Superclusters - The Emerging LP Podcast

Superclusters by David Zhou
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Superclusters is a podcast designed to help the emerging LP think like an established LP allocating to venture capital as an asset class. Our goal is to answer one question: How do the world's wealthiest institutions and individuals pick VC firms to invest in?

  1. Timeless VS Just-In-Time Lessons | Earnest Sweat & Alexa Binns | Superclusters | S6PSE1

    قبل ٢٣ ساعة

    Timeless VS Just-In-Time Lessons | Earnest Sweat & Alexa Binns | Superclusters | S6PSE1

    The holiday season has always been a great time to celebrate the movers and shakers in our world. This season we're celebrating my personal favorites in the LP world. To start this mini-holiday series off, Earnest Sweat and Alexa Binns runs one of the most popular podcasts on venture capital limited partners, Swimming with Allocators. I was also fortunate enough to be on their podcast as well as a bonus crossover episode. You can find Earnest on his socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/earnestsweat/ X / Twitter: https://x.com/EarnestSweat You can find Alexa on her socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexabinns/ X / Twitter: https://x.com/alexabinns OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [02:09] Alexa's earliest relationship with money [03:28] Earnest's earliest relationship with money [04:45] Earnest's first major purchase [06:41] Alexa's first major purchase [08:25] The difference between public speaking and interviewing [12:19] Memorable guests on the SwA podcast [14:46] To do or not to do in-person interviews [18:05] Evolution of YouTube titles [20:04] Why err towards evergreen content? [22:30] Was SwA designed for LPs or GPs? [24:12] How did Earnest and Alexa meet? [24:56] How did Swimming with Allocators start? [27:21] The Pandora's Box of intros [28:02] Alexa's 3 buckets for LP investing [30:12] What is 'coming soon' for Earnest and Alexa? [36:58] Post-credit scene: Spider-Man & Investors as Avengers Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

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  2. When Do You Know If You've Grown Up as a VC? | El Pack w/ Ben Choi | Superclusters

    ٨ ديسمبر

    When Do You Know If You've Grown Up as a VC? | El Pack w/ Ben Choi | Superclusters

    Ben Choi from Next Legacy 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. Gilgamesh Ventures' Miguel Armaza, also host of the incredible Fintech Leaders podcast, asks Ben what is the timing of when a GP should consider raising a Fund III. Similarly, but not the same, Strange Ventures' Tara Tan asks when an LP backs a Fund I, how do they know that this Fund I GP will last till Fund III. Arkane Capital's Arkady Kulik asks how one should think about building an LP community, especially as he brings in new and different LP archetypes into Arkane's ecosystem. Ben manages over $3.5B investments with premier venture capital firms as well as directly in early stage startups. He brings to Next Legacy a distinguished track record spanning three decades in the technology ecosystem. Ben’s love for technology products formed the basis for his successful venture track record, including pre-PMF investments in Marketo (acquired for $4.75B) and CourseHero (last valued at $3.6B). He previously ran product for Adobe’s Creative Cloud offerings and founded CoffeeTable, where he raised venture capital financing, built a team, and ultimately sold the company. Ben is an alum and Board Member of the Society of Kauffman Fellows (venture capital leadership) and has also served his community on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Chinese Culture Center, Children’s Health Council, Church of the Pioneers Foundation, and IVCF. Ben studied Computer Science at Harvard University before Mark Zuckerberg made it cool and received his MBA from Columbia Business School. Born in Peoria, raised in San Francisco, and educated in Cambridge, Ben now lives in Los Altos with his wife, Lydia, three very active sons, and a ball python. You can find Ben on his socials here: X / Twitter: https://x.com/benjichoi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bchoi/ OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [05:05] Ben's 2025 Halloween costume [06:44] Jensen Huang's leather jackets [07:24] Jensen Huang's answer to Ben's one question 10:05] Enter Miguel, Gilgamesh Ventures, Fintech Leaders [14:43] What are good signals an LP looks for before a GP raises a Fund III? [22:35] Why does Ben say 'established' starts at Fund IV? [25:08] Who's the audience for Miguel's podcast? [27:52] In case you want more like this... [28:32] Enter Tara and Strange Ventures [32:46] How does Ben know a Fund I will become a Fund III? [36:53] How does Ben know if a GP will want to build an enduring career? [40:58] How does Tara share a future GP she'd like to work with to Ben? [42:43] Marriage and divorce rates in America [43:34] What should a Fund I do to institutionalize? [46:28] Should you share LP updates to current or prospective LPs? [48:57] Enter Arkady and Arkane Capital [51:09] How does one think through LP-community fit? [1:01:31] What's Arkady's favorite board game? [1:03:08] Ben's last piece of advice to GPs [1:09:50] My favorite Ben moment on Superclusters Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

