Dan was a solo GP (now with a partner) focused on early stage fintech investments (though they say they operate across industries). I have no affiliation, I just found his simplifications of what he does to be interesting.
Specifically, here are a few frames he uses for what he does as a VC…
A VC (or any investment firm) can be, in the terms of sushi:
- Benihana (in my words, General Motors)
- Nobu (in my words, Mercedes)
- Jiro (in my words, an F1 team)
On what a VC can do well, pick one:
- Generating carry
- Generating fees
- Stroking own ego
One what VCs can focus one, pick a couple but not all (Tiger targets last two):
- Quality
- Consistency
- Scale
- Velocity
On which types of businesses exhibit qualities of greatness:
- Have increasing returns to scale
- Have ever deepening moats
- In winner take all markets