In the first Origins episode of the year, ⁠Nick Chirls⁠ (Notation Capital) and ⁠Beezer Clarkson⁠ (Sapphire Partners) host Scott Kupor, a Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

In his role as managing partner, Scott invests in growth-stage companies building in the bio and healthcare industries, manages the firm’s investor relations team, and is responsible for the firm’s growth initiatives. 

Scott was the first employee at Andreessen Horowitz and managed the firm’s growth from $300 million in AUM to more than $30 billion. Prior to joining the firm, Scott worked as vice president and general manager of software-as-a-service at Hewlett Packard. Before that, he held numerous executive management positions at Opsware, including senior vice president of global field operations, vice president of financial planning and vice president of corporate development.

Scott is also the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, and serves on the boards of Cedar, Headway, Foursquare, Labster, Ultima, and SnapLogic. He also served as chairman of the board for the National Venture Capital Association.

In this episode we discuss:

 - The evolution of Andreessen Horowitz as the firm approaches its 15th anniversary

- Reflections on how Scott’s role has changed since becoming the first hire at a16z

- The state of venture today with AI as an inflection point + valuation corrections

- Managing LP/GP expectations in the current environment (e.g. markdowns)

- a16z’s decentralized business model and keeping important cultural values

- How to think about (and debate) fund size and what is the TAM today

…and much more

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⁠⁠https://twitter.com/nchirls⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://twitter.com/beezer232⁠⁠

https://twitter.com/skupor

In the last Origins episode of the year, Nick Chirls (Notation Capital) and Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners) host David Clark, Investment Director at VenCap International plc.

With nearly four decades of experience in investing, David has backed some of the most established VC funds across the US, Europe, China and India and shares historical figures on where to find performance in venture. David recently uncovered 30 years of data from 400+ funds with 15,000+ underlying portfolio companies and found that 50% of VC investments don’t actually return capital. So how does an LP unlock performance and find the enduring managers?

Three individuals with three unique strategies - Nick (emerging manager), David (LP investing in established), and Beezer (LP investing in emerging & established) – find out how their models differ, where perspectives intersect and what David’s return data shows.

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⁠https://twitter.com/nchirls⁠

⁠https://twitter.com/beezer232⁠

https://twitter.com/daveclark85

Links:

David on TVPI vs DPI: https://twitter.com/daveclark85/status/1729188482919383202?s=20

David on power laws: https://twitter.com/daveclark85/status/1693976973079462366?s=20

In this episode of Origins, Nicholas Chirls (Notation) and Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners) host Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart and Seyonne Kang, Partner at StepStone.

Ed is the founder of boldstart ventures, a day-one partner and true believer for developer first, enterprise infra, & SaaS founders. He is currently a board member/observer of Snyk, Blockdaemon, Kustomer (sold to Meta), BigID, Protect AI, Env0, among many others.

Seyonne is a member of the private equity team, focusing on venture capital and growth equity investments. Prior to StepStone, she was a partner with Greenspring Associates, a venture capital and growth equity investment firm that merged with StepStone in 2021.

We cover a wide range of topics, including our predictions for Q4 fundraising, when the market will bottom (if it hasn't already), what happens to multi-stage firms, AI (and other) hype cycles, and how VCs can and should think about liquidity in a market like this. Enjoy!

Links to articles discussed:

Best startup locations in the US

Raise Less, Build More

Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners and Nick Chirls of Notation host Adam Valkin, Managing Director of General Catalyst at their NYC office.

Adam Valkin is a Managing Director at General Catalyst. Adam leads the firm's global early-stage practice and co-led its international expansion. He has been at GC for over ten years after joining the firm from Accel London. He has a uniquely global perspective on venture and entrepreneurship and has experience as both an operator and investor. 

In this episode, we cover a variety of topics, including how founders and VCs can navigate difficult moments faced in 2023, how he approaches investing, firm building, and partnering with founders, and why perhaps the current market is not as bad as many have feared. There was a wealth of wisdom in this episode, and many thanks to Adam for agreeing to do his first pod with us.

Melissa Lucas currently serves as the CIO for the investment vehicles of two extended families. She has decades of experience handling the unique investment needs of extended families, and investing across asset classes from venture capital to credit to equities. Prior to her work for families, she spent nearly a decade working at several subsidiaries of The Capital Group – first, as an investment analyst of, and later, as an investor in, the healthcare and chemical industries.

In this episode we dive into topics such as where venture fits into her portfolios, the current state of the market across asset classes, how she finds new managers, and how to think about and consider family offices as LPs.

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. We're joined by our guest Beth Ferreira, a Partner at FirstMark focused on seed and Series A investing in a broad range of consumer companies, including next-generation commerce, consumer tech, and mobile startups. Prior to FirstMark, Beth was the Managing Partner of WME Ventures, was Chief Operating Officer at Fab and ran operations in the early days of Etsy.

In this episode, we do a deep dive on the current state of the series A market, including what founders need to prove between seed and A for Firstmark to gain conviction, valuation compression, how to think about the tradeoffs between growth and efficiency, and why Firstmark is as excited as ever to continue leading seed and Series A rounds, even in a difficult environment.

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https://twitter.com/nchirls

https://twitter.com/beezer232

https://twitter.com/bethferreira

Links:

https://carta.com/blog/state-of-private-markets-q1-2023/

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. In this episode, we are joined by Atul Rustgi, managing partner of Accolade Partners, a top-performing venture capital, growth equity, and blockchain fund of funds. Prior to joining Accolade in 2007, Atul worked at McKinsey & Co., a leading strategy consulting firm, where he advised senior management on issues of strategy, organization, technology and operations. Before McKinsey, Atul worked at the Robin Hood Foundation, a venture philanthropy that funds and supports innovative poverty-fighting organizations in New York City. Atul holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

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https://twitter.com/AccoladePrtnrs

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Lan Xuezhao, founder and managing partner of Basis Set Ventures, an AI-focused seed firm based in SF. Lan is among the earliest investors in companies such as Scale AI, Quince, Path Robotics, Workstream, and Ergeon. She built and led the Corporate Development Strategy team at Dropbox during its most acquisitive time. She studied the human brain for her Ph.D and received an M.A. in Statistics, both from the University of Michigan.

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https://twitter.com/nchirls

https://twitter.com/beezer232

https://twitter.com/xuezhao

Links referenced:

The Warm Intro Myth

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. On this episode, we dig into the history of Box Group and seed investing in NYC with David Tisch. Topics covered include Box Group's unique perspective and strategy on seed investing, staying true to one's strategy and mission, the decision behind Box Group raising outside capital, and the current state of the venture market.

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https://twitter.com/nchirls

https://twitter.com/beezer232

https://twitter.com/davidtisch

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. On this episode, we dig into current market dynamics with our guest Kanyi Maqubela of Kindred Ventures. Topics covered include the current state of the venture market, how LPs and VCs are modifying their investment strategy, the future state of seed funds, and how to manage psychology through downturns.

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https://twitter.com/nchirls

https://twitter.com/beezer232

https://twitter.com/km

Links referenced in the show:

https://www.newcomer.co/p/new-angellist-data-shows-startup

https://hunterwalk.com/2023/01/17/death-of-the-generalist-seed-vc/

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/13/sequoia-capitals-alfred-lin-in-his-first-public-interview-since-the-implosion-of-ftx-video/