Sep 1, 2022 · 43m · capital-allocators
Allan Jean-Baptiste and Marco DeMeireles – Under-covered Venture Markets and Teams at Ansa Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.36)
Marco De Morales · 16m spoken Alan Jean-Baptiste · 15m spoken Andy Golden · 5m spoken Ted Seides · 2m spoken
0:00 / 0:00
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Andy Golden of PRINCO interviews Ansa Capital co-founders Allan Jean-Baptiste and Marco DeMeireles about their thesis-driven growth equity strategy, institutional partnership model, and disciplined approach to investing in under-covered venture markets.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Ted holds 8.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Ted as informed peer 3.7 Guest teaching 3.9 Guest disagreement 0.7 Ted pushing back 1.1
speaking balance: gold is Ted, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 30:45 Alan calls out conventional VC operating networks as superficial
Alan directly critiques traditional venture capital advisory benches as overpromising marketing gimmicks composed of inactive executives rather than active tactical operators.
Hardest push from Ted ▶ 23:29 Andy probes whether contrarianism blinds them to genuine risksAndy pushes back on the romanticism of non-consensus investing, asking if operating in lonely markets means missing critical risks that keep others away.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 22:10 Alan explains structural governance flaws in established VC firmsAlan educates the listener and host on how rigid sector silos and the separation between junior sourcers and senior ICs systematically blind large funds to emerging hybrid categories.
Ted holds their own ▶ 14:12 Andy defines PRINCO's alignment of appetite criteria for backing nascent fundsAndy articulates his sophisticated institutional allocator framework, demonstrating his expertise in identifying long-term structural alignment and firm-building motivation in managers.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Ted as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Ted pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AlphaSense AI Financial Research Platform Sponsorship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Introductory sponsorship ads for AlphaSense and Visible Alpha, followed by standard legal disclaimers and series intro by Ted Seides. | |
| Episode Overview: Andy Golden and Ansa Capital Co-Founders | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Andy Golden opens the conversation warmly, inviting Alan and Marco to share their backgrounds as first-generation Americans and their respective paths through growth investing at CapitalG, KKR, and TCG. | |
| Founding Ansa Capital and Playing an Independent Game | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Andy asks about their decision to launch an enduring firm in an era dominated by rapid scaling. The co-founders articulate their philosophy of playing their own game rather than competing on conventional venture terms. | |
| Complementary Skillsets and Equal Partnership Dynamics | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Andy inquires about partnership dynamics and why institutional allocators backed them. Marco notes how PRINCO reframed their perspective on nascent managers, while Andy expands on PRINCO's framework of alignment of appetite. | |
| The Ansa Strategy: Under-Covered Markets, Models, and Founders | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Andy asks about the firm's thesis and name origins. Marco outlines Ansa's three core opportunities: under-covered end markets without analyst coverage, hybrid business models, and underrepresented founders. | |
| Healthcare Case Study: Male Fertility and Stigmatized Diseases | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | Andy prompts for concrete case studies, leading Marco to walk through his investment in male fertility company Dadi and subsequent research into overlooked, stigmatized health markets. | |
| Structural Blind Spots in Legacy Venture Capital Firms | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Andy asks why legacy venture firms miss these opportunities. Alan explains structural industry blind spots, specifically siloed sector teams and the disconnect between junior sourcers and senior investment committees. | |
| Data-Driven Risk Management and Concentrated Portfolio Construction | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Andy challenges the co-founders on the risks of operating in lonely, non-consensus areas. Alan responds by detailing their extensive pre-deal diligence process and commitment to a concentrated ~12-company portfolio. | |
| Non-Consensus Decision-Making and Temperature Check Frameworks | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Andy asks about internal decision-making when the partners disagree. Alan reveals their '1-to-9, cannot vote 5' temperature-check system, while Marco explains how early thesis building allows them to win deals outside competitive bidding processes. | |
| The Ansa Tactical Operator Network and Founder Support | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | Alan explains the construction of their 35-person tactical operator network, arguing that conventional VC advisory networks are often figureheads with outdated operating experience. | |
| Investing Through Market Dislocation With a Clean Slate | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Andy asks if macroeconomic headwinds and market shifts altered their playbook. Alan and Marco describe the advantage of deploying Fund I with a clean slate unburdened by inflated 2021 valuations. | |
| First-Year Milestones and Building an Intentional Culture | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Andy presses the founders to reveal an authentic internal disagreement. Alan describes their debate over office space, contrasting his utilitarian frugality with Marco's view of an office as a community asset. | |
| Personal Passions: Rare Book Collecting and Downhill Skiing | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | The conversation concludes with personal reflections: Marco discusses collecting rare books, Alan describes learning to ski, and Andy shares his background in darkroom photography. |
Statements from this episode (20)
DeMeireles: Investors cannot beat venture incumbents by playing their game
“And we've always felt that you don't beat Tom Brady by playing Tom Brady's game. And for us, the way that we built our careers was by playing our own game. And Ansah takes that game and really productizes our style of investing in a very focused way.”
