Lazerow: Venture capital is the best business model ever due to fees
Michael Lazerow · Sold for Nearly $1B and Spent 3 Years Lost in a Painting Studio · Nov 11, 2025 · at 3:38
Serial entrepreneur and investor Michael Lazerow contrasts running operating companies with the management fees and carry economics of venture capital.
0:00 / 0:13exact quote · 13.4s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“If you are fortunate enough to be a venture capitalist, it's the best business model ever. You get paid a fee to manage the money and you get a piece of the upside, typically, 20% after you return your capital.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Michael Lazerow
Lazerow: Being a founder is much harder than being an investor
“Being a founder is so much harder. Investors have their own worries. We've done both. You got to raise money. You got to create a product that invest, that entrepreneurs like, but the existential dread of being an entrepreneur, of waking up and not knowing whe…”
Lazerow: Boring small businesses, not OpenAI, will drive real AI value
“The number one thing I'm excited about is boring businesses that use AI to streamline processes, to find new customers, to communicate in a better way, and we just think that although all of this discussion about AI has been focused on open AI and these multi-…”
Lazerow: Entrepreneurship Means Grunt Work, Not Just Doing What You Love
“Because we're entrepreneurs, we show up, we shovel shit. Like there is no, like, just do the thing you love. You also have to tend to the store and tend to people and be present.”
Lazerow: Founder suffering creates more purpose than just deploying capital
“I love suffering more than sitting around and just deploying capital, and the suffering of an entrepreneur is where you find your purpose and your passion in life, if you're an entrepreneur.”