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  3. "Venture Should Play More Like Moneyball" | Carson Monson | Superclusters | S6E9

    ٢٤ نوفمبر

    "Venture Should Play More Like Moneyball" | Carson Monson | Superclusters | S6E9

    "The limiting downside is actually something a lot of emerging managers don’t think about. If you can turn all of your portfolio companies that don’t hit that exit velocity, if you can find a soft landing for those companies versus that’s a writeoff and they’re dead and done, that’s extra effort, but that’s an extra turn on your fund’s performance." — Carson Monson Carson Monson is a seasoned allocator with nearly a decade of experience backing emerging and spinout GPs across large institutions, government entities, and family offices. After stints at Greenspring, SITFO, and building a fund of funds strategy for a large European single family office, he now runs the fund of funds at CrossRange, which focuses on supporting top-tier emerging and spinout GPs. Carson has backed everything from micro funds to high-profile managers spinning out of tier-one firms. He is deeply committed to being a thought partner and strategic resource to the GPs he supports, helping them navigate the complexities of fund building and long-term success in the VC industry. You can find Carson on his socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carson-k-monson/ X / Twitter: https://x.com/Monsson_ OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [02:08] Wildlife and wholesome trouble [06:03] The journey to being an LP [10:54] How did Carson join Greenspring? [13:55] Lessons across Greenspring [15:46] How many deals did Greenspring do per year? [18:46] An example of a qualitative metric worth measuring [20:16] How many off-thesis bets is a VC allowed to make? [21:25] When do GPs move from thematic bets to opportunistic bets? [25:45] How much AUM should any one GP have? [29:46] Why does Carson liked concentrated portfolios? [30:32] The case for concentrated portfolios [36:40] Relationships with GPs should stay at the LP partner level [39:49] Fund strategy at Fund (n) vs Fund (n + 1) [45:19] What the hell is 'critical node theory?' [49:54] Examples of great references [52:58] The halo effect of mega funds [58:48] How does Carson get to inbox zero [1:02:09] Why is CrossRange different? [1:08:17] The last time Carson had a pinch-me moment [1:10:17] Carson's ricotta gnocchi [1:12:28] Post-credit scene: Ramen, gluten, Tokyo, and Tonkatsu Suzuki Pt 2 Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

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  4. Can Your Check Size Win You Board-Level Transparency? | Apurva Mehta | Superclusters | S6E8

    ١٧ نوفمبر

    Can Your Check Size Win You Board-Level Transparency? | Apurva Mehta | Superclusters | S6E8

    “A manager doesn’t generally fit into their ultimate quartile until Year 6.” Apurva Mehta is the co-founding Managing Partner of Summit Peak Investments, a fund-of-funds that boasts a portfolio of both venture fund investments and direct investments, including the likes of Affirm, Anduril, Airtable, Opendoor, and Wish, just to name a few. Prior to starting Summit Peak in 2018 with his co-founder, Patrick O'Connor, he previously served as Vice President and Deputy Chief Investment Officer for the Children's Hospital Endowment Portfolio in Fort Worth, Texa. From 2008 to 2011, he was the Director of Portfolio Investments at The Juilliard School in New York City. Apurva began his career in investment consulting and investment banking at Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. He was recognized for his expertise when he was named to aiCIO Magazine’s Top Forty Under Forty in 2012 and 2013 and honored as a Rising Star by Institutional Investor. He holds a BBA in Finance from The George Washington University. You can find Apurva on his socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apurvaamehta/ OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [01:40] Tennis [02:45] Lehman Brothers' impact on Apurva [05:28] What AI is missing in investment management [14:26] Underestimated qualitative metrics that impact a GP's story [22:10] Building Cook Children's Hospital foundation portfolio from scratch [30:24] Moving quickly as an LP [31:32] What does Apurva look for in the first meeting? [37:20] Ugly sweater Christmas parties [39:56] Apurva's favorite ugly sweaters over the years [41:40] Post-credit scene: What does GFW mean? Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

