Wesley Chan is a true legend in Silicon Valley. He spent time at Microsoft and HP, and in 2002 he jumped to Google. There, he worked as Sergey Brin’s Chief of Staff and founded Google Analytics and Google Voice - all before then founding and leading the seed investing program at Google Ventures as GP. Under his tenure, GV was the first institutional check into companies like Plaid, Gusto, Lucid, and Robinhood. Wesley sits down with Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP...

Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, unpack their recent conversation with Jai Das, President + Partner at Sapphire Ventures and Mike Maples, Co-Founder + Partner at Floodgate,  to answer their burning question: What changes in the way seed and growth investors think, and what stays the same? They discuss the crushing importance of team no matter the stage; the parallels in LP land (at the end of the day, you’re just backing people); the...

With a few dozen software exits under his belt (including Box, Square, Mulesoft & JFrog), nobody knows enterprise investing like Sapphire Ventures’ President + PartnerJai Das. Likewise, Floodgate co-founder + Partner Mike Maples Jr. is often credited with pioneering seed investing as we know it, with names like Twitter, Twitch and Lyft in his portfolio. Together, they join Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to share how they pick winners at...

A look at what’s to come on a brand new season of Origins, where we’ll dive into the VC ecosystem with the people who know it best, to learn how the people behind the capital really make decisions. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc

Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, go inside their recent conversation with Alt Capital’s Jack Altman to answer their burning question: What  does the journey look like from VC-backed founder to angel investor to institutional VC? How does one successfully jump from investing their own capital to taking on LP dollars? Where is Jack comfortable taking bigger bets? Plus, the two of them go in-depth for the very first time on Nick’s new firm,...

Jack Altman of Alt Capital has led quite a life in Silicon Valley. He’s gone from angel investing to founding a venture-backed company (HR platform Lattice), back to angel investing today, taking on outside capital as an institutional investor at Alt Capital. Jack sits down with Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures  & Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to discuss learnings from his impressive career arc, including how to build a reputation by avoiding zero sum games, making decisions...

Nick & Beezer go inside their recent conversation with Jason Shuman and Will Quist to discuss the right way to be a contrarian investor, how to do no harm as a VC, and dive into the answer to their burning question: do VCs actually add value? Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about Notation Capital: https://notation.vc/ Learn more about Primary: https://www.primary.vc/ Learn more about Slow Ventures: https://slow.co/

What do Primary GP Jason Shuman and Slow Ventures Partner Will Quist have in common? At first glance, not much, given how differently their firms approach firm building and VC "platforms." At Primary, their Impact team outnumbers investors 2:1, while Slow consists of 3 GPs, and 3 GPs only. But in a surprising twist, they agree on more than one would expect.  They both see non-consensus investing as carrying big risk but also big opportunity. They are both seed investors and their...

Joanna Rupp, Managing Director of Private Equity at the University of Chicago, sits down with Nick & Beezer to shine a light on the often opaque world of endowments, including what separates an endowment from a foundation, how they consider small funds v. big funds and the fallout from an avalanche of capital being thrown at VCs. Then (announcement!) Joanna and Beezer evaluate Nick’s new venture fund - the key pieces of diligence, what he needs to prove in the next few years for another...

Nick and Beezer sit down with Frank Rotman, a founding partner and CIO at QED Investors to talk about his early days as the chief credit officer of Capital One, the fundamental flaw in the way founders and investors have been funding startups, the purpose associates serve and how those associates can better their skills, and how VCs can avoid being left in the exhaust of larger firms. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about...

In the first Origins episode of the year, ⁠Nick Chirls⁠ (Notation Capital) and ⁠Beezer Clarkson⁠ (Sapphire Partners) host Scott Kupor, a Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. In his role as managing partner, Scott invests in growth-stage companies building in the bio and healthcare industries, manages the firm’s investor relations team, and is responsible for the firm’s growth initiatives.  Scott was the first employee at Andreessen Horowitz and managed the firm’s growth from $300...

In the last Origins episode of the year, Nick Chirls (Notation Capital) and Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners) host David Clark, Investment Director at VenCap International plc. With nearly four decades of experience in investing, David has backed some of the most established VC funds across the US, Europe, China and India and shares historical figures on where to find performance in venture. David recently uncovered 30 years of data from 400+ funds with 15,000+ underlying portfolio...