DeMeireles: Ansa's partnership structure competes as a team rather than individually
“It's not just an equal partnership where we're obviously encouraged and incented to collaborate. It's this belief that at scale, we're going to compete five versus one. You'll get the full force of our entire team that's always and consistently played our game…”
Andy Golden: Backing managers everyone roots for creates true force multiplication
“We want to work with people that we know that everyone who meets them is going to root for them, because that's where you'll really get the force multiplication.”
DeMeireles: Best venture outcomes combine consumer models with sticky B2B components
“The best outcomes tend to sit at the intersection of different business models. They're not just pure play direct to consumer businesses. They'll have a stickier B to B component.”
DeMeireles: Everly Health surpassed nine figures in revenue with strong unit economics
“Julia Cheek, who's the CEO of Everly Health, who I believe is one of the best CEOs of our generation. And has built a very scale nine figure plus top line business with great unit economics, but she had to go on Shark Tank to raise her first dollar.”
DeMeireles: Scaling mega-funds vacated the $10M to $30M growth check market
“Many of which have become five and six X in assets over a shorter amount of years. So they've left the part of the capital markets where partners, real partners and real owners are writing 10 to 20 to thirty million dollar investments in emerging growth compan…”
DeMeireles: Backed Dadi early and exited at reported nine-figure outcome
“I backed a company here in Brooklyn called Daddy. At the time, the company was six people, no office, a couple 100,000 in revenue. We scaled that to many multiples more and sold it, I believe, for what's publicly reported to be a nine-figure outcome.”
DeMeireles: Stigmatized eating disorder treatment is ripe for telehealth
“It's a real problem that affects millions of Americans. It's incredibly stigmatized. So often people aren't actually seeking help, which makes it ripe for telehealth and newer age solutions.”
Jean-Baptiste: Firm scaling creates silos that miss interdisciplinary business models
“For one thing, as you grow your firm, you just start to silo your people. So instead of being more of a generalist or covering multiple sectors, you start to cover very specific end markets, and within those end markets, even more specific subsectors. And give…”
Jean-Baptiste: Separation of sourcers and investment committees weakens venture conviction
“When you think about the structuring of traditional firms, It tends to be that the most junior people are doing a lot of the sourcing, developing a lot of the theses, having those initial conversations and building a point of view. But the investment committee…”
Jean-Baptiste: Ansa uses GP-led thesis work to invest faster with deeper conviction
“And that's why our approach is to do GP-led thesis work in very specific spaces, and to build deep theses. So we're not running around chasing every idea, but we're chasing the theses where we feel like we have deep conviction and knowledge. And that allows us…”
Jean-Baptiste: Ansa Capital Targets About a Dozen Companies for Fund One
“We're building a concentrated portfolio. We want fund one to be about a dozen companies because for all that time and for all that effort and research and thesis building, we want to invest deeply behind where we have conviction.”
Jean-Baptiste: Ansa uses a 1-to-9 scale without 5s for deal conviction
“We like to use a scale, one to nine, can't vote five, and that gives you a really good indication of how your partner and the rest of the team are feeling about an individual deal.”
DeMeireles: The best way to win a deal process is to avoid it
“The best way to win a process is often for us to avoid the process.”
DeMeireles: Peloton remains the gold standard for connected hardware subscription models
“If you're building a connected hardware business that has a high value subscription, Peloton is the gold standard, regardless of what else is in the market.”
Jean-Baptiste: Traditional VC advisor networks overpromise and lack accessibility
“What we realized was a lot of VC networks overpromised. They're people with large caches who sound great on a page, but don't really have time or aren't even accessible for your ten million dollar investment.”
Jean-Baptiste: Ansa Operator Network Is Majority Women and Ethnically Diverse
“And what we're proud of is these are a really diverse group of operators, majority women, Majority ethnically diverse”
DeMeireles: Peak 2021 startup valuations will take years to grow into
“There's the dynamic around having businesses in their funds that have, ah, high watermarks from twenty-twenty, 21, even at the start of this year. That will take years potentially to grow through if they can grow through it.”
DeMeireles: Growth equity faces less deal competition as fewer funds play offense
“That asymmetric risk reward is still there, and frankly, in certain cases, it's not as competitive because there are just less funds playing offense.”
DeMeireles: Minority investors only control capital sources, funding targets, and hiring
“There's not a lot of things you can control in our business in minority investing. There's a couple that you can try. Who you take money from, who you give money to, and who you hire are closer to those things that you can control.”