[No. 3] Brand and AUM

Indeed, if you’re building a curation business, the main (if not only) moat you have is brand. Your biggest specific vulnerability is alumni NPS — if it’s strong, the business is unbeatable; if it’s weak, the entire edifice is at risk.

First, as Sean O'Neill wrote, the “ability to propagate a viewpoint at scale is a new function in financial markets, and it is a big deal.” Firms like a16z are building media platforms. Individual VCs are present on Twitter, podcasts, and YouTube. Their ability to shape and amplify the narrative around portfolio companies can affect hiring, availab... See more

A firm’s brand as a proxy for a person’s reputation was born out of laziness and lack of access to data. No doubt, top talent enjoys working together, but it’s no longer a necessity. You are seeing this in spades right now within venture capital, as individual investors are banding together to support entrepreneurs who would prefer a group of hand-... See more

Valuation, growth, burn, and ambition are all a function of the size of the opportunity.

I loved this concept of evaluating your own potential cause of death as a venture firm. Over the last few years the number of venture firms has grown from ~900 to nearly 2,000 different firms managing $500B+ of capital. In a market correction some people predict as many as 50% of those firms could fail. One prediction I have is that as venture fund... See more

For early-stage investing, I believe that the small flat partnership is the best structure if the goal is to produce high return on capital funds. Here are some reasons why this model is superior for early-stage investing:- At the early stage, investors must bet on teams and ideas that have not been proven. The biggest winners almost always come fr... See more