Aug 12, 2015 · 26m · 20vc
20 VC 062: Shaking Up London's VC Scene with Fede Pirzio-Biroli, Founder @ Playfair Capital
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Fede Pirzio-Biroli, founder of Playfair Capital, discusses his journey from East African NGO aid work to building a agile single-LP venture capital firm in London focused on hands-on founder support, technical recruitment, and emerging market investments.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 18.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.0 Guest teaching 2.7 Guest disagreement 0.8 Harry pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 7:38 Interrupting to correct fund structure
Fede halts Harry mid-question to correct his assumption that Playfair had to raise external capital, establishing that he is the sole LP.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 13:45 Pressing on differentiation from SEISHarry pushes Fede to explain how Playfair actually sets itself apart from the influx of passive SEIS funds in London.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:38 Educating host on single-LP carry mechanicsFede reframes the premise of the question by explaining the specific legal and carry structure of a single-LP venture firm.
Harry holds his own ▶ 11:16 Framing London seed market evolutionHarry demonstrates sector familiarity by contextualizing how dramatically the London early-stage investment market has changed since 2011.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unconventional Background: From NGO Aid Work to Entrepreneurship | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Fede shares his background working in East African NGOs and aid transparency lobbying, explaining how it led him to favor entrepreneurship over aid. Harry asks standard conversational questions without challenging the guest. | |
| Early Angel Investing and the Growth of Playfair Capital | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | Fede gently interrupts Harry's question about raising external capital to clarify that Playfair is structured with himself as both GP and sole LP. He explains how he allocates carry to keep his team incentivized. | |
| Investment Strategy, Check Sizes, and Round Flexibility | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Harry asks about market shifts and prompts Fede on how Playfair competes against passive SEIS tax-incentivized capital. Fede outlines their value-add through providing in-house technical recruiters. | |
| The Role of Warner Yard and Curated Co-Working Spaces | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Fede details the strategic advantage of owning Warner Yard, highlighting how quiet curation and community rotation like Techstars create a dynamic co-working environment. | |
| Identifying Founder Potential: Resourcefulness and Grit | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Harry cites specific Playfair portfolio companies, leading Fede to describe key traits he looks for in founders, illustrated by stories like the Dojo founders living in the co-working space. | |
| Quick-Fire Round: Book Recommendations, African Tech, and Knitten | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Harry conducts a quick-fire round covering book choices, African tech investing, and recent deals like Knitten in an entirely friendly tone. |
Statements from this episode (13)
Pirzio-Biroli: NGO jobs siphon talent away from entrepreneurship in developing economies
“Every single one of them that gets kind of attracted to going to work for an NGO comes at the opportunity cost of not becoming an entrepreneur. And actually, small business and entrepreneurship is what grows an economy. That's what contributes to GDP. That's w…”
Pirzio-Biroli plans to expand Playfair Capital into Sub-Saharan Africa
“I started deploying capital here and not in, in the, kind of, in, in emerging economies, but that was more, kind of, to cut my teeth with a view to go and become operational in Sub-Saharan Africa later on.”
Pirzio-Biroli funded early angel investments by selling family business shares
“Yes, yes, from my own funds, from funds that I'd sold basically from shares that I'd sold in the family business that I was admittedly very fortunate enough to have available to me.”
Playfair Capital is structured with founder Fede Pirzio-Biroli as sole LP
“So when, so today, Playfair Capital is a limited liability partnership. So it is a venture capital firm in every sense of the word, legally speaking as well. But it's a venture capital firm which doesn't have the usual motivations and incentives of venture cap…”
Playfair Capital allocates 80% carry to Pirzio-Biroli and 20% to team
“And I think, you know, if we look, if kind of, if I changed my thinking from that of an angel to thinking about things more within the fund structure under the current arrangement, just like a standard fund, which has, you know, 80% of the carry going to LPs a…”
Playfair Capital writes average seed checks of £200,000 to £250,000
“So the average ticket size is somewhere between 202 150 K.”
Pirzio-Biroli: VCs do just as much operational work for smaller checks
“Practically speaking, we always end up doing just as much work for smaller Ticket sizes. So, so it really doesn't make sense to do things kind of below that.”
Pirzio-Biroli: SEIS tax relief flooded London startups with unsmart capital
“SEIS has, you know, has really come into its stride since 2011, and basically, you know, created a whole new pot of capital, which is you know, sometimes not motivated to deploy the capital for the right reasons. They're seeing it as a de-risked investment. An…”
Playfair Capital provides portfolio startups with a free in-house technical recruiter
“We've taken on a head of talent who was formerly at Facebook and Google before that, who's a technical recruiter. And we are deploying them amongst portfolio companies to hire CTOs, front-end, back-end, full-stack devs entirely engineering-focused at our cost …”
Pirzio-Biroli: Co-working spaces stop making economic sense beyond 15 employees
“It makes sense until, you know, you're about 15 people, roughly. And then it becomes kind of, you know, and then organically it starts making sense, economically, to move into a space of your own.”
Pirzio-Biroli: VCs pay higher valuations for serial entrepreneurs
“Investors often pay more for serial entrepreneurs, people who have been through kind of ups and downs, hiring, firing you know, the pains of having to Having to wind a company down.”