The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 9 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Clarkson: Sapphire underwrites Series A funds to 3x net, seed to 5x
“The only thing that we go in looking at it from an underwriting perspective is we look to underwrite series A exposure to a three X net, which means we want the funds to be able to produce that, and then we can get into portfolio construction and see the bar i…”
Clarkson: A manager's deal logic matters more than dollars invested
“It's always a question, not just what you've done as far as dollars invested, but why someone likes a deal. It really speaks to us about what makes this manager different, how they think of a deal, how they think of the space. It's in those kinds of questions …”
Clarkson: Evaluating GP decision-making is harder than quantitative LP diligence math
“The harder part is understanding the people, and why it is they made decisions, and what the opportunities were, and how did they solve, because life doesn't make things easier for GPs.”
Clarkson: Venture capital needs standardized data rooms for LP diligence
“It would be great if there was a standard data room, for example. And then could there be other pockets for education on certain things that folks didn't have to ask?”
Clarkson: Sapphire previously avoided single-GP funds but now backs several
“When we did do seed, we were very reluctant to do single GP managers, because we felt the individual risk was so high. Now we actually have a few single GP managers, and we feel very differently about that risk.”
Clarkson: Claiming a fund has no competitors rarely resonates with LPs
“Same thing with the competitor landscape. So coming in and saying there are no competitors, there might be very corner cases where that's still true, but it's tricky, and so that just as guidance to GPs, that doesn't usually resonate super well.”
Clarkson: Sapphire allocates ~70% to US, 20-25% to Europe, remainder to Israel
“And so one of the early decisions we made was, loosely speaking, we're about 70% U.S., and then about 20 to 25% Europe, and the remainder in Israel.”
Clarkson: Sapphire commits $100M-$125M annually to VC funds via $10M-$15M checks
“One of the things that we do is that we're consistent every year with the amount of capital we commit, and it's about a hundred and twenty-five million. We like to write checks that are, call it loosely, 10 to fifteen million, so you can guesstimate our pacing…”