“You’re making decisions in an incomplete vacuum. What I think many people should do more of, in terms of those mental models, is frame it in the reverse. Which of these decisions am I going to make that is the most regret-minimizing? That I have the least likelihood of regretting later on in life, assuming that in most cases, I will be wrong.” — Peter Walker

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 VC and startup world. This episode, it's with my man, Peter Walker, who creates some of the industry's most talked charts and graphics around the ebbs and flows of tech innovation.

Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, where he works to make startups a little less opaque for founders, investors, and employees. Prior to Carta, he was a marketing executive for the media analytics startup PublicRelay and led a data visualization team at The Atlantic magazine. He lives in San Francisco, but you can find him on LinkedIn (see links below).

You can find Peter on his socials here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjameswalker/

X / Twitter: https://x.com/PeterJ_Walker

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:52] Peter's first brush with entrepreneurship

[11:49] 996 work culture

[17:11] Peter's disclaimer on his data

[21:27] Regret-minimization when investing

[24:24] One example of regret-minimization

[26:07] How does Peter choose which conferences to go to

[29:33] Conference panels are often bad

[36:22] The incongruencies of what GPs say publicly and privately

[41:43] Peter's first data visualization

[44:18] Why is soccer underrated in the US?

[46:10] What great lengths has Peter gone for his friends?

[48:21] One worrisome trend we're going to see in 2026

[52:18] One optimistic trend to look forward to in 2026

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For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

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Warning: This is a brief-ish, but hopefully entertaining intermission from the usual Superclusters programming.

When we passed the 50th episode mark more than a few episodes ago, Tyler (my editor) and I thought it'd be interesting to record an episode where I change seats. Instead of me asking the questions, someone else would ask me questions. And I couldn't imagine any better person to do so than my good friend, Allie, who in my humble opinion, is one of the best interviewers alive today.

Allie Garfinkle is a senior finance reporter for Fortune, covering venture capital and startups. She authors Fortune’s weekday dealmaking newsletter Term Sheet, hosts the Term Sheet Podcast, and co-chairs Fortune Brainstorm, a community and event series featuring an annual retreat in Deer Valley, Utah. A regular contributor to BBC’s Business Matters podcast, Allie is also a frequent moderator at major conferences such as SXSW. Before joining Fortune, she covered Amazon and Meta at Yahoo Finance and helped produce Emmy-nominated PBS Frontline business documentaries, including Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover and The Power of the Fed. A graduate of The University of Chicago and New York University, Allie currently resides in Los Angeles.

You can find Allie on her socials here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-garfinkle1/

X / Twitter: https://x.com/agarfinks

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:01] Art

[09:39] Competition

[17:49] Paleontology

[18:14] Allie's Tiki mugs

[22:49] How has VC evolved?

[29:41] Evaluating risk

[43:04] Why is it important for VCs to stay in touch?

[47:10] Are there reliably good investors?

[53:09] Young GPs in market

[54:58] How useful is education that come via public talks?

[57:50] Does your niche fund size make sense for the market?

[1:01:16] Is there too much venture capital?

[01:05:24] How much of VC is art vs science?

[1:07:18] What's going on in Allie's world?

[1:09:45] Post-credit scene: Receipts

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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

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For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

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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

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"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

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For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

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“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?

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For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

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“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

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“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

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For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

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“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?

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“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?

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“I hate checklists. I like outlines. I don’t like checklists. A checklist says ‘I have to have this, and then I’m good. An outline is ‘This is my starting point. These are the kinds of things I want to talk about or kinds of things I need to look at.” — Eric Sippel

Eric Sippel currently runs his family office and is an active investor in and adviser to many venture capital, private equity, hedge and real estate funds. He is a member of the RAISE Global selection and steering committees (the premier emerging VC manager conference) and often speaks to emerging venture manager groups. Previously, Eric was the COO of Eastbourne Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund firm, and a Partner at Shartsis, Friese & Ginsburg, where he was a nationally recognized hedge fund and venture capital lawyer. Eric serves on more than a dozen LPACs and has served on many for profit and non-profit boards.

You can find Eric on his socials here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-sippel-976770/

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:13] Why Eric's name on LinkedIn is lowercase?

[02:44] Oceanside

[04:18] Eric's grandfather and education in the family

[07:06] Basketball

[07:58] Eric's first venture fund investment in 1996

[12:05] How does Eric invest below the minimum check size requirement?

[14:51] How to decide your LP check size

[17:47] Today, when does Eric invest in a new GP?