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  5. What does GP-Friendly ACTUALLY Mean? | Caroline Toch Docal | Superclusters | S6E7

    ١٠ نوفمبر

    What does GP-Friendly ACTUALLY Mean? | Caroline Toch Docal | Superclusters | S6E7

    “It’s a mathematical reality that the highest performing GPs in this part of the market often also have the highest kill rates, which means some things are incredible and other things are super wonky and you have to be cool with that. You can’t be doing a six across the board.” — Caroline Toch Docal Caroline Toch Docal backs early stage fund managers as the lead of BCV’s Emerging Manager Program. She believes in investing in funds as early as the first close, which is a rare focus in the LP landscape. She’s a lifelong early stage enthusiast from her time at Venture for America to Techstars to Chief to Dorm Room Fund to now Bain Capital Ventures, where she runs the emerging manager program there which has seen quite the evolution since 2017. You can find Caroline on her socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinetoch/ X / Twitter: https://x.com/carolinetoch OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [01:33] BCV Emerge [02:30] The 13-year summer camp experience [07:46] From VC to LP [09:50] Compare/contrast early stage investing to emerging GP investing [12:51] Behind the scenes of Caroline chose to become an LP [14:36] Caroline's first investment [16:24] What is a GP-friendly diligence process? [21:27] How Caroline pre-qualifies an investment? [24:50] Understanding if a GP REALLY believes VC is their life's work [26:25] Examples of long-term language [31:05] The 3 Acts of BCV's Emerging Manager program [36:44] What the hell is BGH? [38:03] Stand up comedy [39:20] Dogs vs cats Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

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  6. Where Does Intuition Come From? | Yiwen Li | Superclusters | S6E6

    ٣ نوفمبر

    Where Does Intuition Come From? | Yiwen Li | Superclusters | S6E6

    “The intuition part comes from activities of creativity that change your perspective.” — Yiwen Li Yiwen Li is a seasoned investor with a successful track record of investing in AI, blockchain, and healthcare tech while developing global business partnerships to fast-scale the business. Yiwen is currently Head of Venture Investments at Bayview Development Group, a global family office with diverse exposure public market, private equity, venture, and real estate. Prior, she was a Principal at Alumni Ventures, responsible for end-to-end multi-stage investments focused on blockchain and fintech. She was Director for Corporate Strategy at Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI). She built an innovation pipeline in healthcare connectivity and data analytics. She was Director for Corporate Development at NantHealth (Nasdaq: NH), where she established the international business division. Yiwen started her career at Capital Group in equity research. Yiwen is an Advisory Board member of C-Sweet. She served on the board of Give2Asia as the chairman of the finance committee and a member of the investment committee. She was an advisory board member for the Asia Society where she co-founded the “Asian Women Empowered” initiative. She was recognized as the” Top 50 Women Leaders in San Jose 2024 and 2025”, “Top 50 Women in 2019” and the “Most Inspirational Women in Web 3”. Yiwen is also the author of one of the best sellers “Make the World Your Playground”, inspiring women to find their unique path. She is a frequent speaker on innovation and emerging technology trends. Yiwen holds a Master from the London School of Economics and a Master from the University of Vienna. She also graduated from the Venture Capital program at UC Berkeley and the Private Equity Program at Wharton. She was selected to be one of the " Young American Leaders" at Harvard Business School. Yiwen is a recipient of the European Union’s Erasmus Mundus scholarship. She is fluent in Mandarin and German, worked and lived in Europe, Asia, and US. You can find Yiwen on her socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yiwenli999/ OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [02:07] Yiwen's childhood [05:00] Jazz singing [06:14] The value of learning languages [09:01] How to build intuition around emerging managers [14:51] Getting to the bottom of a GP's motivation [16:33] What percent of GPs are not in VC for the right reasons? [19:47] Does success fuel or inhibit ambition? [24:17] The cost of knowledge is cheaper [24:56] Competitive edges in the current world [27:06] Why creative activities matter [31:21] Advice to emerging LPs [32:42] Post-credit scene Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

