The Difference Between GPs who Can and Should Raise | Dan Stolar | Superclusters | S4E3

“GPs and LPs are both equally busy, but different kinds of busy where on any given day, we’ll probably have the same amount of calls and all these things going on, but [LPs are] going to know [they’re] busy three months ahead of time and a GP won’t.” – Dan Stolar

Dan Stolar is a Principal at Colibri Equity Ventures, a single family office based in NYC and San Diego. Dan leads the venture capital strategy and also participates in all alternative private investments, including sports investing and private equity. As part of the venture strategy, Dan particularly focuses on investing in emerging venture capital funds. Since launching the strategy in late 2022, the firm has invested in ~15 managers. Dan started his venture capital journey as an intern at Viola Credit, a venture debt fund in Tel Aviv, before spending time in investment banking at Peter J. Solomon Co. (now Solomon Partners) where he focused on consumer and retail mergers & acquisitions. After banking, Dan spent ~5 years at Alpha Partners, a late-stage venture firm that partners with early stage managers helping them follow on in their late stage deals. Dan is still involved with Alpha as a Venture Partner. Dan is a proud New Jersey native, and a graduate of the University of Michigan (Go Blue!).

You can find Dan on his socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielstolar/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/dan_stolar And huge thanks to this episode's sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[02:29] Dan's high school scavenger hunt

[07:33] Telltale sign of excellence #1 in a GP

[09:29] How telling intros are

[11:16] Telltale sign of excellence #2

[13:46] Underwriting a Fund II vs Fund I

[17:40] What do LPs think of deadlines that GPs set for closes?

[18:48] What does a no that turns into a yes look like?

[22:26] Not all positive references are created equal

[25:50] Questions to ask an existing LP in a GP during diligence

[28:30] Reasons an investor would leave a firm

[30:13] The difference between a GP who can and should raise a fund

[33:01] Fund track records that aren't scalable

[33:56] The one question that most GPs don't have a good answer to

[35:09] Responsiveness between a GP and an LP

[38:39] Inbox overload for LPs

[41:21] What trivia does Dan excel at? [45:07] Biking through snowstorms in NYC

[48:08] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring!

[49:08] If you learned something from this episode, it would mean a lot to me if you could share it with one friend who might also enjoy it! Follow David Zhou for more Superclusters content: For podcast show notes: https://cupofzhou.com/superclusters Follow David Zhou's blog: https://cupofzhou.com Follow Superclusters on X: https://x.com/SuperclustersLP