Beezer Clarkson is a partner at Sapphire Partners, an LP firm investing in venture funds. She discusses the fund economics required for VCs to drive outperformance.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Clarkson: LPs are shifting to accept partial secondary sales of winners
“And I've heard LPs that used to say, hold on to all your winners all the time are now saying, well, I meant that. But in context, there are times when it could be useful.”
Prediction Held up
Clarkson: Absolute TVPI-to-DPI gap is likely largest since dot-com crash
“The only other time that would be equivalent would be about 99 and 2000, and I don't know if there is the volume of funds in the market then, so, and absolute numbers, he's probably right.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Clarkson: LPs internally discount GP fund valuations by 20% to 25%
“Well, I know a lot of LPs that will ask their managers, and then go back home and take another 20 to 25% off the top, because there's things that nobody knows.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Clarkson: Auditors urged venture GPs to coordinate valuations in late 2022
“Well, and then I heard stories, and this is a story, so put it under the rumor and hearsay bucket, but that last year, the end of twenty-twenty-two, when the auditors were getting involved, they were telling GPs to talk to each other to try to figure out how t…”
Insight
Clarkson: Multi-billion-dollar VC funds disconnect GP fees from actual returns
“If you have a fund that's, I don't know, many billions, you're going to have a number of GPs that are making significant dollars, assuming it's spent Not spent on platform and other things. But if you can make that kind of money without even returning the fund…”
Opinion
Clarkson: The list of elite VC managers with unconditional LP backing is shrinking
“There are always going to be some managers that have that kind of LP pull that people will just keep working with. But I think that list is getting smaller, and I think the names are switching around.”