Revisiting Power Law VC Performance with David Clark

Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, revisits her conversation from 2023 with David Clark, Investment Director at VenCap International plc. In this episode, she and co-host Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, dive into David’s nearly four decades of experience in investing in some of the most established VC funds across the US, Europe, China and India. David shares historical figures on where to find performance in venture and his findings from a recently uncovered 30 year trove of data from 400+ funds with 15,000+ underlying portfolio companies. In this data set, he found that 50% of VC investments don’t actually return capital. So how does an LP unlock performance and find the enduring managers?

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc

Learn more about Top Tier Capital Partners: ttcp.com

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CHAPTERS:

0:00-Welcome to Origins

2:46-30 Years of Data at VenCap

6:10-Almost Always Working With Established Managers

11:19-A Very High Breakage Rate Between Funds One & Two

16:01-Figuring Out Who the Next Great Ones Are

24:41-Having At Least One Company That Returns the Entire Fund

31:26-Building an LP Program

36:18-Building a Program Where DPI Matters

42:06-Looking Back On Predictions for 2024

50:49-Looking for GPs to Get Ahead of the Curve