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Carnegie Mellon University

also referred to as: cmu

includes Carnegie Mellon University Endowment

31 statements across 3 episodes · 8 bullish · 7 bearish · 3 people on the record · first statement May 23, 2016 by Manu Kumar · said 23 times in 16 episodes since 2016 · across every show →

Mentions by year, the whole family

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (6), Aatish Nayak (3), Zico Kolter (2), Yann LeCun (2), Ted Blosser (1), Steve Vassallo (1), Shiv Rao (1), Severin Hacker (1)

tap a year for its mentions
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2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2025 9 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2024 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2023 2 mentions in 1 episode
2022 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2016 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Carnegie Mellon University, oldest first

May 23, 2016 positive
Opinion
Kumar: Carnegie Mellon's academics are as rigorous as or superior to Stanford
“Academically, I would say that CMU is absolutely at par, and if not, maybe in some cases, more rigorous than Stanford.”
Manu Kumar May 23, 2016 ▶ 20:08 20VC: K9's Manu Kumar on His Approach To Risk, Valuation & Believing What Other People Don't
May 19, 2025
Disclosure
Hacker: Duolingo bypassed seed rounds using NSF university grants
“We never raised seed or pre-seed. This was because we had these NSF grants. So we built this project inside the university. So Series A was our first round.”
Severin Hacker May 19, 2025 ▶ 1:22:07 Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 bullish
Opinion
Index Ventures Has the Most Performance-Driven Culture Seen by CMU
“And they don't, they are the most performant driven culture that we see.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 43:18 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Carnegie Mellon Backed a China Fund Returning Over 20x Net
“We had a fund out of China that produced over a 20 X net return to LPs.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 1:09:10 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
CMU Endowment Invested in Only One Sector Fund in 3.5 Years
“You know, we've done one new sector focus fund over the past three and a half years.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 1:08:55 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
CMU Endowment Prefers Cash Distributions Over Stock to Avoid Pricing Lags
“We like them to distribute cash versus stock. Reason being, if they distribute stock to us, there is sometimes a time lag between when we sell that and when others sell that, and so there could be a one to two percent pricing discrepancy on that versus them di…”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 16:53 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Venture Capital Represents Nearly 25% of Carnegie Mellon's Total Endowment
“For us, venture globally is a little less than 25%, the total endowment, so almost half of that private equity book.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 6:49 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
Carnegie Mellon Rarely Invests in VC Spinout Funds
“Yeah, we historically have not done many, if any, spinouts.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 28:40 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 bearish
Opinion
Large Venture Funds Charge 2-and-20 Fees for Passive Investing
“You are essentially acting as a long only public equity investor, right? You're not, you know, actively, you know, managing the company. They've got their own HR team. They're doing all their own hiring. You know, they've got a 20 person product team. They've …”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 48:20 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 positive
Disclosure
CMU Endowment Is Willing to Pay 2.5% Fees and 30% Carry
“If you're raising you know, that early stage fund, the core five hundred million dollar Series A fund, charge us your, you know, two and a half and 20, and if you're good enough, two and a half and 30. We're okay with that, right?”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 51:35 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 positive
Disclosure
CMU's Venture Book Is Self-Funding for the First Time Since 2021
“We are thankful to say that we're now self-funding in our venture book this year, which is give us a round of applause. I mean, it's the first time since 2021.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 1:05:57 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
CMU's 2012 VC Fund Will Add 3x Return in Year 13
“This is a 13 year fund that is essentially going to do an extra three turns on the fund in its 13th year.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 1:02:46 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Carnegie Mellon Endowment Does Not Screen VC Managers for Founder Friendliness
“Yeah, I mean, we do not, when we're sourcing and we're doing reference work, that is not something we try to dig out. Like we want the most founder friendly GPs. That's not something we source for.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 1:22:20 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
Carnegie Mellon Targets 25-Year, Three-Fund Commitments With New VCs
“And when we back a new manager, we want to back them for at least three funds. So call it, you know, 25 years of an illiquid relationship.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 29:55 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025
Disclosure
CMU Endowment Conducts 20 Reference Calls for New VC Funds
“I mean, we're, the way we think about referencing, you know, when we do a new fund, we're looking for at least 20 references calls, right?”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 25:40 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 positive
