NEA requires $800M+ exits to move the needle, unlike smaller funds
Paul Hsiao · 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures · Apr 9, 2018 · at 5:48
Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner at Canvas Ventures and former investor at NEA, compares returning capital and fund economics at multi-billion-dollar venture funds versus smaller early-stage firms.
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“I think one realization coming since joining Canvas a few years ago is a small exit, like, easily moves the needle for a fund like Canvas, whereas we used to joke when you don't have an exit more than eight hundred million, you know, it doesn't move the needle at NEA, and it's like, get back to work, it's just people barely notice it, and that, in some ways, has provided so much operating freedom in terms of chasing ideas, you know, you, a lot of the big ideas look like small ideas, big companies that look like small ideas early on, you still want to chase those, but when you quote-unquote run, and they have one fifty, three hundred million exit is still really meaningful.”
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