StepStone Group
also referred to as: stepstone
30 statements across 2 episodes · 10 bullish · 6 bearish · 3 people on the record · first statement Jun 5, 2024 by Hunter Somerville · said 21 times in 2 episodes since 2024 · across every show →
Mentions by year
brought up most by Siddhartha Ahluwalia (20), Raja Doddala (1)
tap a year for its mentions
Everything said about StepStone Group, oldest first
Jun 5, 2024 neutral
Jun 5, 2024 negative
VC spinouts are currently paused as LPs pull back on new managers
“Right now what I'm seeing is probably more of like a festering kind of situation because it's pretty difficult to spin out and start your own firm right now. You know, people who may want to do that are just going to choose to wait because LPs aren't adding a …”
Jun 5, 2024 neutral
StepStone takes advisory board seats on almost all its partner GPs
“We want very hands-on relationships with anyone that we work with on the GP side, and it's because we do secondary and direct investing alongside of them, because we take advisory board seats on pretty much everyone that we work with.”
Jun 5, 2024 positive
Jun 5, 2024
StepStone manages relationships with over 200 venture and growth managers
“So in order to fully answer that, you know, we have to factor in what we do on the discretionary side of our business, and then also what we do in separate account and advisory work. And that number of venture growth managers is over 200 at this point.”
Jun 5, 2024 bullish
Jun 5, 2024 positive
StepStone plans to add two to three Indian fund managers annually
“We are actively scanning the Indian market. We added a handful last year. We'll continue to do a bunch of managers this year, but we'll be selective about it. It's not like we're going to suddenly start adding a ton of new ones and it'll be, you know, two or t…”
Jun 5, 2024 bullish
Jun 5, 2024
StepStone targets sub-$300M seed and Series A venture funds in India
“What I will say now is that we are most focused on the smaller end. So I think we've got some of the best Series A performers in our portfolio that are out there. And where we're thinking now is, you know, who makes sense to back that's more Seed early Series …”
Jun 5, 2024 neutral
StepStone purchases LP secondary stakes primarily in fund years seven to 10
“We're buying LP interest generally in years seven to 10 of the life, I would say, if I had to average that out. So, you know, we're not going to buy secondary interest when it's like two to three years old. That's like almost a season primary and doesn't fit o…”
Jun 5, 2024 bullish
StepStone is discussing secondary liquidity and continuation funds with Indian VCs
“We've been in discussions with a lot of managers in India increasingly that I think are exploring that. And they're either selling single positions to, you know, folks like us who do secondary investing, they're selling to private equity or other financial buy…”
Jun 5, 2024 positive
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…”
Jun 5, 2024 negative
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…”
Jun 5, 2024 neutral
Jun 5, 2024
Jun 5, 2024 bearish
Jun 5, 2024
Jun 5, 2024 negative
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 …”
Jun 5, 2024 positive
Jun 5, 2024 neutral
Jun 5, 2024
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…”
Jun 5, 2024 negative
Evaluating VC managers solely on DPI causes LPs to miss emerging talent
“If you're waiting around and just judging what people have done on a realized basis or in DPI, you're not going to have a good sense for the momentum in those managers, and you'll probably wait too long to eventually pick
A really interesting up and coming gro…”
Jun 5, 2024 neutral
Jun 5, 2024 neutral
Jun 5, 2024 neutral
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…”
Jun 5, 2024 bearish
Jun 5, 2024 positive
StepStone has purchased secondary stakes from fatigued LPs in Indian funds
“We have bought LP interest purchases where people have been fatigued by those situations that I just described where they're getting into higher years and, you know, they don't want to continue to wait and they'd like to redeploy that capital where we've come …”
Jun 5, 2024 positive
Jun 5, 2024 positive
Jul 5, 2024 neutral
Doddala: Top venture fund of funds include VenCap, StepStone, and Sapphire
“In terms of size probably vent cap. They, they've been around a long time. There's one called vintage investment partners out of Tel Aviv and, or from forgetting the large us one step stone is a large, has a large fund of funds. Sapphire Ventures has a sizable…”