Aram Verdiyan is a Partner at Accolade. Previously, he worked on the investment team at Andreessen Horowitz. Before that, Aram worked in BD, sales and marketing at Aviatrix, a cloud native enterprise software company. Aram worked at Accolade from 2012 to 2015 as a Senior Investment Associate and at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He holds an M.B.A from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) and a B.S. from the George Washington University. You can find Aram on his socials here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/aramverdi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aram-verdiyan-8099186/ And huge thanks to this episode's sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters OUTLINE: [00:00] Intro [02:36] How did Pejman Nozad influence the way Aram thinks about people [04:06] Aram's 'distance traveled' [05:45] What did imposter syndrome look like in Aram's life? [06:36] How Aram cold emailed his way into Accolade Partners [09:03] The first case study Aram did at Accolade [10:10] When track record is NOT just TVPI, DPI, or IRR [15:05] The case for concentrated fund of funds' portfolio construction [22:42] Telltale signs of "great" deal flow [26:32] When does due diligence start for prospective funds for Accolade? [27:50] Primary sources of data for Accolade [29:00] The variables that impact fund of funds' team size [30:24] How many fund investments should each individual FoF partner have? [35:13] The case for consistent check sizes [36:20] The common mistake GPs make when it comes to LP concentration limits [41:27] How Accolade started investing in blockchain funds [44:52] Blockchain engineering talent as a function of bear markets [47:15] Time horizons for blockchain funds [50:38] Luck vs skill [53:41] Aram's early fundraising days at Accolade [57:38] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring! [1:00:14] If you enjoyed the episode, drop us a like, comment or share! Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperclustersLP Follow Superclusters on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@super.clusters Follow Superclusters on Instagram: https://instagram.com/super.clusters