The Venture Capital Investor Podcast with Fexingo: Startup Investing for Limited Partners

In this episode of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast, Lucas and Luna unpack clawback provisions — the legal mechanism that forces general partners to return excess carried interest to limited partners when a fund's overall returns don't justify earlier distributions. Using the 2015 Andreessen Horowitz fund as a concrete example, they explain how clawbacks work in practice, why LPs should care a...

Episode 53 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast explores a specific provision hidden in most Limited Partnership Agreements: the fee offset. Lucas and Luna break down how fee offsets allow LPs to recoup a portion of management fees through transaction and monitoring fees paid by portfolio companies. Using data from a 2025 Preqin study showing that fee offsets reduce net management fees by an av...

Episode 52 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast explores a topic few LPs talk about but many should: tax-loss harvesting in venture capital. Lucas and Luna unpack how institutional investors like university endowments and family offices use realized losses from underperforming VC fund stakes to offset gains elsewhere in their portfolio. The conversation centers on a concrete example: a mid-size...

Lucas and Luna explore how limited partners are increasingly investing in venture studios—firms that build startups from scratch rather than sourcing deals externally. They examine the case of Atomic, which has launched over 30 companies including Bungalow and Hims & Hers, and discuss how LPs evaluate studio economics: the typical 70-30 split with founders, the 10-plus-year J-curve, and why instit...

In episode 50 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how limited partners are increasingly turning to venture debt as a yield-enhancing tool within their VC portfolios. Using the case of Silicon Valley Bank's pre-crisis venture lending program and the current landscape of specialized VD funds, they drill into the mechanics: 12-15% target returns, 3-4 year durations, and th...

Episode 49 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast explores how limited partners are increasingly using co-investment funds to access direct startup deals alongside top-tier VCs. Lucas and Luna break down the mechanics of co-invest funds — how they differ from traditional fund-of-funds, why they offer lower fees and higher potential returns, and the trade-offs LPs face in terms of concentration ri...

Limited partners are increasingly using special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to invest directly in individual startups alongside top venture capital firms. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how SPVs allow LPs to bypass traditional fund structures, gain concentrated exposure to high-conviction companies, and potentially boost returns. They break down the mechanics of an SPV—how it pools capital fr...

In this episode of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast, hosts Lucas and Luna dive into the often-overlooked but critical practice of vintage year analysis for limited partners. Using the 2004 and 2009 vintage years as contrasting case studies, they explain how the macro environment at a fund's first close shapes its portfolio construction, exit timing, and ultimate returns. Lucas breaks down the...

In this episode of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast, Lucas and Luna unpack the strategic use of side letters in venture capital fund agreements. They explore how limited partners negotiate bespoke terms—like most-favored-nation clauses, fee breaks, co-investment rights, and transparency provisions—that are not in the standard limited partnership agreement. Using real examples from the 2020-202...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack why net IRR—the standard venture capital performance metric—can mislead limited partners when applied to early-stage funds. They walk through a real example: a $200 million seed fund that reports a 22% net IRR, but whose realized cash-on-cash returns tell a very different story. The hosts explain trailing vs. pooled IRR, the J-curve effect, and how savvy LPs...

AngelList launched rolling funds in 2020, allowing fund managers to raise capital on a quarterly basis instead of the traditional five-to-seven-year closed-end fund model. By June 2026, over 500 rolling funds are active on the platform, with total committed capital estimated at $8 billion. Limited partners use these structures to gain venture exposure without the traditional lock-up, making smalle...

Episode 43 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast explores how limited partners are using continuation funds as a liquidity tool in 2026. Lucas and Luna break down the mechanics, using the example of a mid-stage healthcare AI company where existing investors rolled a $50 million stake into a new vehicle. They discuss the trade-offs: faster exits versus giving up upside, and how LPs are negotiatin...

