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

In Episode 29 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how limited partners are increasingly negotiating lead investor rights in venture capital funds. They break down the mechanics of co-investment lead rights, using specific examples like how a $50 million family office secured board observer seats and pro-rata guarantees in a 2025 Series A deal. The hosts discuss the trad...

Lucas and Luna explore the rise of family offices as direct investors in startups, bypassing traditional venture funds. They dive into the numbers: family offices now account for roughly 12 percent of all venture deal value globally, up from 5 percent five years ago. Using the example of the single-family office that backed Stripe's Series A, they unpack the motivations—control, fee savings, and s...

Episode 27 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast explores the growing influence of sovereign wealth funds in venture capital. Lucas and Luna break down how SWFs like Singapore's Temasek and Norway's Government Pension Fund Global are moving beyond direct investments into VC fund commitments, co-investments, and separate accounts. They discuss the $800 billion figure from SWFs allocated to altern...

Episode 26 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast with Fexingo dives into the rise of evergreen venture funds — a structure that lets limited partners commit capital once and reinvest proceeds automatically, bypassing the traditional ten-year lockup. Lucas and Luna examine the mechanics using the example of General Catalyst's 2024 launch of an evergreen vehicle, which allows LPs to roll distribut...

Episode 25 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast digs into the operational infrastructure that separates top-quartile VC fundraises from the also-rans: the virtual data room. Lucas and Luna walk through how GPs like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital have turned data rooms from a regulatory checkbox into a competitive weapon for LP due diligence. They break down the specific documents that...

Episode 24 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast explores a fast-growing trend among large LPs: separate accounts in venture capital. Lucas and Luna examine how the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and other institutional investors are moving beyond traditional blind-pool fund structures. They walk through a concrete example: a $200 million separate account that gives an...

When a venture capital firm pitches a co-investment opportunity, limited partners are increasingly asking for one thing: the GP's own track record making direct investments. In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine why co-investment data is often incomplete or misleading, and how sophisticated LPs are building their own evaluation frameworks. They walk through a real example from a $500 million mid...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the growing trend of institutional limited partners scrutinizing performance data from emerging VC managers before committing capital. With the rise of data platforms like Carta and PitchBook, LPs now have unprecedented access to fund-level metrics. The hosts drill into a specific case: how a mid-sized pension fund recently used cohort analysis and net IRR b...

Lucas and Luna dive into the growing trend of VC firms using direct listings instead of traditional IPOs to return capital to limited partners. They examine the case of Arm Holdings, which went public via a direct listing in 2023, and how its structure allowed early investors to sell shares without lock-up periods. The hosts discuss the mechanics, benefits for LPs, and why this matters in the curr...

Episode 20 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast explores one of the most powerful – and underused – tools available to limited partners: co-investment rights. Lucas and Luna break down how these clauses work, why top-tier LPs like the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas use them to boost returns by 500 to 1000 basis points, and why smaller LPs are for...

In this episode of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the resurgence of fund-of-funds strategies among limited partners in 2026. They examine a specific case: Cambridge Associates' $2.1 billion VC fund-of-funds raised in early 2025 and how it evolved from earlier models. The hosts discuss why some LPs are turning back to funds-of-funds after years of disintermediation, ho...

Lucas and Luna dive into the world of venture capital side letters—the private agreements between limited partners and fund managers that can grant preferential terms on fees, transparency, or co-investment rights. They explore a 2025 survey from the Institutional Limited Partners Association showing that 62% of LPs now negotiate side letters, up from 41% five years ago. The hosts break down how p...

Lucas and Luna explore the quietly growing trend of VC firms creating their own internal secondary markets for limited partners. With traditional secondary sales often requiring discounts of 20 to 30 percent, firms like a16z and Sequoia have begun offering structured liquidity programs that let LPs sell stakes back to the fund or to a dedicated vehicle managed by the GP. Lucas breaks down how Cont...

Lucas and Luna drill into the booming secondary market for venture capital, where LPs are selling fund stakes at record volume and a new class of buyers—including pension funds and family offices—is stepping in. They examine the $140 billion secondary market in 2025, the rise of GP-led continuation vehicles, and how secondaries are reshaping liquidity and returns for limited partners. Specific exa...

In 2026, limited partners are pushing back on the standard 20% carried interest with unprecedented force. Lucas and Luna break down how the Palo Alto Pension Fund recently negotiated a 15% carry with a top-tier venture firm — and what that means for smaller LPs. They explore the shift from '2 and 20' to '1.5 and 15', the rise of clawback provisions, and how fund terms are becoming as important as...

This episode of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast dives into the emerging practice of limited partners using artificial intelligence to select venture capital funds. Lucas and Luna explore the case of a $12 billion pension fund that built a proprietary machine learning model to analyze GP track records, portfolio concentration, and market timing. They discuss the model's surprising finding: tha...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how institutional limited partners are deploying artificial intelligence and machine learning to evaluate venture capital fund managers — a shift that's quietly reshaping due diligence. Using the example of the $40 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which built an internal tool code-named 'FundGraph' to analyze GP networks and track records, they di...

Episode 12 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast examines the rise of direct investments by limited partners — where large institutional investors bypass VC funds entirely and invest directly into startups. Hosts Lucas and Luna break down why pension funds and endowments are building their own in-house deal teams, how the model works at firms like the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and wh...

Lucas and Luna explore a surprising trend: university endowments are increasingly investing directly in venture capital, bypassing traditional fund-of-funds. They dive into the University of Texas Investment Management Company's $40 billion portfolio, examining how its 18% allocation to venture capital and direct co-investments in companies like SpaceX and Databricks is forcing top-tier VC firms t...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the rise of rolling funds in venture capital — a structure pioneered by AngelList that lets LPs invest monthly instead of committing capital for a decade. They examine how rolling funds have grown from $300 million in 2018 to over $3 billion in 2024, and why they're attracting a new class of investors who want more flexibility. The hosts discuss the trade...

Lucas and Luna dive into the mechanics of venture debt — a $60 billion asset class that's quietly become a critical financing tool for growth-stage startups. They break down how venture debt differs from equity, why institutional LPs are allocating more capital to debt funds, and what the rise of players like Silicon Valley Bank, Hercules Capital, and TriplePoint Capital means for startup balance...

Lucas and Luna dive into the venture capital behind the creator economy, focusing on the shift from influencer marketing to platform infrastructure. They examine the $5.2 billion in VC funding to creator tools in 2025, led by companies like Stripe and Canva, and debate whether this is a durable asset class for limited partners. Specific case: how the graphic design platform Canva, valued at $40 bi...

Episode 7 of The Venture Capital Investor Podcast dives into the booming secondary market for venture capital stakes. Lucas and Luna unpack why institutions like the Washington State Investment Board and Canadian pension fund CPP Investments are increasingly buying and selling existing LP positions rather than committing to new funds. They explore the numbers: $152 billion in global VC secondary v...

When limited partners ask venture capitalists for their track record, they often get vague numbers or cherry-picked multiples. But a quiet revolution in GP-level performance reporting is forcing VC firms to adopt standards more like the public markets. Lucas and Luna dig into the Institutional Limited Partners Association's new reporting templates, why the IRR versus TVPI debate matters, and how o...

Lucas and Luna explore the quiet rise of single-family offices as a new force in venture capital. With an estimated four trillion dollars in assets globally, family offices are increasingly bypassing traditional VC funds to make direct startup investments. The hosts unpack the story of the Pritzker family office, which built an eight-billion-dollar direct investment portfolio, and examine the trad...