In this episode of Origins, Nicholas Chirls (Notation) and Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners) host Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart and Seyonne Kang, Partner at StepStone. Ed is the founder of boldstart ventures, a day-one partner and true believer for developer first, enterprise infra, & SaaS founders. He is currently a board member/observer of Snyk, Blockdaemon, Kustomer (sold to Meta), BigID, Protect AI, Env0, among many others. Seyonne is a member of the private equity team, focusing...

In this episode of Origins, Nicholas Chirls (Notation) and Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners) host Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart and Seyonne Kang, Partner at Stepstone. Ed is the founder of boldstart ventures, a day-one partner and true believer for developer first, enterprise infra, & SaaS founders. He is currently a board member/observer of Snyk, Blockdaemon, Kustomer (sold to Meta), BigID, Protect AI, Env0, among many others. Seyonne is a member of the private equity team, focusing...

Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners and Nick Chirls of Notation host Adam Valkin, Managing Director of General Catalyst at their NYC office. Adam Valkin is a Managing Director at General Catalyst. Adam leads the firm's global early-stage practice and co-led its international expansion. He has been at GC for over ten years after joining the firm from Accel London. He has a uniquely global perspective on venture and entrepreneurship and has experience as both an operator and investor.  In...

Melissa Lucas currently serves as the CIO for the investment vehicles of two extended families. She has decades of experience handling the unique investment needs of extended families, and investing across asset classes from venture capital to credit to equities. Prior to her work for families, she spent nearly a decade working at several subsidiaries of The Capital Group – first, as an investment analyst of, and later, as an investor in, the healthcare and chemical industries. In this...

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. We're joined by our guest Beth Ferreira, a Partner at FirstMark focused on seed and Series A investing in a broad range of consumer companies, including next-generation commerce, consumer tech, and mobile startups. Prior to FirstMark, Beth was the Managing Partner of WME Ventures, was Chief Operating Officer at Fab and ran operations in the early days of Etsy....

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. In this episode, we are joined by Atul Rustgi, managing partner of Accolade Partners, a top-performing venture capital, growth equity, and blockchain fund of funds. Prior to joining Accolade in 2007, Atul worked at McKinsey & Co., a leading strategy consulting firm, where he advised senior management on issues of strategy, organization, technology and...

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Lan Xuezhao, founder and managing partner of Basis Set Ventures, an AI-focused seed firm based in SF. Lan is among the earliest investors in companies such as Scale AI, Quince, Path Robotics, Workstream, and Ergeon. She built and led the Corporate Development Strategy team at Dropbox during its most acquisitive time. She...

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. On this episode, we dig into the history of Box Group and seed investing in NYC with David Tisch. Topics covered include Box Group's unique perspective and strategy on seed investing, staying true to one's strategy and mission, the decision behind Box Group raising outside capital, and the current state of the venture market. Follow...

Origins is a podcast about the VC and LP ecosystem, co-hosted by Nick Chirls of Notation and Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners. On this episode, we dig into current market dynamics with our guest Kanyi Maqubela of Kindred Ventures. Topics covered include the current state of the venture market, how LPs and VCs are modifying their investment strategy, the future state of seed funds, and how to manage psychology through downturns. Follow...

On this episode of Origins, we sit down with Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners to discuss the current state of the VC and LP markets, given recent dislocations. We cover what Beezer is seeing on the ground, where we might be in the current cycle / downturn, how VCs can respond both strategically and tactically, as well as her outlook for what's to come. Beezer leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Prior to joining Sapphire in 2012, Beezer...

Austin Clements is a co-founder and managing partner at Slauson & Co., an early-stage venture capital firm whose mission is to democratize access to entrepreneurship by bridging the gap between untapped founders and the right capital and resources required to create sustainable equity & economic inclusion. Austin is a former Principal at TenOneTen Ventures where he played a role in investing in 50+ companies across two funds, and also the founding Chairman for PledgeLA, a city-wide...

Austin Clements is a co-founder and managing partner at Slauson & Co., an early-stage venture capital firm whose mission is to democratize access to entrepreneurship by bridging the gap between untapped founders and the right capital and resources required to create sustainable equity & economic inclusion. Austin is a former Principal at TenOneTen Ventures where he played a role in investing in 50+ companies across two funds, and also the founding Chairman for PledgeLA, a city-wide...