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Lessin: Venture allocators must never sell their top-performing assets

Sam Lessin · Is DPI The Only Thing That Matters? with Sam Lessin, Jason Lemkin & Rory O’Driscoll · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jun 5, 2025 · at 16:25

Sam Lessin, Partner at Slow Ventures, discusses exit strategies and secondary sales for venture capital investors on 20VC.

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“The number one rule as a fund out an allocator is you cannot sell the things that matter.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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