16 Comments
Dec 2, 2020Liked by Nikhil Basu Trivedi

Great piece. One aspect of this topic that I would have loved to get your take on is the difference between the two in terms of accrual of structural advantage over time and how much of that is due to institutionalism of the firm that typically comes from long-term partnerships.

In fact, I'd argue that's one reason some LPs prefer to invest in GP partnerships rather than solo GPs.

Expand full comment

Awesome post Nikhil! I agree it's about identifying your model's strengths and weaknesses and then playing your strengths very hard!

Expand full comment
Dec 2, 2020Liked by Nikhil Basu Trivedi

Thanks for writing this Nikhil! I have been following your articles and I am not sure if I had missed this. But, I wonder why firms like Flagship Pioneering, DVx ventures are rare to find in VC ecosystem? I often hear that VCs are looking for deal flows, founders with a vision who already have an idea. But I hear less on scenarios where the VC's have a vision about a particular market and they encourage people to build on their vision to start with. I know about DVx (from what I hear atleast because I don't work there), that they raise capital and build inhouse products with a team on ideas they brainstorm internally. I am aware there is EIR programs but those happen to be like 1 or 2 people in the whole traditional VC firm. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Expand full comment
Dec 2, 2020Liked by Nikhil Basu Trivedi

You mentioned during a podcast that you'd also update the list of solo GP's. Will you do that in a future post or can you add the list here?

Expand full comment
Dec 2, 2020Liked by Nikhil Basu Trivedi

In light of recent news and COVID spiking, I'm curious how succession (due to death/disability) works in the case of solo capitalists. As an industry focused on high-impact, low-probability events this is the one that I haven't seen talked about. I would assume LPs want some sort of "key man" clause but how does this work from a founder's point of view? The worry of course is that you can end up with someone completely different on your cap table...not to be morbid, but 2020 right?

Expand full comment
Dec 2, 2020Liked by Nikhil Basu Trivedi

There's one thing I would add here - as I'm going through the fund raising process, I realized that one key help I can immediately get is very warm intros from one investor to another after the prior committed to the round. I found my lead investor (a firm) through a solo capitalist (honestly a little shame on me as I should know enough people/firms from my own past VC experience) and the lead introed me to most of the investors (monetarily speaking) for the rest of my round. There are definitely more investors (headcount-wise) in this round that are through my network but it does make me realize sometimes check size can make a pretty noticeable difference and leads to different preference.

Expand full comment
Dec 2, 2020Liked by Nikhil Basu Trivedi

The path to become ''Solo Capitalist" in most of the cases passes through the "VC route" because LPs need to have the required trust, past outcomes. In the recent times, there are many examples of successful VC leaders starting on their own ..

Expand full comment