The Ledger
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Rob Go: Endowments Are Often the First LPs to Flee in Downturns
“You know, there was a time when folks used to say that, like, endowments and foundations are the most robust long-term partners that exist on the planet. It is just not true. I've heard so many cases where markets turn, things change, and the first ones to lea…”
Rob Go: Funds 2 and 3 Struggle to Convert Fund-of-Funds LPs
“Weirdly, when you're in the middle, you're neither new, nor are you so well known that you have, like, a great brand. Fund to funds are not as good. So what I found is that, like, funds, you know, Three-ish, two to three, it's actually harder to get a new fund…”
Rob Go: Best Seed Opportunities Are Non-AI Companies and Non-Pedigreed Founders
“I think there's actually a lot of opportunity out there for non-consensus thinking. I think there are a lot of companies that aren't getting very much love because they're not AI. The teams aren't fancy founders that came from well-known companies that are jus…”
Rob Go: Energy and Hustle Give Young VCs a Competitive Advantage
“But I really believe venture is a young person's game. Like the amount we were talking about this before you started recording, right? Like the amount of like energy and hustle that you're able to deploy as a young person is truly a competitive advantage.”
NextView Ranks Portfolios Quarterly to Prevent Hype-Driven Follow-On Decisions
“We basically do a ranking of the portfolio every quarter from a perspective of where we want to deploy or follow on capital. And we do that because we want to make the decision apart from a financing opportunity, right? Because what ends up happening is when s…”
Rob Go: Single Mega-Funds Create Worse Alignment Than Separate Opportunity Funds
“I think the third is like, there's an alternative, which is we just raise a bigger fund overall. But I think everybody kind of loses in that case, right? Because, you know, it's hard to deploy that much money. The fees effectively are higher if you don't do, b…”
Rob Go: Unequal VC Partnerships Lead to Mid-Fund Renegotiations
“We felt like if it wasn't equal, there'd be too much of an incentive to renegotiate depending on like how things are going in the fund.”
Rob Go: Emerging VCs Should Refuse Anchor LP Requests for Special Economics
“I wouldn't do it. I think it's a sign of strength not to take that deal. It's not very typical in venture, I would say. I, I've heard it's more common in private equity or hedge funds. And so if you're talking to an LP that's very used to anchoring hedge funds…”
Rob Go: Ideal Portfolio Construction Is Theoretically 100% in One Winner
“The best portfolio construction in the world is to invest in one company and put all your money into the first round and be right. And every derivative from that basically is allowing for uncertainty and risk.”
Rob Go: A Base of Small LP Checks Creates an Anti-Fragile Fund
“I generally am a believer in like building an anti-fragile LP LP base. And so in a weird way, like, even though I said earlier, I really, you know, I don't mind concentration. I also don't mind a lot of small checks if you can handle it from a timing standpoin…”
Rob Go: Mega-funds struggle with $1M seed deal math
“When a business is looking to raise, you know, a million dollars or even less, it becomes very difficult for you know, a multi-hundred million dollar, you know, nearly billion dollar fund make the math and the time investment work for that kind of a company.”
Go: Raising excessive money pre-PMF hurts focus and breeds overhead
“There seems like there's no downside to raising more money, but there actually is. And the downside is actually around a lack of focus scrappiness And over investment in overhead before there's really the sort of core machinery to support it.”
Rob Go: LPs Spend 90% of Time on Decks and Track Records
“But like, really, I think most LPs, they spend like 90% of the time on the deck. And the track record, and that's all there is.”
Rob Go: Avoid Letting a Single LP Constitute 50% of a Fund
“I think 50% is kind of extreme. I think it's probably unusual that an LP would be willing to do that without some special controls or economics that I would recommend probably steering away from for the most part.”
Rob Go: Individual LP Champions Matter More Than Institutional Brand
“I actually think it's, what's more important is the individual who's there. You want somebody who is empowered, not at the very end of their career, because there's a risk that they're going to leave, and then you're going to be adopted by somebody else. And s…”
Rob Go: Timing Is the Single Biggest Factor in LP Commitments
“The number one factor in, in whether an LP says yes or no is just timing, right?”
Rob Go: Emerging VCs Shouldn't Force Meetings With Uninterested LPs
“You want to scrape and fight really hard to get great introductions, but if somebody doesn't want to take a meeting, like, there's no, there's not that much value in, like, forcing it.”
Rob Go's Fundraising Rule: Follow Up Twice, Then Stop Proactive Outreach
“I have a basic belief that it never hurts to ask twice, but I never ask three times, right? So if there's an email that doesn't get responded to, I don't feel bad about asking again. After two, after I'm ignored twice, that's okay. I just move on.”
Rob Go: Pension Funds and Large LPs Avoid Fund 1 and 2
“There are some groups that are very, very large LPs, and they just want stability, right? They will never invest in a fund one or a fund two, but they love the idea of investing in fund three, four, five or plus, or more with a team that's been together for a …”
Rob Go: Accessing Top Companies Outweighs Strict Deal Terms in VC
“In a power law business, you just want to get into the best companies.”
Go: Growing VC Fund Sizes Create Disconnect With Low-Cost Software Startups
“The cost of starting software businesses had come way down. And the best venture funds had accumulated larger and larger amounts of capital, and so there's this natural disconnect with founders.”
Rob Go: Seed investors guide startups to product-market fit
“The job of a seed investor is to invest in a company before product market fit, and try to take the company to the other side of product market fit and into sort of early validation and early growth.”
Go: Pre-PMF software startups should raise 18 months of runway
“I would generally advise for 18 months. I think the lever is less sort of the time, and it's more the headcount.”
Go: 30% dilution pre-PMF hurts founder leverage in future rounds
“Like selling a third of your company before product market fits seems pretty painful. Versus trying to sell, you know, 15, 20% of the company for less money, but getting you to a point where you have a lot more leverage the next time you have to go to raise, r…”
Go: VC reputation is defined by rejected or failing founders
“The most important aspect is, you know, what do other founders say about you? And not just what do other founders in your portfolio that are the best performing founders, right? Because like every company that's doing great, the, their investors spend a lot of…”