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Wagner: Early-stage VCs adding opportunity funds underestimate multi-strategy complexity

Peter Wagner · Peter Wagner: 27 Years of Investing Lessons of Picking Founders, Price Discipline & Reserve | E1123 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Mar 6, 2024 · at 16:36

Peter Wagner, Founding Partner of Wing Venture Capital and former Accel Managing Partner, reflects on how venture firms scale and the operational friction of combining early and growth stage investing under one roof.

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“That it's difficult to have all these different strategies cohabitate under one roof. They have different methodologies, You have to build the teams differently. You know, the investment decisions are made, you know, with very different criteria, and it's not a layup getting that right, and this is why, you know, I think early stage firms that just sort of add an opportunity fund, I think, are maybe getting into some, you know, some things that they maybe don't fully understand, because, you know, nothing, nothing comes for free. You know, if you're gonna do later stage investing, growth stage investing, even in your own companies, You got to think about it like a growth investor. You've got to, you know, develop those people, that mindset, those skills.”

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