Chris Douvos

Founder & Managing Director, Ahoy Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorfounderauthor@cdouvos ↗LinkedIn ↗superlp.com ↗

Chris Douvos is a limited partner who founded Ahoy Capital in 2018 to back emerging venture managers and co-invest in startups. He is also known for writing on venture fund architecture and LP-GP alignment through his blog Super LP.

11statements → 3claims → 0claims resolved → 3.55/5average certainty → 2.64/5average debate potential → 3.9/5argument clarity · the sources → 17said about them ↓

3 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 1 assertion · 2 opinions · 5 insights · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Chris argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

3.9 / 5 directness 3.7 · coherence 4.1 · precision 3.7 · compression 3.1

redirected or did not address 1 of 15 assessed questions (7%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

248 words/min while actually speaking · 23.4 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 4,621 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 4/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10

setup questions received 55%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 21:56“Do you not think that's potentially damaging to the VC community?” ▶ 10:08“That's very rare though, isn't it?” ▶ 9:19“I'm really intrigued that though, because we constantly hear about the proliferation of micro VCs and LPs are always, uh, in the past few weeks when I've got to know LPs, they've a…”

when Chris pushed back ▶ 9:37“Well, so it's actually interesting because I, as you know, I was one of the earliest investors in micro VCs going back to kind of Uh, even before we had a name for it, and I can ta…” ▶ 16:26“You use the phrase hot funds. You know, the phrase hot fund, fund rankles me because, you know, time and time again, we've seen funds kind of get attention and get, you know, kind …”

What they said11 What others said17 Episodes1

Everything Chris Douvos said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion

Douvos: Oversubscribed funds often result from LPs' lemming-like herd mentality

“Time and time again, we've seen funds kind of get attention and get, you know, kind of wildly oversubscribed only because LPs are demonstrating lemming-like behavior. And, you know, there's a favorite bell cow like, you know, Yale or Harvard or Stanford that t…”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 16:28 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Insight

Douvos: Outsized returns in LP investing require being right and alone

“So many people are deathly afraid of being wrong and alone because that box is the career risk box so that they'll slide over and try to do more things with the crowd. But what happens is when you move towards the crowd, then you take the right and alone box o…”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 17:31 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Douvos: Most LP programs will evolve into hybrid direct-partnering models within 10 years

“And I think, you know, sitting here 10 years from now, most things that we think of as fund programs today will look more like hybrid programs with, you know, kind of closer ties, partnering more closely with GPs to look at companies rather than being, you kno…”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 21:37 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Insight

Douvos: How VCs treat LPs predicts how they treat founders

“The way investors treat LPs gives us a lot of insight into how they treat entrepreneurs. And if they're being heavy handed and arrogant with us, their shareholders, how are they with their customers?”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 15:14 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Opinion

Douvos: Seed-stage VC is oversaturated with capital and a poor investment

“I think today it's the, you know, almost the opposite of a good time. I think there's just so much capital in the seed stage.”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 21:03 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Insight

Douvos: Micro VCs suffer from undercapitalization and bad late-round terms

“Or one of the things that I think is an endemic problem to the micro VC space is that funds are undercapitalized and own too little and are kind of subject to the vagaries of later stage financing rounds where they may get, the rounds might get structured in w…”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 22:32 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Douvos: LPs shorten portfolio duration by shifting into later-stage funds

“What I think most people are doing to deal with lengthening horizons. They're trying to shorten the duration of their portfolios by going to later stage.”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 8:46 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Disclosure

Douvos: VIA shifts allocations toward earlier, seed-stage companies

“And so I'm actually focusing my investing efforts on Earlier. And on, you know, even more nascent companies.”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 9:12 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Insight

Douvos: LP arbitrage comes from doing what investment committees fear

“If I had for my fund, a tagline for my investors, it would be doing the stuff that your investment committee is too scared to let you do.”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 12:10 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Insight

Douvos: Outperforming VC funds capture more economic surplus through higher fees

“At the end of the day, we have to make sure that we are, you know, getting, you know, net outperformance, right? You know, over time, you'd imagine that, you know, some funds who have generated performance are then able to extract, you know, more of that surpl…”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 18:41 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Douvos: Venture fund formation pace will not slow down immediately

“The level of fund formation is absolutely incredible. I don't see it slowing down immediately.”

Chris Douvos Jun 15, 2016 ▶ 24:35 20VC: Will LPs Replace GPs with Chris Douvos, Managing Director @ VIA

The other half of the tape: Chris Douvos's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 17 times in 10 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 12 Beezer Clarkson 3 Semil Shah 1 Matt Ocko 1