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  7. $80M vs $800M vs $8B Endowment | Trish Spurlin | Superclusters | S6E5

    ٢٦ أكتوبر

    $80M vs $800M vs $8B Endowment | Trish Spurlin | Superclusters | S6E5

    “Once you hit a billion dollars, you should probably consider some sort of internal team. Just to mitigate risk. There’s audit risk involved when you have such a small number of people managing a huge pool of capital. It’s going to differ for everyone. That’s probably a good benchmark.” — Trish Spurlin Trish Spurlin is the Investment Director at Babson’s $800M endowment, covering private markets investing with a large focus on venture. In fact 70% of their private equity portfolio is venture capital. Quite a unique strategy for an endowment to take. Why? An endowment is required to provide, in this case, the university money every single year, anywhere from 5% to 60% of a university’s annual budget. And to invest in an illiquid asset class aka venture capital that doesn’t return capital till a decade later, if not longer, takes courage. You can find Trish on her socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishspurlin/ X / Twitter: https://x.com/trishdigi OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [01:45] Sports in Trish's life [05:10] How does success fuel inhibit ambition? How does it inhibit ambition? [07:35] How do you underwrite long term motivation? [13:21] How fast you order something might matter [16:04] Can Trish angel invest outside of Babson? [17:08] Endowment with a $80M budget [19:54] Should you hire an outsourced CIO? [24:18] Endowment with a $8B budget [27:47] Babson's liquidity requirements [30:33] How to ask about a senior partner leaving [34:05] How does Trish build trust with her GPs? [37:48] Trish's interests vs Babson's interests [45:24] Hank sauce [47:26] Why is Ocean City Boardwalk special? [48:51] What serves as a reminder to Trish we're still in the good ol' days? Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

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  8. The Seneca of Investing | Jacob Miller | Superclusters | S6E4

    ٢٠ أكتوبر

    The Seneca of Investing | Jacob Miller | Superclusters | S6E4

    “There’s this thing called alpha, which is returns driven by skill not market return. And when you start to think about what does that mean, skill means you’re doing something that other people aren’t. You have to be different from the average. What can drive that? How are you going to have that be positive expected value? You need to have unique information, unique insight, unique access, or get uniquely lucky." — Jacob Miller Jacob Miller is the Co-Founder and Opto’s Chief Solutions Officer, a key figure in its leadership team and central to its growth strategy. He spearheads initiatives for Opto's fiduciary partnerships and the systemization of institutional-quality private markets investment techniques and programs. Before co-founding Opto, Miller spent nearly five years as an investor at Bridgewater Associates. Miller has a passion for sensible long-term investing, systematizing investment processes, and distilling complex market dynamics into clear, logical linkages that help people better understand their investments. Having managed money for family and friends since he was 16, Miller is a certified market junkie. While he has a background in macroeconomics and high-yield debt, he finds the challenges and opportunities in the private markets space far more interesting and important, both for investors and society. You can find Jacob on his socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-m-08b32967/ OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [01:49] Why did Jacob start investing at 8 years old? [07:20] The fallacies of storytelling [08:49] Inputs, framework, and outputs [09:21] Jake's mental framework for alpha [12:31] Pete Soderling's unique access [13:49] Jacob on defense tech VCs [14:57] How does Jacob underwrite relationships in defense? [16:30] How do you know if someone's been preaching a story before it became a story? [20:16] The difference b/w an opinion and an insight [23:07] Why does Jacob write? [25:42] Running with Joe Lonsdale at 8:30AM [29:12] 2 wildly different billionaires [31:48] What does Jacob want for the world? [36:23] What keeps Jacob humble? Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

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Superclusters is a podcast designed to help the emerging LP think like an established LP allocating to venture capital as an asset class. Our goal is to answer one question: How do the world's wealthiest institutions and individuals pick VC firms to invest in?

المعلومات

  • صناع العمل
    Superclusters by David Zhou
  • سنوات النشاط
    ٢٠٢٣ - ٢٠٢٥
  • الحلقات
    ٧١
  • التقييم
    فاضح
  • حقوق النشر
    © Superclusters by David Zhou
  • موقع البرنامج على الويب
    Superclusters - The Emerging LP Podcast

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