Your Fund Narrative Is Too Wide to Underwrite
Your Fund Narrative Is Too Wide to Underwrite Most emerging managers do not lose LP attention because the market is cold. They lose it because their story is too wide to hold conviction. If your...
Raise Capital Like an Operator, Not a Founder in Search of Validation
Raise Capital Like an Operator, Not a Founder in Search of Validation Most founders walk into a raise wanting money. Serious operators walk into a raise wanting alignment. That sounds like semantics...
The Geography Trap in Emerging Manager Fundraising
The Geography Trap in Emerging Manager Fundraising In my experience, most emerging-manager fundraising advice quietly assumes your first pool of capital should come from people close to you. Your...
Why Recycled Warm Intros Stop Working in a High-Scrutiny Market
Why Recycled Warm Intros Stop Working in a High-Scrutiny Market A warm intro can still get you in the room. It just cannot do the underwriting for you. That distinction matters a lot more now than it...
Build the Raise Around Evidence, Not Energy
Build the Raise Around Evidence, Not Energy Energy gets attention. Evidence gets allocations. That distinction matters more than most emerging managers want to admit. A lot of raises are still being...
Why Bad Follow-Up Kills More Raises Than Bad First Meetings.
Why Bad Follow-Up Kills More Raises Than Bad First Meetings. Most founders think they lose a raise in the first meeting. Sometimes they do. But not nearly as often as they think. In my experience,...
What Operators Understand About Capital That Career Pitchmen Never Will.
What Operators Understand About Capital That Career Pitchmen Never Will There is a difference between someone who knows how to raise money and someone who knows what money is for. Career pitchmen...
You Don't Need More Storytelling. You Need More Investor Readiness.
You Don’t Need More Storytelling. You Need More Investor Readiness. Everybody wants to talk about narrative because narrative is visible. It feels productive to rewrite the pitch, tighten the deck,...
137 Ventures Just Raised $700 Million to Bet Bigger on SpaceX. Here's the Risk Retail Investors Miss
137 Ventures just closed more than $700 million across two new funds , pushing its total assets under management past $15 billion. The firm now owns over 1% of SpaceX, a position founder Justin...
Why Warm Intros Are Overrated in Fundraising
Warm intros make founders and emerging managers feel like progress is happening. But access is not conviction. Here is what serious investors are actually evaluating once the meeting starts.
Ex-a16z Partner Bryan Kim Launches Mido Capital, Targets $100M Debut Consumer AI Fund
TL;DR: Bryan Kim, who spent more than five years on Andreessen Horowitz's consumer and AI-apps team, is raising roughly $100 million for a debut fund at his new firm, Mido Capital, according to a
Hadrian's $1.37B Series D: What an $7.87B Valuation Really Tells LPs
Hadrian, the Los Angeles-based startup that builds AI-guided factories for aerospace and defense parts, raised $1.37 billion in a Series D round announced August 6, 2026, at a $7.87 billion post-money
Why a Smaller Fund Can Be the Stronger Signal
Most emerging managers think a bigger target makes them look more credible. It usually does the opposite. In private markets, fund size is not just a number. It is a signal. It tells LPs how you think, how well you
G Squared's $2.3 Billion Fund Signals Where Venture Capital Liquidity Is Really Going
On August 5, 2026, Chicago-based G Squared announced the final close of G Squared VII at $2.3 billion , the firm's largest fund ever and, by rough math, almost exactly the size of its prior two funds
Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII): What a BDC IPO Means for Retail Investors Chasing Private Markets
Robinhood Ventures Fund II (RVII) is a business development company (BDC) planning to IPO August 13, 2026 on the NYSE at $25 per share. No accreditation required. But before you click buy, understand
Index Ventures Closes $3.5B Across Three Funds After Wiz Windfall
Index Ventures closed $2B in new capital in July 2026, bringing its total fresh firepower to $3.5B spread across three purpose-built funds: a $400M seed vehicle, a $900M venture fund, and a $700M grow
Simile Raises $200M at $2B Valuation: Behavioral AI's Signal to Accredited Investors
Simile raised a $200 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation, just five months after a $100 million Series A. The Stanford spinout's behavioral AI platform grew revenue 5x since February 2026. For
Highland Europe's Fund VI: What Three $3B+ Exits Tell You About Backing Growth VC
TL;DR: Highland Europe closed its sixth fund at €1.1 billion on July 30, 2026, backed by exits that generated more than €1 billion in LP distributions in a single calendar year, including Nexthink's $
Dimension Capital's $800M Fund III: The AI-Biotech Bet Attracting Serious LP Capital
TL;DR: Dimension Capital closed an $800 million Fund III on July 23, 2026, 60% larger than its prior $500 million fund raised just 18 months earlier. The firm's $30 million seed check in Chai Discover
How to Evaluate a VC Fund's Track Record Before Writing a Check
TL;DR: Top-quartile VC funds returned 3.3x-4.2x TVPI across 2014-2018 vintages, but many GPs bury the real numbers inside gross figures that never land in your bank account. Learn the five metrics tha