partners at Upfront I called an LP of mine and told him I was trying to recruit a new partner named Kara Nortman. I shot back quickly at my LP “ You’re kidding me, right? It’s hard to feel any positives these days: We’re in the eye of the storm. We’re at peak anxiety.

Trinidad 76

Trinidad Nevada Liberia Croatia 76

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 30, 2016

I told him that I had observed every LP on their computers doing email and that clearly they were bored, to which he replied, “We like boring Powerpoint presentations. And the more LP money that would pour into LA the better for the entire ecosystem.

Community 63

Community LP Los Angeles Portfolio 63

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2015

I’ve met many VCs who take fund raising meetings with lots of LPs but struggle to get traction and I believe often the problem is that first meetings are easy but the 28 steps to get each LP to closure take an insane amount of focus, effort, follow through and discipline.

LP 155

LP Warrant Portfolio Framework 155

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 10, 2014

Venture funding goes ballistic: VCJ : Some people are starting to call the top of the current cycle, at least in the context of flows of LP funds into VC firms. We had our LP Annual Meeting yesterday and I had a vibrant conversation with a few of our LPs about this topic at lunch. I’m bouncing around between a bunch of stuff and have a two board meeting day so I thought I’d just toss up a few interesting things I read this morning along with my thoughts.

LP 59

LP Denver Colorado Government 59

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

He was lamenting how much he hated LP meetings and how little he wanted to interact with LPs going forward. I even once met with one very, very well known VC who told me, “I don’t attend LP meetings. I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them.

LP 109

LP Due Diligence Software Customer 109

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

I spoke at Michael Kim’s excellent annual Cendana VC/LP conference today. Today Twitter announced it had laid off around 336 jobs or 8% of its workforce. Nobody should celebrate, cheer or shout, “it’s about time.”

Burn Rate 135

Burn Rate San Francisco LP Private Equity 135

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

20VC: WHY MANY VCS FAIL TO RAISE, WHY LP COMPENSATION IS A MASSIVE PROBLEM & WHY FUND OF FUNDS WILL BECOME MORE PROMINENT WITH LINDEL EAKMAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR @ FOUNDRY GROUP. I’ve become a huge fan of Harry Stebbings, the intrepid entrepreneur turned VC whose age (20) matches the title of his podcast ( The Twenty Minute VC.) Today, at SaaStr at 1:40pm in the Hypercritical section , Harry is interviewing me about – well – whatever he wants.

LP 59

LP Australia SEO Matching 59

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

Rather than see LP interactions as a chore or a burden, new fund managers should see this as an opportunity to extend the community around their fund. The GP-LP relationship shouldn't be so one dimensional around returns, and I would argue that, in the seed stage, it's sub-optimal. Just yesterday, I walked out of breakfast with an LP of mine with three or four meaningful introduction offers from this LP who ran a public company for 30 years.

Limited Partner 30

Limited Partner LP Venture Capital Partner 30

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

I saved it mostly for LP discussions that I had over the past year. It’s not hard to find people willing to write the narrative that “venture capital is not an asset class” or “venture capital has performed terribly.” ” The most recent was 18 months ago or so called The Kauffman Report. It had an influence on the people who fund our industry in a negative way as many asset managers who fund our industry read this flawed report.

Venture Capital 104

Venture Capital IPO Jordan LP 104