When choosing which venture manager to back, should LPs prefer older, cycle-tested operator-turned-managers or young first-time managers?
5 recorded positions from 4 people, first said Jun 19, 2024. They do not agree — the readings below are what each one actually argued.
Long firm history and generational succession strengthen a firm rather than weaken it
Harry Stebbings · Oct 25, 2024
Meritech successfully executed its generational transition
The handover to Alex and the two Maxes worked
51:01 20VC: The Truth About Multi-Stage Firms; Why Portfolio Services are for VCs not Founders | Why Politics is Rife & Decision-Making is Broken in Large VCs | Why Reserves are Bad for Founders & How Boutique Firms Will Win with Mark Goldberg @ Chemistry
Byron Deeter · Aug 25, 2025
A long firm history is quantitatively a positive, not a negative, and First Round and Uncork are getting stronger rather than weaker through their generational transitions
The data shows you benefit from a pattern of success and platform, and the next generation at those firms is incredibly promising — the founders themselves expect them to exceed them
72:21 20VC: Do Margins Matter in AI? | Is Defensibility Gone For Good? | Is Vertical SaaS Dead in a World of AI | What SaaS Rules Are BS and No Longer Apply in a World of AI | The Future of Venture: Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS with Byron Deeter
Prefer experienced scarred operators over young first time managers
Miles Dieffenbach · Aug 4, 2025 · hedged
Given a choice, they would back a 55-year-old unicorn founder turned manager over a 25-year-old first-time manager
They lean toward people who have been through multiple cycles and carry the resulting scar tissue
Scope: in general; open to everything
79:59 20VC: Inside Carnegie Mellon's $4BN Endowment | Why 90% of LPs Shouldn't Invest in VC | The $140BN Problem with Multi-Stage Funds | The Hidden Math Behind DPI, TVPI, and Illiquidity with Miles Dieffenbach
Byron Deeter · Aug 25, 2025 · hedged
The newer upstart firms are less proven, though that doesn't detract from them
Scope: still trying to work with them
73:02 20VC: Do Margins Matter in AI? | Is Defensibility Gone For Good? | Is Vertical SaaS Dead in a World of AI | What SaaS Rules Are BS and No Longer Apply in a World of AI | The Future of Venture: Why Chanel vs Walmart is BS with Byron Deeter
Also on the record
Michael Eisenberg · Jun 19, 2024
Venture investors perform less well as they get older, and at 53 he is old for the business
He doesn't ignore the data showing age correlates with worse performance in venture
51:49 Age correlates with worse venture performance so younger may outperform
Your assistant can query this graph directly — 5 positions here, 19,646 across the corpus. Add 996.fm over MCP.