The Ledger
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Singerman: Founders Fund never plans or calculates capital reserves for follow-ons
“I don't think about reserves ever. Period. Like, I literally never think, I never think a second about reserves.”
Singerman slows investment pace due to inflated startup valuations
“And right now, I've personally slowed down investing a ton simply because you cannot get a good price on the best companies.”
Brian Singerman has stopped investing in startup founders over Zoom
“I can't do it on Zoom, and I, therefore, I'm not really doing Zoom investing anymore, period.”
Founders Fund distributes shares immediately because they lack public market expertise
“Our strategy has always been to distribute shares slash capital right when we can in companies simply because we don't think we know the public markets better than anybody else.”
Singerman admits Founders Fund deployed capital too quickly in 2020 and 2021
“We've had so many discussions about this and about what the last couple of years means, and did we go too fast in 20, 21? And of course we did”
Singerman: I am terrible at venture capital without in-person founder meetings
“Meeting a founder in person is just critical. I was terrible at this job during COVID, right? Like when you couldn't meet founders in person. I'm just terrible at this job without being able to meet founders in person.”
Singerman: I am comfortable writing single venture checks up to $500 million
“Where I'm best is at writing these two, three, four hundred million dollar checks. And so, you know, if I'm using my own, practicing what I preach, it's like, if I'm comfortable writing a, let's say the most, the biggest check I'm comfortable writing is a five…”
Founders Fund Distributed Holdings to LPs at Late 2021 Peak
“We don't have hubris about knowing the public markets better than anybody else with the fact that we were able to distribute. You know, end of 2021, when a lot of people kind of held was worked out in our favor this time.”
Singerman Bases His Venture Investing on Gut Feel and Reaction
“I am a reaction, a reactive VC, a gut feel based VC”
Singerman: I never buy public stocks
“This is why I don't do public. I don't buy any public stocks ever.”
Singerman: Founder quality accounts for 80% to 90% of investment thesis
“Founder quality is still 80 to 90% of my investment thesis, right?”
Singerman: Founders Fund partners each execute distinct individual strategies
“The way that we do things at Founders Fund is everybody runs their own strategy based on what they are the best at.”
Singerman: Personal Goal Is Maximizing Return-to-Fame Ratio
“I mean, I try and my life strategy is to maximize my dollars to fame ratio. Like I want to make a lot of returns for myself and LPs and have the minimal amount of fame possible, right?”
Singerman: Founders Fund has invested $400 million total into Anduril
“We put more than, we put four hundred million in that company total now. This is just our most recent one was two hundred million.”
Many of Founders Fund's Best Deals Started as Small Seed Checks
“A lot of our best investments have been smaller checks That then we've been tracking the closely company closely enough that have grown into larger checks.”
Founders Fund Explicitly Warns Seed Founders About Potential Signaling Risk
“And so we always, when we're making a small investment, always tell the entrepreneur upfront, like, Hey, this is a potential signaling risk.”