Emerging VC Fund Managers: 6 Things LPs Don't Want to See…

Emerging VC Fund Managers: 6 Things LPs Don't Want to See…

Most LPs will want to get to know you over time before committing capital, there are a few 'watch-its' when engaging with LPs. In the early days, your goal for LP meetings is to secure the next meeting to continue building the relationship. Therefore, you do not want unnecessarily and unintentionally trigger alarm bells, which will close the door on the relationship. In this post, we share six things LPs don't want to see in emerging fund managers— we also share what they would prefer to see instead.

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Distinct By Nature: Crafting Your Differentiated Fund Thesis

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Distinct By Nature: Crafting Your Differentiated Fund Thesis

The venture space is saturated with emerging funds and venture brands— this trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. However, as a result, it has become challenging for LPs to differentiate one venture fund from another. Furthermore, it is increasingly challenging for founders to find and partner with smaller, value-add funds, especially if so many other smaller funds sound like they are promising and saying the same thing.

Therefore, without clear differentiation, it will be an uphill battle for first-time emerging fund managers GPs to:

  • Secure meetings with LPs who can provide the capital for your deployment.

  • Attract top founders and their companies to invest in and grow.

Why Start Your First Early-Stage Venture Fund?

Why Start Your First Early-Stage Venture Fund?

If you are a first-time emerging fund manager, starting and raising a fund requires a lot of effort— you have your work cut out for you.

Just like a startup founder, emerging fund managers are prone to burn-out and health challenges — working long hours, traveling for extended extended periods, etc.

Therefore, it is just as essential to ensure you are clear about why you want to build a fund and what specifically about it inspires you. Your motivation must be intrinsic.

‘Cultured’ by Design: 7 Tips to Architect Desired Team Behaviors

‘Cultured’ by Design: 7 Tips to Architect Desired Team Behaviors

In this post, we share seven things to consider when growing, cultivating, and refining your company culture. This post will help you: 

  • Identify and organize the functional behaviors that you want to see in your company.

  • Prescribe values, symbols, and metaphors that remind people who you are as a company, what they stand for, and, more importantly, the behaviors and actions that demonstrate that. 

  • Articulate your company culture and values in a way that is easy to interpret and action horizontally and vertically. 

  • Monitor your progress, elicit feedback, and make adjustments at scale. 

Candor with Compassion: The 3 Essentials of Quality Feedback

Candor with Compassion: The 3 Essentials of Quality Feedback

How do you ensure your communication is received as you intend?

Short answer: you can’t ensure anything. However, you can maximize the chances that your communication is received as you intend, and offer the opportunity for multiple communicating parties to clarify each others’ communication to arrive at a clear understanding. In this post, we offer our top 3 attributes of quality communication to help you:

  • Build psychological safety and trust.

  • Reduce ambiguity when offering feedback.

  • Encourage productive, functional behaviors.

  • Offer room for new learning and growth.

  • Create alignment amongst key stakeholders.

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Strategic Productivity: How to Maximize Your Throughput Without Feeling Drained

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Strategic Productivity: How to Maximize Your Throughput Without Feeling Drained

There is a distinction between the habit of being productive and being busy — being busy is activity-based execution with no direction, and being productive means executing the activities that bring you closer to the experience of personal and professional fulfillment. Busy-ness diminishes your well-being, while true productivity enriches you from the inside out.

At Valence Advisory, we've put together a simple 5-point productivity cycle that will help you:

  • Focus on the work you find rewarding and enjoyable.

  • Lead, manage, and foster reports, helping them develop a stronger immune response to ‘productivity theater.’

  • Feel clearer, more confident, and in control.

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Founder WellBeing: Our Top 9 Ways to Recharge in 'No Time'

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Founder WellBeing: Our Top 9 Ways to Recharge in 'No Time'

To think that work-life ‘balance’ exists for founders during the formative and growth stages of a company is an illusion— the operating contexts is demanding, and appropriately so. However, that does not mean:

  1. Growing your startup needs to be net-negative to your wellbeing. 

  2. Caring for your wellbeing has to be time-consuming.

In this post, we share 9 simple activities we use to optimize our wellbeing without having to sacrifice large amounts of time. We have shared them with our professional networks informally— clients, colleagues, and partners. In codifying it in a post, we hope it inspires you to create your own rituals around wellbeing and happiness.