multi-stage fund
also referred to as: multi-stage funds · multistage fund · multistage funds
25 statements across 24 episodes · 4 bullish · 13 bearish · 19 people on the record · first statement Jul 15, 2019 by Santi Subotovsky · across every show →
Everything said about multi-stage fund, oldest first
Jul 15, 2019 negative
Subotovsky: Multi-stage VC funds follow on in only 30% of early investments
“A lot of entrepreneurs underestimate the negative effect of signaling. They raise from this multi-stage funds, and this multi-stage funds are incredibly focused, and typically they follow on on about 30% of their earlier stage investments, and that's an incred…”
Sep 16, 2019 neutral
Oct 18, 2019 neutral
May 11, 2020 negative
Stebbings: Seed funds cannot reliably build ownership in breakout startups
“With data transparency now, they come in very aggressively on anything that's popping, and the theory that you can build ownership over time, to me, is actually quite false, and I don't actually see it, because in the companies that are obviously popping, mult…”
Aug 14, 2020 negative
Aug 14, 2020 negative
Nov 6, 2020 bearish
Weinberg: Multi-stage seed strategy will only work for top-tier funds
“And my guess, and I haven't modeled this, but my guess is, as with all of these things, there will be a subset of these funds where it works. Because they catch the five companies that they can continue to plow money into and end up putting five hundred millio…”
May 4, 2021 negative
Tisch: Small checks from large funds yield minimal partner attention
“So if I'm going to take a three million dollar check from you know that you're in the bottom quartile of money allocated from that fund. So assuming that you're going to get this magical attention allocation from the fund is a mistake.”
Aug 15, 2022
Mar 24, 2023 negative
Stebbings: Partner churn at multi-stage funds hinders Series A fundraising
“The one thing I think does make a difference is when you have partner churn at multi-stage funds, so if you can be orphaned at multi-stage funds, even if you do well, if there's no real owner, it can be a lot more difficult to have your internal champion to le…”
May 22, 2023 negative
Jun 23, 2023 bearish
Rob Go Predicts Multistage VC Funds Will Eventually Abandon Seed Investing
“I don't think that it will persist because at some point the multistage funds will say, hey, it's not really worth, worth our time and effort to invest at this stage. And, you know, they'll, they'll turn their attention to later stage rounds where you write bi…”
Aug 9, 2023 bearish
Oct 20, 2023
Nov 17, 2023 bullish
Quinn: Venture investors will return to syndicate co-investing across rounds
“I think we spent far too many years with the multi-stage funds and then suddenly realizing, wow, now I'm the only one on the cap table. There's no one else to turn to. There's no one else around to like help support this company with me. And so I think we're g…”
Jan 12, 2024
Sep 6, 2024 bearish
Stebbings: Multi-stage entry prices will cut seed fund returns in half
“I actually think that they've come in with such efficiency that actually they've made it so much harder for the existing pure seed players. They've increased price. They've increased supply. I think you will see returns significantly denigrate. We all saw five…”
Sep 16, 2024
Jan 6, 2025 positive
Maples: Seed funds are better positioned for secondary sales than multi-stage funds
“You can make money on the buy, and you can make money on the sell. And what most people don't understand is that the seed funds are actually better positioned to make money on the sell than anybody. Better, better positioned than the multi-stage by a wide marg…”
Apr 24, 2025 neutral
O'Driscoll: Green Oaks' seed success reflects deal-picking, not a systemic VC shift
“I'm not sure it says something systemic about seed versus non seed. I just think it says extraordinarily good picking from a very connected investor who just You know, most of whose stuff is working really well at a much higher level and to go from, you know, …”
May 12, 2025 positive
Aug 4, 2025 bearish
$7B Multi-Stage VC Funds Require $800B in Exit Cap for 4x Net
“You're close to, you know, eight hundred billion of market cap needed to return a Forex net for those multi-stage funds. Now, for reference, twenty-twenty-one, the best exit year of all time, there was 850 billion-ish of market cap exit value from that year. O…”
Nov 10, 2025
Randle: Multi-stage VC funds must invest in $1B ARR 'golden categories'
“A golden category is a category that, as like the entire market for a single product adds a billion of net new ARR in a single year. And like, if you find a golden category, you essentially, if you're, especially if you're a multi-stage fund, you have to have …”
Mar 9, 2026 positive
Clements: VC funds must ladder ownership over time to reach 20%
“Today, you have to back into 20% the other way. Like, you do what the market will allow in the earliest possible investment. You sponsor a tender, you do a growth round, you do an IPO round, and you can ladder your way up to 20% ownership. You have to be a mul…”
Jun 20, 2026 negative