E20: James Heath, dara5 on How Family Offices Access Top Venture Funds

James Heath, Investment Principal at dara5, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss early stage venture. We’re proudly sponsored by Bidav Insurance Group, visit lux-str.com if you’re ready to level up your insurance plans. (0:00) Episode Preview (1:36) How PwC evaluates venture companies (3:25) Non-consensus learning about VC (4:30) Look for entrepreneurs that are trying to solve a critical problem (6:25) What is dara5? (8:36) How can information provide alpha? (11:01) The importance of data when co-investing (12:32) Warm versus cold intro co-investments and how to implement a double gated process (15:53) Episode Sponsor: Bidav Insurance Group (17:22) Smaller funds and ownership levels (19:06) Build long term relationships with GPs: education and casual conversations (24:13) The changing power structures in fundraising (25:34) The competing dynamics of a challenging market and investor friendly terms (28:16) How family offices should invest in venture (31:19) How to unlock the mean venture IRR of 50% (34:29) Which is a better investment: top decile backed company or an emerging manager? (35:45) Reaching Series B increases likelihood of unicorn status to 24% (37:27) AGM best practices (39:45) The importance of sharing knowledge (41:40) Why only early stage venture is non-zero sum (45:46) What’s actually going to happen in the VC reset (50:21) The emergence of European VC (51:52) Don’t be scared of emerging managers