No Longer Emerging, Not Yet Established
The Emerging Manager Circle was a good time to reflect on my own journey in venture capital and life as an "elder millenial" fund manager
I started this post on the plane heading to the Emerging Manager Circle event organized by the fine folks at Equal Ventures. The event was excellent - kudos to the team for bringing together such a great group. In a way, I’m glad I didn’t finish it before I got on the plane as the time I spent there helped me figure out what I wanted to say before hitting publish.
While I was on the plane, I rewatched the "Elder Millenial" standup performance by Iliza Shlesinger. I've watched it several times.after seeing her live and I love how she talks about the experience of someone who is aware they are on living at the intersection of two different generational experiences and the challenges in navigating that liminal experience. It's also her fourth standup special, so she's not a rookie comedian anymore.
Lately I have had many days where I feel likeI am living through the elder millennial equivalent of the venture capital business. I am close enough to the emerging manager phase of our fund to still identify with that experience and feel very close to what those managers are going through. But I’m no longer fully in that world. I also don't feel like our firm has graduated to being “established” as I have no idea what that means or what it takes to get there. I also have not gotten to the “get off my lawn” phased of being a really experienced VC who has seen and done it all.
In the past 10 years, the venture industry has really leaned into helping emerging managers get started and build community. Organizations such as Raise, Emerging Manager Circle, Screendoor, Venture Forward, Coolwater, and others have created programs to help people building their first few funds connect with each other and with the LPs they need to help them get their funds off the ground.
The transition from emerging manager to life on the other side can feel abrupt. You leave the cradle of emerging manager programs and enter the Wild West of being a manager who is no longer emerging but not yet established. Based on the data from the folks at Open LP, only about 17% of emerging managers who raise a first fund will get to a fourth fund. Very few of the folks who you knew when you started will be there when you get to the other side.
I’m enjoying this new phase of the journey. Being in the room with so many talented emerging managers made me really optimistic about the future of our industry and also reminded me that I’ll always feel connected to entrepreneurial fund managers who are building new firms from scratch even as that phase of our fund’s evolution comes to a close.