Here’s a bit of background on the venture funds I’ve invested in.
I’m sharing this so folks are aware we’re making these investments, and so that you can learn from my experience.
To be clear, these investments are discretionary “angel” sized commitments at the moment – not a dedicated fund. Our activity and size of commitment will ramp up in ‘26 once a few things (which I will share soon!) fall into place.
Fund #1 – Business school classmate and good friend. Wanted to be supportive of their 1st fund, and stuck around for the 2nd as well. Figured even if my check(s) went to zero I’d learn a lot. I was right. And have even started to see a bit of DPI. Personal investment.
Fund #2 – A member of the “build in public” [sister|brother]hood like myself, who raised their fund publicly.
Fund #3 – Long-time supporters of our work who were a few funds deep. Saw they announced a closing of their next fund. Reached out and asked if the close was final. Turned out it was not. We did a call to discuss. Ended up in the opportunity fund (which they had just started raising for, but had not yet announced) instead of the core fund. Personal investment.
Fund #4 – Approached by a reader at one of our events. Turns out they were helping launch a new, early growth AI fund with some GPs that had spun out of well-known shops. Asked me if I’d like to invest. Personal investment. 1 year later, they formally announced the fund.
Fund #5 – GP submits their fund launch to be covered in Moves in VC. I ask for their deck. I see a track record of 4X+ DPI (with more sitting unrealized). Turns out final close isn’t for about a week. I ask for a meeting, where I then ask to invest. GP scales back a bit of their GP commit to let me in. Personal investment.
Fund #6 – Our first GP staking. We did a live deep dive on this about how it came to be. You can click here if you want to read the summary or watch the session in full. This one was the first one that’s been on Venture5 “paper” instead of via a personal investment. (Which is how we are doing our fund investing going forward)
Things I’ve learned along the way:
- 2 of the funds above had announced their closes, but hadn’t fully wrapped things up, at the time of my investment. So if you see a fund closing announcement, and it’s a fund you’re interested in investing in, there’s a chance they might still have room to take a value-added LP like yourself. Just ask!
- I want to make money on these investments. But I also want to learn. Investing across different sectors and fund strategies is one way to amplify my learning process.
- For some of the firms, I get quarterly (or even more frequent) updates about the portfolio companies. Plus, the GPs will give their thoughts on what is happening in the venture market in general. Much of what is included in these updates is NOT in the public domain. Which makes for a great learning opportunity, because both the perspectives and the information can help make me smarter in all aspects of what we do at Venture5.
- Some of these firms will invite me to their annual meetings (AGMs) and other private events which are filled with GPs, LPs, angels, and founders. These are great rooms to be in, with opportunities for me to reconnect with investors I already know, and opportunities to build new connections.
- Fund investing isn’t in a vacuum. It creates interesting intersections with other areas of our work at Venture5 and is strategic for us. You might consider it our version of “corporate venture capital,” where the corporation is Venture5 🙂
