E7: Samir Kaji | Founder and CEO of Allocate on How the Top 5% of LP’s Invest in VC

David Weisburd and Erik Torenberg sit down with Samir Kaji, the co-founder and CEO of Allocate. In this episode, they talk about what differentiates truly elite emerging managers, what VCs get wrong in portfolio construction, what fees VCs are charging today, and his predictions about where the venture ecosystem is going by 2025. If you’re ready to level-up your startup or fund with AngelList, visit https://www.angellist.com/tlp to get started. (1:00) Episode preview (1:33) The evolution of Samir’s perspective on the venture market from his early days at SVB and First Republic, to founding Allocate with a mission to make private markets more accessible (3:46) In Samir’s experience, what separated Kirsten Green (Forerunner Ventures) and Joe Londsale (8VC) from other emerging managers? (4:46) Samir’s critical advice to emerging managers not on the same level as the Kirsten Greens and the Joe Lonsdales (8:14) Is VC a contrarian game?Or an access game? (10:17) Does valuation matter? (11:44) Is there a need for another investment platform? (13:30) How Samir evolved the product with LPs in mind (15:30) Sponsor: AngelList (18:00) How Samir would advise a customer to invest in venture and what percentage would he put in a venture portfolio among the different strategies and funds (20:00) Venture is actually a combination of different sub asset classes (22:00) The market in Q3 2023: top managers, management fees and carry? (25:30) Where Samir sees venture going by 2025 (30:50) What to avoid when pitching LPs (32:06) Minimum viable fund size (32:20) Tools that emerging managers can use to help them scale (33:20) How much staffing do emerging managers need? (35:30) How to get in touch with Samir