Boris Wertz
Founding Partner, Version One Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.
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After co-founding online bookstore JustBooks and serving as COO of AbeBooks through its 2008 acquisition by Amazon, Boris Wertz transitioned into venture investing. In 2012, he founded early-stage venture firm Version One Ventures and also served as a board partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
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1 prediction · 2 assertions · 5 opinions · 6 insights · 8 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
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Everything Boris Wertz said on the Neon Show that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Wertz: VC portfolio construction can be learned, but founder taste cannot
“So you know, kind of that, that certainly can always be fixed over time and kind of managers can learn proper portfolio construction. What can't be fixed is your taste for entrepreneurs and for unique opportunities that can become these outlier opportunities.”
Second-time founders often fail by raising too much money before product-market fit
“Lots of second time openers that were able to raise lots of money very quickly came down with a top down thesis on, on a market. Right. And Never really got to product market fit because the team that they were able to build because the capital they could rais…”
Version One remains bullish on crypto because traditional banks cannot effectively compete
“We're still very bullish on crypto, right? I mean, crypto has gone through lots of ups and downs and lots of cycles, but the ultimately ultimate idea of rebuilding the financial system on a global scale in an open source environment. Is still a very attractive…”
Boris Wertz argues India's current economic trajectory resembles China two decades ago
“High level thesis for me is really India feels like China two decades ago, increasing population, increasing middle-class geopolitical in a super interesting spot where people try to move out of China and move into India.”
Wertz: The average Indian entrepreneur is hungrier than their North American peers
“I mean, no question about it. I think the average entrepreneur in India is hungrier than the average entrepreneur in, in, in, in North America, but there's an incredible hustle culture there.”
Boris Wertz limits his LP investments to venture funds capped at $30M
“I really think fund size matters in terms of the potential for returns. And so ideally I want to stay in funds that are below 20 max, thirty million dollars.”
Wertz predicts 2021 and 2022 startup vintages will take longer to mature
“I think especially in everything that was invested in, in 21 and 22 will take even longer, right? Because most of the startups that got invested in, in that period of time were a little earlier, a little less mature given the hotness of the market.”
Undisciplined emerging managers hurt returns with undersized checks and over-concentration
“Especially emerging managers sometimes are not as disciplined around portfolio construction. They suddenly end up with tons of really small investments where they put in a small check. But even if that company does super well, it doesn't really drive any fund …”
Wertz: A reverse brain drain from North America is powering Indian startups
“What you're seeing is just the reverse brain drain of people that Indian people that have studied in the US, have worked in the US or Canada for that matter. And I know going back to India to build startups again and kind of bring lots of learnings and lesson …”
Historical data shows emerging managers' first and second funds generate top returns
“History has shown fund one and twos of lots of emerging managers have done exceptionally well and kind of created some of the best returns.”
Emerging managers should raise a 'minimum viable fund' to prove their strategy
“I think everyone should kind of think about what is the investment strategy and then what is the minimal viable fund to prove out that investment strategy.”
Wertz: The venture market has bottomed out but may never reach 2021
“So I feel like we've definitely hit bottom and kind of there's optimism coming back into the market. I mean, obviously it's still far away from kind of what we saw in 21 and we might never get back to 21.”
Wertz: Andreessen Horowitz succeeded by operating and scaling like a tech startup
“They really thought about building A-C-C-C like a startup, right? And not like a traditional venture firm. And that curiosity of how do you find product market fit? How do we experiment a lot? How do we scale aggressively? That was just pretty fascinating to s…”
Wertz believes no other geography will match his investment interest in India
“Don't think there's another geography that gonna peak, peak the same interest for myself over the next little while.”
Boris Wertz has backed five emerging Indian VC funds, including Better Capital
“So there's in total five, there is Better Capital. There is Boldcap, there's Grayscale, there's Shilov in 1947, and then Utsav with IC. So that's the five emergent managers I backed.”
Wertz targets $100K–$350K LP checks representing 1% of an emerging fund
“So usually I do in, I think about it and roughly kind of one percent of the fund size, right? So that, that usually is anything from a 100,000 at the low end to two 53 and a half thousand at the higher end.”
Version One's 2012 vintage fund has returned over 1x after 12 years
“In our fund one, which was raised in 2012 we invested in 20 companies We still have four of those companies in the portfolio. So kind of close, close to 20% in the portfolio. We've paid back the fund more than once, right?”
Wertz's LP portfolio includes 10x–20x crypto funds and multiple 6x–8x funds
“I mean, definitely the crypto funds are more in the 10 to 20 X axis, right? And they have done well, but there's a bunch of funds in the portfolio that are at least on paper six to eight X funds, right? And obviously funds that were more raised in the kind of …”
Version One Ventures invested in sales engagement startup Outreach at pre-seed
“We have a company called Outreach in the sales engagement space, which was The last allegation was 4.5 billion and be invested at the pre-seed.”
Version One Ventures was the first pre-seed investor in billion-dollar startup Jobber
“We have a company called Java, which is a vertical fast for home services business that is valid at about a billion dollars. We were the first investor in the pre-seed round.”
Version One Ventures' crypto portfolio includes early investments in Coinbase and Uniswap
“So we're invested in Coinbase which obviously is a public centralized exchange and crypto platform. We were investors in Uniswap, which is the decentralized version of an exchange in the crypto space kind of multi-billion dollar outcome.”
Boris Wertz has backed roughly 30 emerging fund managers, starting with Haystack
“One of the first one I backed was Haystack, which is an early stage fund out of the US Simil Shah that was about somewhere eight years ago. And then over the years, I've increased kind of this to about 30 emerging managers that have backed.”
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Why Top Global VCs Are Eyeing India | Boris Wertz | Version One Ventures | The Neon Show | Dec 13, 2024 | 40m |