E2: Kleiner Perkins Makes the Case for Craftsman VC

This week on Turpentine VC, Mamoon Hamid and Ilya Fushman of Kleiner Perkins join Erik to discuss how they’ve seized the torch and helped drive the next chapter of the firm’s iconic history. We go into the nitty-gritty KP’s strategies behind decision-making, fund size, recruiting talent, and more. If you’re looking to make fund administration easy and intuitive, check out: http://carta.com/turpentine

RELATED SHOWS: If you like Turpentine VC, check out our show The Limited Partner with David Weisburd, where David talks to the investors behind the investors: https://www.podpage.com/the-limited-partner/

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode Preview

(01:35) How do venture firms and partner transitions work?

(03:18) The craftsman approach to venture

(04:55) The majors and minors of KP partners

(06:04) How KP makes decisions

(09:20) The different approaches of venture firms

(13:50) What approach to firm-building KP believes in

(18:05) Sponsor: Carta

(18:37) How Mamoon and Ilya strategize on fund size

(19:50) How Mamoon thought about partner construction

(23:30) When does someone become a partner at KP? 

(27:10) The NBA draft analogy for how KP identifies and finds talent

(30:55) Generalist versus specialist firms

(34:12) Sponsors: Synaptic | Pesto Tech

(35:38) What's KP's strategy when it comes to investing in new waves?

(39:07) How Kleiner evaluates talent differently than other firms

(42:20) The difficulties of working in venture

(43:18) What makes great partnerships?

(45:33) The biggest decisions Mamoon and Ilya have made at KP

(49:25) How does governance work at firms when they transition?

(51:18) How KP determines how well their firm is doing

(53:00) On products and providing unique value to founders

(56:10) What's the key in making firm transitions successful?

(58:40) Who drinks more coffee?

X / TWITTER:

@mamoonha (Mamoon)

@ilyaf (Ilya)

@eriktorenberg (Erik)

@TurpentineVC

SPONSORS:

Carta is the world’s largest venture fund administrator. Carta’s software-based approach takes fund administration out of the spreadsheet and into 2023 and beyond with powerful solutions and intuitive interfaces, all on one platform. Their suite of products and expert services help funds at any stage with up-to-date insights and automated workflows to get them to that next level. Learn more at: carta.com/turpentine

Synaptic unifies over one hundred real-time company performance metrics across alternative datasets like user traffic, employee data, app downloads, product reviews, and more. It’s your all-in-one source for alternative data that helps you make better investment decisions. To learn how Synaptic can improve your sourcing, tracking, and due diligence, visit synaptic.com/turpentine

Pesto Tech is a hiring marketplace that makes finding great remote developers fast and easy. They use large language models to evaluate developers along dozens of parameters, including code quality, performance, and security. If you need to start hiring developers fast, all you have to do is answer 5 simple questions on their website: pesto.tech