Disclosure
Carnegie Mellon's Endowment Backed Kevin Hartz's A-Star
“Kevin Hart's at A-Stars is, is, is a new partner of ours, and he was at Founders Funds for a few years.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 28:51 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
CMU's Private Investments Were Self-Funding for Three Years
“From a liquidity perspective, we've been fortunate compared to most endowments where that private equity book has been self-funding the past three years, so our distributions Have paid for our capital calls over the past three years. Now, the sub asset classes…”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 6:00 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 negative
Opinion
Mega-Scale Venture Funds Are the Highest-Margin Businesses Ever Created
“These business models, these GPs are creating are some of the best high margin businesses Ever created, right?”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 47:18 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
CMU Is 5 to 10 Percentage Points Overweight Venture Versus Peers
“I'd say we're overweight venture, but I call it anywhere from five to 10 points versus most other endowments of our size. We're underweight hedge funds and real assets, which would be real estate and natural resources”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 6:58 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 bearish
Assertion Supported
Mature Venture Funds Yield a Median 8% Net IRR
“The median IRR is about eight percent net for that asset class, and the top quartile is a bit higher, 15%, but the MOIC is about two and a half x, right?”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 9:06 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025
Disclosure
Carnegie Mellon Requests Detailed Financial Metrics for Top 10 Fund Assets
“We ask for trending revenue, trending gross profit, and trending free cash flow for the top 10 nabs of every, every fund of we underwrite.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 59:57 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 negative
Opinion
Venture Capital Fee Structures Must Change for Large Funds
“You know, we really try to understand has the magic bond been broken between GPs and LPs, which, you know, leads us to, you know, like we think the fee structures need to change to accommodate for that.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 47:51 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
CMU Endowment Targets a 4x Net Return on Venture Fund Investments
“And so for us, when we do a venture fund, our target is a forex net. That's our goal.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 38:15 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025
Disclosure
CMU Focuses GP Diligence on Interpersonal and Partnership Risk
“Perspective on strategy, not so much. We are very much trying to find interpersonal risk and partnership risk. Those are, two things that we are really digging.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 26:27 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Insight
Early-Stage Venture Funds Require 15 to 18 Years to Liquidate Fully
“If you're in an early-stage venture fund, it's gonna take at least 15 years for that fund to be wrapped up, probably 18. Right. To be fully done. All positions liquidated.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 29:42 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
CMU Independently Underwrites Top 10 NAVs for Manager Diligence
“20, 21 caused us to create new muscles in regards to underwriting as a group as well. And so for any re-up or any new manager, we diligence, we'll look at the top 10 company navs. Within that general partnership, we'll underwrite those companies ourselves. And…”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 18:30 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 negative
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Recent VC Partnership Turnover Exceeds Previous Eight Years Combined
“The amount of change you've seen at partnerships over the past two years is the most I've seen combined in my, you know, eight year histories in LP.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 27:35 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 neutral
Assertion Supported
Carnegie Mellon Allocates 85% of Its $4B Endowment to Equity
“We manage four billion on behalf of the university. And so starting at the highest level, we think of equity and fixed income as kind of the two parts of the endowment. 85% of the endowment is equity. 15% is fixed income. That is our allocation. And we manage …”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 4:46 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025
Disclosure
Carnegie Mellon Never Re-Ups in VC Funds Out of Loyalty
“Us, no. I mean, we are in an extreme performance-driven culture.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 52:25 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Venture Needs Multiple Years of Strong Liquidity to Fully Recover
“It's been such a dearth of liquidity over the past three years that, like, one year is not gonna solve the industry's problem, right? So we're gonna need, like, multiple years of really good liquidity to get back to a normal state”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 1:08:03 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025
Disclosure
CMU Endowment Commits at Least $10M to $80M-$1B Funds
“For us and our commitment size, which at the low end, call it ten million bucks anything from at the low end, we'll do an eighty million dollar fund at the high end, you know, anywhere from 400 to a billion, right?”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 15:15 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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