[21:14] Time x capital 2x2 matrix

[24:32] Tough conversations with Eric

[27:00] The minimum viable value-add for LPs who write small checks

[32:02] Eric's most impactful mistakes

[35:11] How do you know if a GP is GOOD at adding value?

[43:42] How many other funds in the same space does Eric look at before investing?

[46:36] Breaking down Eric's deal flow

[49:35] How many references does Eric do?

[50:27] Who does Eric trust for LP references?

[52:34] Other references for diligence

[55:23] How does Eric approach a founder reference?

[59:09] Biggest lessons from CIA training

[1:05:16] Mike's Pizza

[1:06:18] If everything were to change tomorrow, what would Eric photograph?

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Adam Marchick from Akkadian Ventures 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.

Cocoa VC's Carmen Alfonso Rico asks what belief Adam held firmly for years but changed his mind recently on.

Good Trouble Ventures' AJ Thomas asks about how GPs can better communicate risk to first-time LPs.

1517 Fund's Danielle Strachman asks about the world view Adam has that shapes his investing thesis.

Over the past twenty years, Adam Marchick has had unique experiences as a founder, general partner (GP), and limited partner (LP). Most recently, Adam managed the venture capital portfolio at Emory’s endowment, a $2 billion portfolio within the $10 billion endowment. Prior to Emory, Adam spent ten years building two companies, the most recent being Alpine.AI, which was acquired by Headspace. Simultaneously, Adam was a Sequoia Scout and built an angel portfolio of over 25 companies. Adam was a direct investor at Menlo Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures, sourcing and supporting companies including Carbonite (IPO), Rent The Runway (IPO), Rapid7 (IPO), Archer (M&A), and AeroScout (M&A). He started his career in engineering and product roles at Facebook, Oracle, and startups.

You can find Adam on his socials here:

X / Twitter: https://x.com/adammStanford

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammarchick/

And huge thanks to Carmen, AJ, and Danielle for joining us on the show!

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[01:22] The anatomy of a good story

[02:26] The job of an annual summit

[05:35] How often does VC change?

[07:25] Narratives LPs are looking for at GPs' AGMs

[08:25] "20% overall revenue growth in the portfolio is NOT exciting"

[09:01] What founders talk about at an AGM

[14:01] How does Adam spend time at an AGM

[17:48] Enter Carmen and Cocoa VC

[19:35] What did Adam change his mind about

[21:09] How does an LP assess GP NPS?

[22:16] Picking on-sheet references

[24:33] The origin of Cocoa VC

[26:08] What is Carmen's superpower?

[27:09] What does Carmen want from her LPs?

[29:09] The best answers to "what do you want from your LPs?"

[31:29] Controversial decisions for the LPAC

[33:39] Enter AJ and Good Trouble Ventures

[34:25] Communicating risk to your LPs

[35:58] What about to first-time LPs?

[38:06] Where do first-time LPs come from?

[39:50] What inspired AJ's question?

[42:14] Is the convo different if LPs reach out vs you reach out?

[43:45] The timing of LP conversations: most frequent vs most important

[45:59] The trust equation

[47:45] How to scale trust with LPs

[51:35] How has GPs built trust with Adam?

[53:29] How often does Adam keep in touch with his GPs?

[56:06] Enter Danielle and 1517 Fund

[58:38] What is Adam's mental model?

[1:01:43] How does Adam define low entry prices?

[1:03:25] Tracking trends as an LP

[1:06:55] 80-20 portfolio construction

[1:10:37] Would 1517's thesis 15 years ago count as market risk?

[1:14:12] Adam's last piece of advice

[1:15:46] Akkadian Ventures and RAISE Global

[1:17:06] David's favorite moment from Adam's earlier episode

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:

For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

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“There are a thousand ways to put lipstick on the pig and there are a thousand skeletons [in the closet]. I’ve only seen five or six because I’ve only seen three startup experiences. And so you need to deputize as many people as you possibly can to essentially triangulate.” — Anurag Chandra

Anurag Chandra has spent over two decades in Silicon Valley as an investor, operator, and allocator. He has helped lead four venture capital funds, managing over $2.0B in aggregate AUM. Anurag has also been a senior executive in three enterprise technology startups, two of which were sold successfully to public companies. He is currently the CIO of a single-family office with an attached venture studio and a Trustee for the $4.5B San Jose Federated City Employees Retirement Fund, serving as Vice Chair of the Board, and Chair of its Investment and Joint Personnel Committees.

