The Great Bifurcation: Artisans vs. Scaled Asset Managers

In many industries, we’ve seen a bifurcation into niche and sprawl. Into depth and breadth.

Take the news industry. If you’re thriving in news, you’re likely either (1) narrow, nimble, and focused, like a successful Substack publication with a single journalist, or (2) you’re a multi-product behemoth, like The New York Times. Same thing in media. You’re either CrunchyRoll, a highly-successful streaming service for anime, or you’re Disney, gobbling up Pixar and Lucasfilm and Marvel and Fox. You’re a city-state or you’re an empire. If you’re in the middle, you’re dead.

We’re seeing the same thing in venture. You’re either an artisan or you’re a scaled asset manager. Going back to the two resources that founders can allocate—labor and capital—artisans are more focused on assisting with the labor and asset managers are more focused on assisting with the capital.

Artisans focus on people; they invest capital, sure, but their value really shines in hands-on partnership around attracting and cultivating talent—making sure the right people are around the table. Asset managers are more about the money—their form of venture is less about craft than about putting dollars to work. Naturally, the latter is a better fit for a late-stage company that has a built-out people function and is more focused on getting dollars in the door to keep the engine humming. The former is better for early-stage—the original ethos of venture capital.

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