Ed Grefenstette

13 statements across 2 episodes · 2 bullish · 4 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Mar 24, 2025 by Ed Grefenstette · said 2 times in 1 episodes since 2025 · across every show →

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2025 2 mentions in 1 episode

Year in Review 2025 (EP.478) Dec 22, 2025 · 2 mentions · from 27:12
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Everything said about Ed Grefenstette, oldest first

Mar 24, 2025 neutral

Disclosure

Dietrich Foundation currently allocates 90% of its portfolio to illiquid assets

“As we sit here today, we're 90% illiquid, which is pretty much the upper threshold of my comfort.”

Ed Grefenstette Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 31:37 Ed Grefenstette – Bold Allocations at The Dietrich Foundation (EP.437)

Mar 24, 2025 neutral

Insight

Underwriting continuation vehicles requires interrogating why assets aren't sold naturally

“We always start by asking, why isn't this company being sold right now? What's preventing this company from being sold in the normal operations of the fund? And is there a reason to hold it? And is this GP the right GP to be holding this asset at this point, a…”

Ed Grefenstette Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 1:02:53 Ed Grefenstette – Bold Allocations at The Dietrich Foundation (EP.437)

Mar 24, 2025 bearish

Opinion

Historical private equity outperformance and manager persistence are under pressure

“The evidence of persistence of high quality funds and that premium, they're both under pressure. So this is not an easy game, but we think it's still worth playing.”

Ed Grefenstette Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 1:05:09 Ed Grefenstette – Bold Allocations at The Dietrich Foundation (EP.437)

Mar 24, 2025 bullish

Opinion

Vertical AI applications may be more attractive than commoditized platform layers

“People are just buying their share of time, and the more interesting plays from this point forward might be the verticals that sit atop.”

Ed Grefenstette Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 1:10:36 Ed Grefenstette – Bold Allocations at The Dietrich Foundation (EP.437)

Mar 24, 2025 positive

Assertion Not publicly verifiable

Dietrich Foundation returns rank first across major institutional surveys

“Fortunately, we have been performing, as far as we can tell by all reported surveys, our returns are number one for the trailing in 1015, and 20 years.”

Ed Grefenstette Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 29:13 Ed Grefenstette – Bold Allocations at The Dietrich Foundation (EP.437)

Mar 24, 2025 negative

Assertion Not checkable as stated

A European GP waterfall requires 5.6x gross to deliver 3x net

“We have a European GP. We actually are underwriting right now. We really like the firm, but the way the waterfall is calculated and the fact that the GP is actually charging some fees to the portfolio companies, they need to generate a 5.6 X gross to hit a thr…”

Ed Grefenstette Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 1:04:13 Ed Grefenstette – Bold Allocations at The Dietrich Foundation (EP.437)

Mar 24, 2025 neutral

Disclosure

Grefenstette's early micro-market buyout fund delivered a 2x net return

“We got two X net for our investors, but what we discovered in investing, and we were targeting the micro market, so control transactions of industrial companies, one to three million in EBITDA.”

Ed Grefenstette Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 12:49 Ed Grefenstette – Bold Allocations at The Dietrich Foundation (EP.437)

Feb 23, 2026 bearish

Opinion

Grefenstette: Venture pricing is most distorted in early-stage AI startups

“The pricing is probably most distorted in the early stage about AI, because you look at these companies, and of course, no one has a crystal ball, but you're looking at something and saying, hey, this could potentially be a trillion-dollar outcome. The bet is …”

Ed Grefenstette Feb 23, 2026 ▶ 12:39 Ed Grefenstette and Sean Warrington – Venture Market Update (EP.488)

Feb 23, 2026

Insight

Grefenstette: Investors cannot time venture capital and need vintage diversification

“Can't time venture capital. Be steady and consistent. If anything, the last six, seven years has taught us, reminded us that vintage year diversification is critical.”

Ed Grefenstette Feb 23, 2026 ▶ 16:59 Ed Grefenstette and Sean Warrington – Venture Market Update (EP.488)

Feb 23, 2026 neutral

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Grefenstette: Some institutional endowments have 5% of total NAV in SpaceX

“Maybe they have, maybe five percent of the total NAV is in SpaceX. And this is the actual case for some institutions out there.”

Ed Grefenstette Feb 23, 2026 ▶ 18:45 Ed Grefenstette and Sean Warrington – Venture Market Update (EP.488)

Feb 23, 2026 neutral

Disclosure

Dietrich Foundation pairs established core venture GPs with independent satellite managers

“We also try to have a core venture portfolio exposure through some of our more established and broader mandated GPs, and then look to have some satellite opportunities around that, that we also put into that category, like Sean, they're a little higher risk, h…”

Ed Grefenstette Feb 23, 2026 ▶ 10:16 Ed Grefenstette and Sean Warrington – Venture Market Update (EP.488)

Feb 23, 2026 neutral

Insight

Grefenstette: European founders aggressively seek US venture capital firms by Series A

“A lot of the conclusions we've reached is that you might be able to find some early stage GPs locally there, but as soon as a company hits the Series A, those founders are looking for U.S. Firms.”

Ed Grefenstette Feb 23, 2026 ▶ 53:47 Ed Grefenstette and Sean Warrington – Venture Market Update (EP.488)

Feb 23, 2026 bearish

Insight

Grefenstette: An influx of copycat sector pitch decks signals a cycle peak

“Increasingly we've seen this pattern where there might be a targeted sector that we hadn't heard anyone spending a lot of time on, and then suddenly we get eight, nine people sending us decks highlighting this sector thesis. I want to pick on sports There are …”

Ed Grefenstette Feb 23, 2026 ▶ 1:00:33 Ed Grefenstette and Sean Warrington – Venture Market Update (EP.488)

Ed Grefenstette

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Everything said about Ed Grefenstette, oldest first

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