Vertices Capital

VC offers a range of “products” to investors, from small, new, and emerging funds to large, established firms. Each product type can be a valuable vehicle depending on investment style and expectation, there is no universally superior approach, only different strategies to suit diverse goals. Smaller fund sizes, in particular, have shown a correlation with higher potential returns, but it is impor...

When analyzing GPs, the focus must first be on unsystematic risks, those specific to individual managers, their firms, and their funds. This includes cultural alignment with the family office’s values, the strength and quality of their networks, their investment strategy, and their capacity for effective team building. These factors materially impact performance and are the primary source of alpha...

In other words, to understand a VC firm’s endurance, Limited Partners must evaluate how a firm is built and run as an organization, not just how it performs financially. VC is fundamentally a people-driven business, and the sustainability of a firm depends on e.g. partner dynamics, governance, and team-building discipline. Here is a high-level, must-have checklist for LPs to assess multi-partner d...

More Single and Multi-Family Offices (labeled here S/MFOs) are starting or expanding their exposure to venture capital. However, many still primarily focus on brand-name VC firms, potentially missing out on outstanding managers by relying solely on reputation. S/MFOs should shift to evaluating all GPs through a holistic, multi-dimensional lens. The ‘best GPs’ offer much more than just successful i...

When S/MFOs consider allocations to VC, it is easy to underestimate how much has changed and how hard the path truly is for GPs raising VC funds in 2025. While headlines mostly focus on startups raising rounds, every $ begins with a fund that had to clear ever-rising hurdles. Despite abundant global capital, fewer funds are being closed, the average time to a meaningful first close of a fund now e...

Here is the paradox: + Fundraising rewards storytelling, polish, and pattern recognition. + DPI rewards patience, judgment, consistency, and time with founders. Can the two greatly overlap? The GPs who quietly build real, distributed returns across 2–3 vintages often look unimpressive in fundraising meetings. They are not optimizing for IRR optics or neat decks. They are optimizing for founders, c...

SFOs and MFOs like to directly back startups, hoping that their “access”, connections, and intuition will find the next breakout. Yet most families discover quickly that picking winners in VC is a statistical game, not an exercise in genius.. When these investments go sideways or under (most), it is tempting to cite founder execution, market timing, external shocks. But numbers do not lie, and jus...

We always talk about valuations as if they were ~facts of reality, such as “This X startup is worth A”. But in practice, valuation a framework to align interests, to benchmark progress, to structure risk, and to negotiate ownership. Most VC educational materials present startup valuation courses titled “Valuation methods”. However, these courses should be titled “Valuation as a tool”. The same sta...

Most family wealth begins with entrepreneurship, the FOUNDATION: committed, long-term, and illiquid industrial assets. Over time, as families grow and diversify, focus shifts to the more liquid Preservation side: Private Banking and Cash Management. These offer more safety but their mandate is not to drive real growth. When foundational assets mature, families must embrace new growth engines. Vent...

In VC, there is a common misconception by “rookie” LPs that it is possible to time the market when “hot” years of innovation arise, and that it is the best strategy to get high returns from this, what they believe, “momentum” asset class. However, especially within early stage VC (

The VC industry has undergone a massive transformation, fragmenting from a monolithic structure, into a barbell model with distinct strategies for different-sized firms. So it is high time we revisit the old purist way of thinking about VC and challenge the demonization of big firms by acknowledging their fundamentally different risk profiles and product offerings. On one end of the barbell, we ha...

In most Venture Capital structures, the IC is composed of senior members and the GP team, who are responsible for investment decisions, and ensuring adherence to the fund’s strategy and risk framework. The LPs are passive investors whose role is usually limited to oversight via LP Advisory Committees (LPACs), which provide input, approve waivers, and help manage certain conflicts but DO NOT partic...

In today’s incredibly challenging VC fundraising environment, in particular for new and emerging VC GPs (raising from Fund Is to Fund IIIs), every manager needs to truly understand this concept of “MVFS”. This is not about hitting an exact number, but rather identifying a range representing the minimum amount a GP needs to raise, to be able to execute their business model and thesis. It is more cr...

It refers to making forward-looking investment choices based on the probability of future success rather than relying solely on past outcomes, acknowledging the inherent uncertainty and long-term nature of Venture Capital. This is even more relevant when assessing new and emerging GPs (Fund Is to IIIs). It means several things: When an LP makes an ex-ante decision, they are not buying a “secondary...

Over the past 12–18 months or so, we have had the “unsolicited” opportunity to help academia, family offices, and UHNW individuals develop a prepared mind for Venture Capital exposure. Today, VC represents, on average, less than 1% of global wealth allocation, a figure that is quickly evolving. While the observation that private companies are remaining private longer is valid, it merely scratches...

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