The “We’re Smart” Trap (and More)
This Emerging Manager Spotlight brought together three perspectives that aspiring GPs should hear:
The legal reality (Chris Harvey from Harvey Esquire),
The founding GP journey (Sabrina from Omni Ventures), and
The LP viewpoint (Matt, with 20+ years in the LP community)
Here’s what stood out 👇
The “We’re Smart” Trap
Sabrina’s honesty about Omni Ventures’ early pitch was refreshing:
“We started as naive engineering operators saying, ‘we’re smart, we’re from Apple, we have all these patents. Invest in us.’ That is not a good story.”
The turning point? Realizing that being smart and being good at venture are completely different skills. Her team’s breakthrough came when they aligned their actual industry expertise with a clear investment thesis around manufacturing tech.
The lesson: Your resume gets you in the room. Your edge gets you funded.
What LPs Actually Want (Spoiler: It’s Not Your Deck)
Chris shared poll data from 50 active LPs that flipped conventional wisdom:
- First call priority: Is this GP a special person who can tell their story authentically? (Not deal flow or returns)
- Deck preference: Send it beforehand, but don’t walk through it slide-by-slide on the first call
- Time spent reviewing: Less than two minutes, consuming about 37 words per slide
Matt’s insight hit even harder:
“LPs spend less than two minutes looking at your deck. If you’re putting the whole story on paper in paragraph form, it’s probably not going to land.”
The Anchor LP Light Switch Moment
Chris described a pattern every emerging manager should understand:
“They struggle for the first period—weeks, months, sometimes years. They get that one LP that sends a signal to the market. After that, it’s a light switch. Everything becomes easier.”
That first institutional signal matters more than the dollar amount. It’s social proof that someone who knows how to pick investments has picked you.
Fund Size Reality Check
Sabrina’s approach to determining fund size was methodical: analyze the deals you can actually access, understand the valuations you can get into, then build a fund model that maximizes returns at that stage.
For Omni’s $25M fund targeting pre-seed manufacturing companies: “We can get into deals under a $10M valuation. This early ownership is our fund model.”
The strategy shifted from spray-and-pray ($100K initial checks with $1M follow-ons) to concentrated conviction bets ($500K-$1M upfront) based on their ability to add value and accelerate companies to Series A.
The Partnership Test
When asked about team composition, Sabrina’s advice was blunt:
“Don’t launch with a random person you’ve met for less than six months. You really need to vet your working relationship—this may be longer than some marriages.”
Chris’s legal perspective: voting control and economics splits drive most partnership conflicts. Have these conversations early and document the decisions, because “I can’t tell you how many times I thought two people would never have an issue, then something fundamentally changes.”
Specialist vs. Generalist in 2025
The group consensus: pure generalist plays are getting harder to fund.
Sabrina: “I think the generalist fund had its heyday probably five years ago. At this point, because there are so many GPs, it’s incredibly challenging to back just a new generalist VC because what edge do they really have?”
Matt’s nuance: the question isn’t specialist vs. generalist—it’s whether you have a unique edge, whether that’s sector expertise, geographic focus, or a specific skill set you bring to portfolio companies.
The 18-24 Month Reality
Multiple panelists emphasized that fundraising timelines have stretched. Matt noted the median time from launch to final close is typically a year in the best markets, but recent years have seen 18-24 months becoming normal.
The implication: start building relationships and testing your story well before you need the money.
Legal Landmines in Marketing
Chris’s warning about marketing rules: even the best decks can have legal issues. Key problems include mixing personal investments with fund performance, cherry-picking successful investments without context, and not presenting “fair and balanced” track records.
The good news: most regulatory headaches around public solicitation have been removed if you work with proper service providers and focus on accredited investors.
The most successful emerging managers think like entrepreneurs building long-term businesses, not like individuals raising a single fund.
They identify authentic advantages, build the right team, and approach fundraising as an 18+ month relationship-building process rather than a pitch sprint.
As Matt put it: “LPs want to invest in a firm rather than a fund.”
Want to stay connected with the emerging manager community? Keep an eye out for future Emerging Manager Spotlight sessions—we’re just getting started.
