Nick & Beezer go inside their recent conversation with Jason Shuman and Will Quist to discuss the right way to be a contrarian investor, how to do no harm as a VC, and dive into the answer to their burning question: do VCs actually add value?

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

Learn more about Notation Capital: https://notation.vc/

Learn more about Primary: https://www.primary.vc/

Learn more about Slow Ventures: https://slow.co/

What do Primary GP Jason Shuman and Slow Ventures Partner Will Quist have in common? At first glance, not much, given how differently their firms approach firm building and VC "platforms." At Primary, their Impact team outnumbers investors 2:1, while Slow consists of 3 GPs, and 3 GPs only. But in a surprising twist, they agree on more than one would expect.

They both see non-consensus investing as carrying big risk but also big opportunity. They are both seed investors and their respective firms go to market in very different ways. They sit down with co-hosts Nick Chirls, GP at Notation Capital & Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to talk about zigging when the market zags, identifying truly disruptive companies on day zero, and how much impact VCs actually have on the companies they partner with.

Learn more about co-host Beezer and her firm at Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/

Learn more about Notation Capital: https://notation.vc/

Learn more about Primary: https://www.primary.vc/

Learn more about Slow Ventures: https://slow.co/

Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.sapphireventures.com/

Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox.

Chapters:

00:00-Introduction & The Burning Question

06:06-Will & Jason Intros

09:13-Defining the S Curve

11:06-Positioning Your Firm to Win

15:08-Identifying Winners on Day Zero

18:31-Being Non-Consensus and Right

25:46-What is the Value Add of VCs?

32:43-Setting KPIs

35:36-”You Sell Something”

38:30-Outro

Joanna Rupp, Managing Director of Private Equity at the University of Chicago, sits down with Nick & Beezer to shine a light on the often opaque world of endowments, including what separates an endowment from a foundation, how they consider small funds v. big funds and the fallout from an avalanche of capital being thrown at VCs. Then (announcement!) Joanna and Beezer evaluate Nick’s new venture fund - the key pieces of diligence, what he needs to prove in the next few years for another investment, how to build a relationship with his LPs, and more.

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

Learn more about Notation Capital: https://notation.vc/

Visit the University of Chicago’s Endowment’s website: https://investments.uchicago.edu/

Read Ted Seides’s blog post: https://www.capitalallocators.com/the-investment-office-playbook-what-managers-dont-see/dinvestors.com/blog/the-three-body-problem-finding-the-new-stable-points-in-venture-capital

Visit OpenLP as your go-to resource for LP thought leadership: https://openlp.sapphireventures.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/openlp/

https://x.com/open_lp