Page 64 - FON Spring Issue

FON MEMBER FEATURE
Venture Investing 4 Essential Questions to Ask Your Asset Manager
Family offices often work with asset managers to help their clients build more diversified portfolios. We consulted Mike Collins, CEO of Alumni Ventures, one of the most active VC firms in the U.S.,* to learn more about
the family office checklist when it came to venture. We asked Collins, ‟ What are the top four considerations when evaluating a venture asset manager? ” Here’s what he said.
Mike Collins: In venture, it’s the deals you get into that make all the difference. Here would be my key questions.
1:Are you seeing a high volume of deals?
In VC, volume is essential—you need to see a lot of deals to find the ‘pearls.’ If you don’t see enough deals, you can’t be selective about which ones you do and which ones you let pass. Volume also helps ensure that you can create a diversified venture portfolio. Today, sector after sector is being disrupted, with the potential to build lots of value. Some sectors and some companies will do better than others, and diversification helps ensure you aren’t overcommitted to or missing out in any one area.
In 2020, Alumni Ventures evaluated ~4,000 investment opportunities and selected only ~220.
2: How do you ensure you’re bringing in quality deal flow?
In addition to volume, gaining access to the most sought-after deals is critical. At AV, we leverage our network and co-investor strategy to help bring in promising deals. When it comes to network, AV has unique advantages given our nearly 50 investing professionals and strong connections to alumni ecosystems at schools like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, UCLA, etc.
ALUMNI VENTURES DEAL FLOW
64 FON MAGAZINE / SPRING ISSUE 2021 / FONMagazine.com