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11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Lunch
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Shane
Robison
Executive
Vice President and Chief Strategy and
Technology
Officer
Hewlett-Packard
1:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Agenda
Review and Introductions
1:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
INVESTMENT PACE
• What is the pace of investing for each fund? How many
deals have you completed in the last six months? In the past year?
Briefly discuss the valuations and stage for each of your fund’s
last three deals. What do you think of the current quality of
deals in the market?
COMPETITION AND VALUATIONS
• What is the competitive climate for seed and early stage
deals? What kind of valuations are you seeing? What strategies
are you employing to cope with the competitive environment?
• Due Diligence: Do you have enough time to do a thorough
evaluation?
• Deal Capture: How do you secure an opportunity?
• Syndication: When is the right time to start the syndication
process? What do you look for in a syndicate partner? What are
your views of a “fully funded” syndicate?
• Deal Terms: Have you used any creative deal structures
to either get a deal or make a deal attractive enough for your
partnership?
• Is early stage venture capital overfunded?
CURRENT INVESTMENT FOCUS
• In what areas are you spending time looking for investments?
What is the investment thesis for these areas? What specific areas
are overfunded? Underfunded?
• Are you investing in the same areas you were 3 years ago?
Do you have a framework for evaluating new potential areas of
interest? How can you add value in a sector that is new to you?
CREATIVE STRATEGIES
• What creative method, procedure, or practice does your
fund employ in any aspect of fund management (generating deals,
evaluating opportunities, managing the fund organization, raising
a new fund, etc.) that might be different from most early stage
funds? Please pick something that might be useful to another fund.
• How do you differentiate your fund? What makes your fund
unique to the entrepreneur? The limited partner? The syndicate
partner?
3:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
BREAK
3:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
• What is the ideal board size for a Series A company? When
do you bring in an outside director? How many outside directors
do you like? How do you recruit outside board members? Do you
have a bias toward a particular specification for an outside board
member?
• Have you conducted a “formal” BOD evaluation
procedure? Do you have a constructive example of where a board
member was asked to leave?
• What are the biggest sources of conflict between other
investor directors? Between company directors? Do you employ any
strategies to minimize these conflicts?
• How do you prepare your companies for future financings?
How does your partnership view inside rounds, down rounds, and
corporate rounds? When is it time to write an investment off?
LIQUIDITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS
• Are there are signs that the public markets are strengthening?
What are the implications for exit options?
• How do you see the IPO market over the next few years?
Have you considered alternative exchanges such as the London AIM?
• What is the current M&A climate? Who is buying? How
do you drive competition and value when you are pursuing an M&A
exit?
• What best practices do you use to manage exits?
• Are there any creative exit strategies that you have employed?
LIMITED PARTNER RELATIONS
• How many recently raised a new fund? How many are planning
to raise a new fund this year?
• What is the fundraising environment today? How much time
is required to raise a new fund?
• How do you determine which limited partners are invited
to invest in the next fund and allocation sizes?
• What changes are you seeing in limited partner behavior?
• What types of limited partners do you look for when attracting
new investors? What are the pros and cons of working with Funds
of Funds? What about pension funds, endowments, and family offices?
Are you placing any restrictions on public pension funds with
potential disclosure issues?
4:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Wrap-Up
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Cocktail
Reception |