You can find Anurag on his socials here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anchandra/

X / Twitter: https://x.com/achandra41

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:10] Why is what Anurag is wearing a walking contradiction?

[06:08] The man without a home, but comfortable in everyone's home

[10:17] The Stanford Review

[12:55] The four @%#-holes of America

[20:13] How did Anurag schedule regular coffee with Mark Stevens?

[25:31] Mark Stevens' advice to Anurag about staying top of mind

[26:42] How often should you email someone to stay in touch?

[30:33] Why should you be an asymmetric information junkie?

[34:21] Where should you find asymmetric information in VC?

[36:02] The 'Oh Shit' board meeting

[40:09] How San Jose Pension Plan views GPs

[43:55] Defining the 'venture business'

[49:09] Process drives repeatability

[54:06] How San Jose Pension Plan built their investment process from scratch

[58:43] What is a risk budget?

[1:01:52] What did San Jose Pension Plan do about their risk budget?

[1:05:05] The people who changed Anurag

[1:11:10] Post-credit scene

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Beezer Clarkson from Sapphire Partners joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on four GPs at VC funds to ask four different questions.

Precursor Ventures' Charles Hudson asks what is the one strongly held belief about emerging managers that she no longer believes is true.

NextView Ventures' Stephanie Palmeri asks how much should an established firm evolve versus stick to their guns.

Humanrace Capital's Suraj Mehta asks what the best way to build brand presence is.

Rackhouse Venture Capital's Kevin Novak asks if you've deployed your capital faster than you expected, what's the best path forward with the remaining capital you have left?

Beezer Clarkson leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Beezer began her career in financial services over 20 years ago at Morgan Stanley in its global infrastructure group. Since, she has held various direct and indirect venture investment roles, as well as operational roles in software business development at Hewlett Packard. Prior to joining Sapphire in 2012, Beezer managed the day-to-day operations of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Global Network, which then had $7 billion under management across 16 venture funds worldwide.

In 2016, Beezer led the launch of OpenLP, an effort to help foster greater understanding in the entrepreneur-to-LP tech ecosystem. Beezer earned a bachelor’s in government from Wesleyan University, where she served on the board of trustees and currently serves as an advisor to the Wesleyan Endowment Investment Committee. She is currently serving on the board of the NVCA and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

You can find Beezer on her socials here.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/beezer232

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethclarkson/

Check out Sapphire's latest breakdown on if venture is broken: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/venture-broken-what-2000-priced-early-stage-rounds-tell-clarkson-sjvjc/

And huge thanks to Charles, Suraj, Steph, and Kevin for joining us on the show!

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[01:22] Where does Beezer's advice come from?

[04:03] Charles and Precursor Ventures

[04:47] What's something Beezer used to believe about seed stage venture that she no longer believes in

[08:04] Why did Charles choose to bet on pre-seed companies?

[10:21] What did LPs push back on when Charles was starting Precursor?

[12:18] Definition of early stage investing today

[14:38] Steph and NextView Ventures

[18:13] When do you stick your knitting or move on from the past as an established firm?

[30:48] Is venture investing in AI fundamentally different than investing in other types of companies?

[32:52] Does competition for a deal mean you've already lost it?

[36:09] Suraj and Humanrace Capital

[36:54] How should emerging managers build their brand?

[38:38] The audience most emerging managers don't focus on but should

[40:39] How much does visible brand presence matter?

[43:47] Useful or not: Media exposure in the data room

[45:40] Backstreet boys

[46:37] Kevin and Rackhouse Venture Capital

[47:28] What Kevin is best known for

[48:03] Updated fund modelling when you're ahead on your proposed deployment period

[58:00] The typical questions Beezer gets on LPACs

[1:03:22] Is venture broken?

[1:06:41] David's favorite Beezer moment from Season 1

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:

For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

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“You need to make space for weird types of conversations to happen on the fringes that really inform you what’s going on at the frontier.” — Thorsten Claus

Thorsten Claus is a venture investor and builder with more than 15 years of private equity and venture capital experience. He has raised nine funds, managed over $4.8B across global platforms, and led or overseen more than 120 direct investments, generating returns of 3x–7x net to investors.

His current work focuses on dual-use technologies at the intersection of defense, security, and national resilience. Guided by the discipline of Howard Marks, the systems-level thinking of the Consilience Project, and a commitment to internalizing externalities, he invests in teams and technologies that strengthen sovereign capability and long-term societal stability.

