Hunter Somerville
Partner, StepStone Group. On 2 shows, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investor@somervil2005 ↗LinkedIn ↗stepstonegroup.com ↗
Hunter Somerville is a Partner at StepStone Group, specializing in venture capital, growth equity, and venture secondaries. Previously a General Partner at Greenspring Associates, he serves on LP advisory boards for firms including Foundry Group, Scale Venture Partners, and Felix Capital.
2shows
3appearances
101statements
21resolved
13supported
4contradicted
62%fully supported
Everything Hunter Somerville said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
StepStone avoids arrogant spinout VC managers who expect LPs to be passive
“There's nothing worse than a fun one or two know it all. Particularly some of the spin outs where they've left and they feel like they have nothing left to learn. And we're probably not the right partner for that. Cause we're just not going to passively sit an…”
StepStone: Venture funds have marked down portfolios by 15% to 20%
“I think we looked on average funds have come down around 19% on the venture side somewhere between 15 and 20, I would say, is, is what we've typically seen.”
Somerville: DPI will become crucial as LPs struggle to evaluate true TVPI
“Showing DPI is going to become more and more important. Mostly because LPs will struggle to evaluate what true TVPI is”
Somerville: Buying secondaries off current TVPI risks paying for overinflated valuations
“You could argue in some scenarios, if you're buying off of current TVPI, it's already overinflated, and in order to actually get to that TVPI at the end of the day, it might not make sense from a duration standpoint to even consider that.”
Somerville: LP interest secondary discounts range 30-45%, company secondaries 20-35%
“On LP interest, a lot of what we're seeing is in the 30 to 45% range. A lot of what we're seeing on the company secondaries is in, like, the 20 to 35% range.”
Somerville: Many secondary funds rely on cold calls to former employees
“What many other direct secondary funds are doing are cold calling departed employees or reaching out to people that they know need to sell and are really relying on their own point of view of the company instead of ongoing information and monitoring.”
Somerville: LPs Face Rampant Adverse Selection in SPV Direct Investments
“That they get rampant adverse selection and oftentimes pushed into fee bearing SPVs that even further dilute their end of day return.”
Somerville: Secondaries Will Be Essential for Early-Stage VC Liquidity
“And as a result of that, and as a result of the limited liquidity options, the secondary part of venture is going to be very significant for a long period of time. And I think pretty interesting and also a compliment from a duration standpoint If you're doing …”
Somerville: Lateral partner hires can disrupt firm chemistry and create organizational risk
“I think on the fun side, just underestimating the human element with people that join on a lateral basis that have great pedigrees that you think will be additive, it's not always that way. You can have someone join and it completely messes up the chemistry of…”
Somerville: LPs target 3x net returns, which becomes mathematically harder at scale
“Because at the end of the day, an LP that's deciding whether to invest in venture wants outsized multiple performance, I think generally above a three X net, and the math is just harder in order to get there, particularly as fund size increases.”
Somerville: Late-stage funds sourcing new deals are less interesting than select growth funds
“Where I become more skeptical is groups that add later stage focused funds or other vehicles like that that aren't actually playing off of the inherent advantage that they have being in companies already. If they're just sourcing late stage companies they thin…”
Somerville: Series A funds increasingly preempt Series B rounds for top winners
“And while you're not seeing a proliferation of new B round focus groups, Back to our discussion five minutes ago, you're seeing the A round groups increasingly look to preempt and build bigger positions in their winners, or look for flexible partners that allo…”
Somerville: Median fund performance across the venture capital industry is bad
“And we all know that the median performance within venture is not good. It's actually bad.”
Board observation provides better manager diligence than LP reference calls
“And on top of that, because we do direct investing, we're oftentimes board observers within companies, and we actually see the managers in action. So you see who comes to board meetings and who has nothing to say or isn't adding value or doesn't even show up t…”
StepStone's venture investments in China have recently tapered off
“We have done investing in China going back to the beginning, although that's tapered off more recently.”
Younger partner departures typically signal internal dysfunction and inequitable VC carry
“Where we see that spin out activity that I just referred to, where people leave and decide to do something new, and if you then see, like, the interesting younger cohort of the firm leaving, you recognize there's probably some level of internal dysfunction or …”
StepStone is near peak historical optimism on Indian venture DPI and realizations
“And I would say probably within the past three years, we're near the most optimistic we've been around that.”
Indian venture DPI is strengthening through domestic IPOs, M&A, and secondaries
“But I think you're finally seeing, you know, really good DPI performance in numbers. Put out there through a combination of domestic IPO efforts, through some M&A, and then also through more creative secondary structuring, which is obviously close to our heart…”
Real VC conviction requires meaningful follow-on capital or growth fund crosses
“People can say they're excited and thrilled about a company and they're doing pro rata or less than pro rata. You know, we're looking for the scenarios where they want to cross it into a growth fund or where they want to invest a really meaningful amount of ca…”
Indian early-stage VCs maintain a strong advantage in cross-border SaaS
“When you look at cross-border SaaS that's really more of a global perspective on investing. And so I think it ties to managers in India and gives them an advantage at earlier stages. But you're going to have significant capital that wants to come into those be…”
StepStone backs no venture fund managers in India under $100M
“No, we do not. I think we have one between a 102 hundred million, but not sub a hundred.”
StepStone defines micro-VC funds as those under $300 million
“Specific to how we invest in, in the seed category, we define micro as sub-three hundred million, so it's a broader definition than I would say others that maybe would say that it's, you know, 50 to a 150.”
LPs prefer India, Southeast Asia, and South Korea over China exposure
“I think there is increased interest in, in India and in Southeast Asia and in South Korea, specifically as people think of other ways to get exposure in Asia.”
StepStone backs emerging managers seeking 10% to 20% initial ownership targets
“We don't want people who are a clubby deal participant Who come in with, you know, two to three percentage ownership. We want someone that's leading seed rounds or leading series A rounds, getting 10 to 20% ownership, and is seen as that go-to partner, at leas…”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Hunter's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 20VCLEDGER | Partner, StepStone Group | 2 | 61 | 61% 11/18 | full record on 20VC → |
 NEON SHOWLEDGER | Partner, StepStone Group | 1 | 40 | 67% 2/3 | full record on the Neon Show → |