Lucas and Luna unpack how limited partners are deploying machine learning models to predict venture capital fund returns before committing capital. They focus on a 2025 study from Correlation Ventures that analyzed 2,800 funds and found that factors like GP network centrality and co-investment patterns predicted top-quartile performance with 73% accuracy — far above the 25% base rate. The hosts di...

Lucas and Luna dive into the mechanics of fund of funds in venture capital—how limited partners use them to access top-tier managers, diversify across vintages, and reduce the burden of direct due diligence. They examine a real-world case: the $2.4 billion fund of funds raised by Partners Group in 2025, which allocated to 40+ venture firms including Sequoia and Accel. The hosts break down the fee...

This episode explores how limited partners are increasingly turning to direct secondary sales to achieve liquidity in venture capital portfolios. Lucas and Luna examine a specific case: a mid-sized university endowment that sold stakes in five mature venture-backed companies through a directed secondary process in late 2025, achieving a 1.8x multiple and an IRR of 14 percent on a blended basis. Th...

Episode 39 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast digs into a quiet revolution in LP due diligence: using AI tools to screen venture fund managers before meeting them. Lucas and Luna walk through a 2025 study from the University of Chicago which found that natural language processing models analyzing a GP's past investment memos could predict top-quartile performance with 73% accuracy — significa...

Episode 38 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast dives into net asset value (NAV) loans—a growing tool for limited partners to pull liquidity from venture portfolios without selling fund stakes. Lucas explains the mechanics: how LPs borrow against their NAV commitments, typically at 1.5x to 2.5x leverage, and why major banks like JPMorgan and Silicon Valley Bank are now offering dedicated NAV fa...

Lucas and Luna explore how limited partners are increasingly requiring general partners to make meaningful personal capital commitments to their own funds — known as GP commitments or 'GP co-investment' in the LP context. They dissect the typical range of 1% to 5% of fund size, discuss why a 3% floor is becoming table stakes for institutional LPs, and examine a specific case where a top-quartile V...

In this episode of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a growing liquidity strategy for limited partners: selling GP stakes. As VC firms mature, some general partners are selling minority stakes in their own management companies to outside investors, providing early liquidity to LPs who want to exit before the fund fully winds down. The hosts break down a real-world exampl...

Episode 35 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast with Fexingo dives into how Limited Partners are integrating ESG metrics into their venture capital due diligence. Lucas and Luna explore the rise of ESG-focused frameworks, the challenge of standardizing metrics across startup portfolios, and real-world examples like the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and its engagement...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the mechanics of GP-led secondary transactions, a growing tool for limited partners seeking liquidity before a fund fully matures. They walk through a real example: a $300 million continuation vehicle for a venture-backed cybersecurity company, and explore how LPs evaluate offers, negotiate pricing, and weigh the trade-offs between selling now or holding...

Episode 33 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast dives into how university endowments are rethinking their venture capital allocations in 2026. Lucas examines Yale's recent shift from a rigid 10 percent target to a dynamic allocation band of 8 to 15 percent, tied to market cycles and liquidity needs. Luna questions whether this flexibility undermines long-term commitment. Together they explore t...

Episode 32 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast digs into reference portfolios — the institutional benchmarking tool that is quietly reshaping how limited partners evaluate venture capital performance. Lucas explains why raw IRR and multiple-of-cost no longer cut it for sophisticated LPs like pension funds and endowments, and how a reference portfolio approach helps them answer the real questio...

In episode 31, Lucas and Luna explore a quiet but growing strategy in venture capital: takeout financing. Unlike traditional secondaries or direct listings, takeout financing lets LPs borrow against their fund stakes rather than sell them. Lucas breaks down how a $200 million pilot by a mid-sized pension fund in Q2 2026 used NAV-based loans from Blue Owl Capital to generate $14 million in liquidit...

In this episode of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how limited partners are increasingly turning to direct secondary market transactions to manage portfolio liquidity in the current venture capital environment. They break down the mechanics of direct secondaries versus traditional fund-level secondaries, discuss why LPs are choosing this path now, and examine the trade...