Beyond capital, Thorsten is a hands-on builder. He machines defense-critical and space components, restores historic race engines, and writes on production systems and resilience at blog.thinkstorm.com. This grounding in physical production complements his investment practice, keeping judgment tied to real-world constraints.

You can find Thor on his socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thorstenclaus/X / Twitter: https://x.com/thinkstorm

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:31] Downhill skateboarding

[05:58] How do you see behind a corner when downhill skateboarding?

[07:42] Hill hunting

[10:15] How long does it take to go down the Sierras?

[11:41] The most important part of the body for downhill skateboarding

[16:02] David's dumb question of the day

[17:25] The accident that pivoted Thor's life

[19:34] The first race car Thor bought

[20:51] Why Thor is a terrible race car driver?

[23:52] How did Thor come to use the race oil that Porsche Racing uses?

[24:59] The 3 things you need to welcome fringe conversations

[27:07] Just another David misattribution

[27:34] Truth is difficult these days

[29:20] How do you prioritize which advice to take?

[30:33] Thor's weird definition of risk

[31:59] How do you know if someone is giving you authentic advice?

[34:40] How does Thor understand someone's past without asking about it?

[39:42] Lessons from fictional storytelling in diligencing GPs

[43:22] Questions and responses that reveal a GP's past

[46:10] Books that Thor read to ask better questions

[49:18] What is the USMC Christmas Tree?

[53:40] The Christmas Tree in an investor's portfolio

[57:49] Can beggars be choosers?

[1:00:41] The difference between capital formation and fundraising

[1:03:00] Production vs product for a GP

[1:06:54] Thor and cardistry

[1:10:21] What are moments that reminds Thor we're still in the good old days?

[1:13:50] The post-credit scene

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:

For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters

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Kelli Fontaine from Cendana Capital joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on three GPs at VC funds to ask three different questions.

The Council's Amber Illig asked what happens when a solo GP is incapacitated or passes away.

Oceans Ventures' Steven Rosenblatt asked why most LPs follow the decision-making of other LPs.

NeuCo Academy's Jonathan Ting asked what LPs think about GPs asking for help.

From investing in great fund managers to data to investor relations, Kelli Fontaine is a partner at Cendana Capital, a fund of funds who’s solely focused on the best pre-seed and seed funds with over 2 billion under management and includes the likes of Forerunner, Founder Collective, Lerer Hippeau, Uncork, Susa Ventures and more. Kelli comes from the world of data, and has been a founder, marketing expert, and an advisor to founders since 2010.

You can find Kelli on her socials here:

X/Twitter: https://x.com/kells_bells

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellitrent/

And huge thanks to Amber, Steven, and Jonathan for joining us on the show!

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro[01:26] Kelli's new data discoveries[04:32] How did Kelli underwrite a manager with no LinkedIn?[06:19] Is too much data ever a problem?[08:18] Vintage year benchmarking[09:49] Telltale signs on GPs' social profiles[10:57] Data Kelli wishes she could collect[15:59] Enter Amber and her new podcast[18:08] Amber's background and The Council[19:08] How does Amber define top companies?[24:25] How can a solo GP set the firm up well in case they're no longer there?[26:11] Kelli's number one fear with solo GPs[28:30] Best practices for generational transfers[32:28] Solo GPs and their future plans[36:51] Enter Steven and Oceans[42:38] Would Kelli ever include AI summaries as part of the get-to-know-someone phase?[44:18] Why do LPs follow other LP's decision-making?[48:43] What are the traits of an LP who is likely to have independent thinking?[51:16] Why don't LPs talk directly with founders?[57:59] Enter Jonathan and NeuCo Academy[1:00:05] Is Kelli seeing more secondaries firms?[1:01:56] How often should GPs lean on LPs for help?[1:07:22] Are most LPs helpful?[1:12:21] What kinds of questions does Kelli get from her own GPs?[1:15:39] Kelli's last piece of advice

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

“19% of our GDP attracts about 55% of capital inflows, aka venture activity, and 81% is underinvested.” – Vijen Patel

Vijen Patel is an entrepreneur and investor. He founded The 81 Collection, a high growth equity firm in boring industries. Previously, he founded what is now known as Tide Cleaners. He bootstrapped what eventually became the largest dry cleaner in the country (1,200 locations) before selling to Procter & Gamble in 2018. Before Tide Cleaners, he worked in private equity, McKinsey & Company, and Goldman Sachs. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two kids.

