David Clark
Chief Investment Officer, VenCap International. On 2 shows, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorexecutive@Daveclark85 ↗LinkedIn ↗vencap.com ↗
Clark leads the investment team at fund of funds manager VenCap, overseeing fund identification, strategy, and selection across global venture capital managers. He is widely recognized for his analyses on power-law returns, manager persistence, and exit dynamics drawn from decades of fund performance data.
2shows
3appearances
51statements
6resolved
6supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
3said about them ↓ Everything David Clark said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
David Clark: VenCap Backs Venture Firm With Mandatory Age-Based Retirement
“So there's one of the managers that we back that have a, that has a policy that says once you get to a certain age, you're out unless you're invited by the rest of the partners to stay Within the partnership.”
Clark: VenCap declines existing VC managers only for performance and succession
“I think that the two reasons we don't do, the two reasons we would say no to an existing manager would be performance and succession.”
VenCap's top-performing fund of the past 15 years is a growth fund
“Our best performing core manager fund in the last 15 years as a growth fund.”
David Clark: Quantitative VC Decision-Making Erodes Excess Returns
“I think the more quantitative the decision becomes, the more that excess returns will probably get competed away.”
David Clark: Direct co-investments can selectively capture top 1% venture returns
“I'm not all the way there yet to say that, that actually it's a good thing, but I do think there are situations in which there are different ways to optimize for those top one percent companies. One is to do it through the best primary managers. One is to do i…”
Clark: 80% of respondents in UK VC survey call AI valuations too high
“So it's funny, one of my colleagues was at a conference yesterday that was run by the UK Venture Capital Association. And they surveyed the audience saying, you know, what do you think about AI valuations today? You know, too high, about right, you know, too l…”
Clark: Compare Current Venture Fund Sizes to Exit Market Sizes 10-15 Years Out
“What you need to do is to compare fund sizes today with the exit sizes in 10 to 15 years because that's when those companies are ultimately going to become liquid.”
Clark: LPs do not need every top fund to succeed
“One of the things that, one of the things that we've learned is that you don't have to do every great manager out there. You just have to make sure all the managers you do are great.”
Clark: LPs must invest across every vintage rather than timing markets
“From an LP's perspective, the way that you're able to do that is to make sure that you are investing consistently across every vintage. You're not trying to time the market.”
David Clark: VenCap has only 10% of its portfolio invested in Europe
“And when I look at our portfolio there's a reason only 10% of our portfolio is invested in Europe.”
David Clark: VenCap's China allocation dropped by half over ten years
“It's come down by half over the last 10 years.”
VenCap Disregards VCs Who Passive-Rode Small Seed Checks to Large Returns
“So if you wrote a 50,000 dollar seed check and Turned up 15 years later and found you had a company that, you know, went public at a ten billion dollar valuation, then that's less interesting for us. If you were leading around, if you were on the board, if you…”
Clark: VenCap sells distributed public stock immediately rather than holding
“We tend to sell because we don't think it's our job to hold public stock for our investors. They have their equity managers who do that and would do a better job than we would.”
Clark: Foundry Group Handled Succession Well by Deciding to Wind Down
“Foundry Group have done a really good job. Because they've understood that, actually, we're not going to try and do that. There's a group of people here that want to work together, and when we're done. And that, I really respect that. That, that they haven't t…”
VenCap targets three-year deployment cycles across all its funds
“Time diversification in a fund is so important. And so we look to invest all of our funds across a three year period.”
VenCap accepts higher VC fees if net performance stays top-quartile
“For us, it's about net performance. So, you know, what does that performance look like after the fees and carry have been taken off? And if it's consistently top quartile and it's consistently strong then we're relaxed about that.”
David Clark: Early-Stage VC Funds Must Offer 1x Fund Return Potential
“We still feel comfortable that they're, whatever the fund size they're investing out of, that there's a, an opportunity for them to return the fund from within it, with a single investment. It, it's slightly, certainly for early stage funds. I think for later …”
VenCap targets a 50-50 capital allocation between early and growth funds
“We want to be sort of roughly fifty-fifty between early and growth. It's a challenge to manage that if we end up being sort of, 45, 55, I think we're comfortable with that. We don't want to be 30, 70.”
Clark: Historically, 60% of early-stage venture investments return under 1x capital
“Historically for an early stage fund that's been 60% of companies don't return one X cost.”
Clark: Reference VC managers with non-co-investing sector peers
“So I think that's probably the biggest thing that's come out of our decision review process is to be, is not just to reference people who we know work with each other, but reference people who are in that particular sector, who we would normally expect to have…”
Clark: Big VC IR departments make direct partner access harder
“It's getting harder, you know, particularly where, you know, you mentioned firms that have, you know, big IR departments and it's harder to have that interaction with individual partners. You've got to work at it more.”
Clark: Traditional life science investments consistently cap out at 10x
“One of the things we've seen with traditional life science investing, when we look at our database, is that there's very much a limit on the sort of multiples that you can achieve on a single investment. The best we see consistently is around the 10 X, and it'…”
Clark: 40% of Forbes AI 50 startups turned over year-over-year
“From last year to this year, 40% of the companies that were on that list last year dropped off.”
Clark: Accel Has Successfully Managed Generational Leadership Transitions
“I look at someone like Excel who, you know, is probably on the third or fourth generation now of leaders within that firm. I think they'd probably admit that, that, you know, they didn't get everything perfect, but I think they've handled most of those transit…”
The other half of the tape: David Clark's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 2 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 3
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20VC 3
2025 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens David's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Chief Investment Officer, VenCap International | 1 | 45 | 100% 5/5 | full record on 20VC → |
 a16zLEDGER | Chief Investment Officer, VenCap International | 2 | 6 | 100% 1/1 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |