If we were tracking trending topics in the venture ecosystem in 2019, the recurrent themes would be dominated by unicorn IPOs and the viability of micro mobility. But at Greenspring, an internal trending theme has a much more esoteric focus: the recent wave of General Partner (“GP”) led restructurings. Considering this concept is not a part of mainstream venture capital vernacular, there are some obvious questions: what exactly is a GP-led transaction, why are managers recommending them to...
A myth at its core is a story to explain something complex. Over time, the story is broadly disseminated such that popular consciousness can, at times, accept it as true at face value. At Greenspring Associates, we believe that a pervasive myth exists in the venture capital Limited Partner ecosystem: the notion that venture capital is an “access class.” Said differently, if you polled institutions that allocate to venture capital and asked them to identify the single most important factor in...
Twice a year, we at Greenspring Associates hold offsite meetings attended by all investment team members, from Managing General Partner to Intern, to share and collaborate on ideas outside of our day-to-day activities. These sessions serve to facilitate communication amongst the team, promote creativity and set intentionality around the direction of our business in a coordinated fashion, both from a strategic and investment perspective. The first of these meetings takes place in January, and...
Recently, we’ve observed a number of news outlets trying to vilify tech founders and venture investors as cold-blooded capitalists living in a vacuum, rather than clear-eyed capitalists working to create value while helping to shape the future. The latest organization attempting to further this narrative is PitchBook, a private market data company whose clients include a number of venture capital firms, including us. In a recent article, author Anthony Mirhaydari uses a mixture of data points...
Classic albums often have a catchy single or two. These tracks generate the buzz, but oftentimes the B side of the album is where much of its character is further revealed. This analogy is an appropriate characterization of how fund terms are evaluated in the venture capital universe. Our prior piece addressed the “catchy singles,” like management fees, carried interest, and recycling, which receive a fair amount of airtime from Limited Partners and General Partners alike, while this piece will...
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