You can find Vijen on his socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijenpatel/X / Twitter: https://x.com/itsvijen

Grady Buchanan is an institutional and risk-based asset allocation professional with a passion for bringing venture capital to those who have the interest. He founded NVNG in late 2019 and oversees investment strategies, the firm’s venture fund pipeline, manager sourcing, due diligence, and external events. Before launching NVNG, Grady worked with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s (WARF) $3B investment portfolio, focused on private equity and venture capital initiatives, including fund diligence, investment strategy, and policy. Grady is based in Milwaukee, WI.

You can find Grady on his socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gradynvng/X / Twitter: https://x.com/GradyBuchanan

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro[02:41] The pressure of quitting a PE job for dry cleaning[05:09] Vijen's self talk as a founder[06:50] How to overcome doubt[09:00] How Vijen learned customer success[10:35] What did Pressbox become?[12:41] The dichotomy between society's needs and what gets funded[14:19] How did Grady go from selling pancakes to being an LP?[23:51] Why did Grady think he bombed the LP interview?[29:15] What is The 81 Collection?[32:22] How did Vijen meet Grady?[34:39] How is Vijen fluent in Spanish?[36:40] How did Grady meet Vijen?[42:21] How did Grady underwrite 81 Collection?[44:44] What about Vijen made Grady hesitate?[48:35] What's one thing about 81 Collection that could've gone wrong?[50:33] The 3 things that create alpha[52:42] Why does NVNG have the coolest fund of funds' names?[53:47] The legacy Grady plans to leave behind[56:06] The legacy Vijen plans to leave behind

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

Pattern Ventures' John Felix joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on three GPs at VC funds to ask three different questions.

Atria Ventures' Chris Leiter asked about the common mistakes LPs make when underwriting solo GPs.

Garuda Ventures' Arpan Punyani asked how quickly do most LPs get to conviction. First 10 minutes? First meeting?

Geek Ventures' Ihar Mahaniok asked how LPs evaluate Fund IIs when the Fund I has no distributions.

John Felix is a General Partner and Head of Research at Pattern Ventures, a specialized fund of funds focused on backing the best small venture managers. Prior to Pattern, John served as the Head of Emerging Managers at Allocate where he was an early employee and helped to launch Allocate's emerging manager platform. Prior to joining Allocate, John worked at Bowdoin College's Office of Investments, helping to invest the $2.8 billion endowment across all asset classes, focusing on venture capital. Prior to Bowdoin, John worked at Edgehill Endowment Partners, a $2 billion boutique OCIO. At Edgehill, John was responsible for building out the firm's venture capital portfolio, sourcing and leading all venture fund commitments. John started his career at Washington University's Investment Management Company as a member of the small investment team responsible for managing the university's now $13 billion endowment. John graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BSBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship.

You can find John on his socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfelix12/Twitter: https://x.com/johnfelix123

And huge thanks to Chris, Arpan, and Ihar for joining us on the show!

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro[02:20] What's changed for John since our last recording?[04:08] What is Pattern Ventures?[06:22] Why is Pattern's cutoff for funds they're interested in at $50M?[07:32] How does John define noise?[09:34] Do non-sexy industries require larger seed funds?[11:36] How does think about overlap in the underlying startup portfolio?[15:22] Enter Chris and Atria Ventures[18:03] Should solo GPs scale past themselves?[24:14] Partnerships have more risk than solo GPs[26:10] How does John think about spinouts from large VC firms?[27:53] The psychology of being a partner at a big firm versus your own[30:38] Enter Arpan and Garuda Ventures[31:26] Geoguessr[32:52] Garuda's podcast, Brick by Brick[34:52] How quickly do LPs know they intuitively want to invest in a GP?[38:02] The analogy to what GPs do to founders[43:50] There are many ways to make money[44:57] Quantifying intuition as an investor[49:12] Enter Ihar and Geek Ventures[49:36] How do LPs evaluate Fund IIs when Fund I has no DPI?[53:01] How do you know if a GP did what they said they were going to do?[54:47] What if the key value driver is off-thesis, but everything else is on-thesis?[56:21] Is signing 1 uncapped SAFE per fund reasonable?[57:14] What is the allowable percentage of exceptions in a fund?[1:01:32] Good vs bad exceptions[1:06:06] Reminders that we are in the good old days[1:07:31] John's last piece of advice to new allocators[1:09:00] David's favorite moment from John's last episode

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

“It’s not the probability; it’s the consequence. It’s not the probability when something goes wrong. It’s the consequence when it goes wrong.” – Wendy Li

Wendy Li is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at Ivy Invest, a fintech investment platform bringing an endowment-style portfolio to everyday investors.

