Michael Skok, Founding Partner at Underscore VC, shares strategic fundraising advice for emerging venture capital fund managers.
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“It's very important to look at this as a business that is At least a decade long fund at a time, and you never really know the results of your fund's performance for some number of years. So you need to get investors who are very patient, and you have the you know, support behind them to be with you for multiple funds. So we could have easily raised the first fund very quickly just from individuals, but we said, you know what, that's not a good thing. First of all, we don't want individuals to be, you know, held up for 10 years from their sort of individual agendas, and most individuals are not thinking in ten-year sort of life cycles. That's why foundations and endowments are much more important.”
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
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