Before Ivy Invest, Wendy was Managing Director of Investments at the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, where she built the Investment Office from the ground up and managed a $4 billion portfolio. Prior to Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, Wendy was Director of Investments at UJA-Federation, investing across a broad range of asset classes. Wendy began her career in the Investment Office at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and is a CFA charterholder.

You can find Wendy on her socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-li-cfa/X / Twitter: https://x.com/askwendyli

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro[02:29] Wendy's family's history with Columbia University[07:55] The importance of understanding family history[11:09] Why Wendy chose to work at The Met[15:16] How did Wendy know in the interview that Lauren would be her mentor?[19:18] Specialist vs generalist in 2006[22:58] Pros and cons of using AI as an LP[29:02] The 80-20 rule for how an LP thinks[29:29] The one mistake EVERY SINGLE LP makes[33:27] What is the Takahashi-Alexander model?[39:38] Who do you learn from when your LP institution is so small?[41:22] The wisdom of an open-sourced LP reading list[45:34] What is headline risk?[47:09] What does 'uncompensated risk' mean?[50:20] Why now for 'endowment-in-a-box'[55:07] Wendy's proudest dish from her mom's recipe book[57:09] Wendy's last piece of advice

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP

“The very first thing everybody has to do is give themselves permission to lean into what they are interested in and what does it for them and what they understand and what they have an affinity for, regardless of what everybody else says you should be doing.” – Samira Salman

Samira Salman is a generational force—a rare blend of financier, strategist, and connector—revered for her ability to move capital, catalyze ventures, and cultivate the kinds of high-trust relationships that shape industries and define legacies. With over $5.5 billion in closed transactions spanning multiple asset classes, she is not merely a dealmaker—she is a trusted consigliere to some of the world’s most sophisticated families, investors, and visionaries.

Samira is the Founder & CEO of Salman Solutions, a bespoke advisory firm, and the visionary behind Collaboration Circle, an invitation-only global ecosystem recognized by Fortune Magazine as the premier “by families, for families” platform—curating aligned capital, deal flow, and meaningful connection across generations of wealth. She also serves as Chief Operating Officer of a private single-family office, overseeing a portfolio that blends venture capital, direct investments, and multi-generational governance.

Educated as a mergers and acquisitions tax attorney, Samira’s early career at Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, KPMG, and Shell Oil laid the foundation for her structural brilliance and financial fluency. She holds an LL.M. in Taxation, a JD, and a BS in International Trade and Finance—with a minor in Economics. Her legal acumen, combined with a deep intuition for human behavior, gives her a unique edge in structuring elegant, effective solutions that drive growth, mitigate risk, and unlock hidden value.

Her work spans advisory mandates, capital formation, co-investment syndication, family office strategy, and the orchestration of transformational events for UHNW families and industry trailblazers.

A passionate advocate for women’s economic empowerment, arts and culture, and global impact, Samira has served as an Honorary Advisor to the United Nations for Social Impact Projects and the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development. She has held board roles with numerous arts, education, healthcare, and professional institutions including the Houston Ballet, Center for Contemporary Craft, and Fresh Arts.

You can find Samira on her socials here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samirasalman/X / Twitter: https://x.com/samira_salman

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:27] How did Samira find herself at TASIS?

[04:17] How did TASIS feel when she first arrived?

[07:27] From tax lawyer to family offices

[09:55] How did Samira decide to quit being a lawyer?

[17:12] Why did Samira want to be a tax lawyer?

[19:44] Journaling

[22:39] The blessing of a lawyer brain

[25:19] The Oprah episode that changed it all

[29:45] How did Salman Solutions start?

[33:28] Samira's first interaction with family offices

[36:43] Show and tell with Samira's journals and pens

[41:27] What did Samira mean that most family offices fall short of raising their own capital?

[42:54] What is the common family office hero arc into VC?

[44:05] Family office trends that Samira's seen

[47:17] The starting point for families interested in VC

[50:13] Advice to a friend who wants to invest in VC

[53:31] Book, podcast and conference recommendations

[55:42] How does one qualify for Collaboration Circle?

[56:21] Content recommendations, continued

[59:57] How Collaboration Circle started

[1:06:59] The 3 pieces of Collaboration Circle

[1:09:49] Community economic models and human nature misalignment

[1:12:43] How to create safe environments

[1:18:02] The Dior bag tradition

[1:21:20] Reminders that we're in the good old days

Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content:For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclustersFollow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.comFollow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP