20VC: How Fundraising For Funds Has Changed in The World of COVID, The Benefits of Managers Selling Part of Their GP & How To Think Through Your “Minimum Viable Fund Size” with Lo Toney, Founding Managing Partner @ Plexo Capital
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2020
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lo Toney is the Founding Managing Partner @ Plexo Capital, a very unique firm making both direct investments and fund investments. They have invested in Precursor, Boldstart, Female Founders Fund and WorkBench on the fund side and then PlayVS, Replicated and StyleSeat on the direct side. Prior to Plexo, Lo was a Partner @ GV (Google Ventures) and before that was a Partner with Comcast Ventures where he led the Catalyst Fund. Before venture Lo was an operator enjoying exec roles at Zynga, Nike and eBay.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Lo made his way into the world of venture with GV and how that led to his innovating on the venture model investing in both funds and directly with Plexo today? What were Lo's biggest takeaways from his 5 years as a Partner @ GV?
2.) How will GPs raising today be impacted by COVID? How does this differ dependent on the stage they invest and the size of fund they are raising? How does Lo advise managers communicating with existing and new potential LPs today?
3.) What does Lo mean when he discusses your "minimum viable fund size"? How does Lo advise GPs when it comes to closing strategies? How much do they need for first close? How many closes should there be thereafter? Should they take the money when it is on the table?
4.) How does Lo feel about anchor LPs taking/investing in the GP? What are the benefits for the manager of doing so? Why does Lo believe there is such a binary view towards it? Why does Lo disagree with the benchmarks set of what a GP commit "should be"?
5.) Why does Lo believe we will see the hybridization of GP/LP over the coming years? What are the benefits of having your LP also direct invest? What are the core challenges to the model? How does Lo envisage the world of venture evolving over the next decade?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Lo’s Fave Book: Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business
Lo's Most Recent Investment: PlayVS
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back. This is the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm really looking forward to |
| 0:03.7 | our episode today with a very special guest who's really innovated on the model of venture, investing |
| 0:08.0 | both directly and indirectly into funds. And so I'm thrilled to welcome Lo Tony, founding managing |
| 0:13.0 | partner at Plexo Capital, as I said, a very unique firm making both direct investments and fund |
| 0:18.5 | investments. And they've invested in the likes of precursor, |
| 0:21.3 | bold start, female founders fund and workbench on the fun side, and then play vS, replicated |
| 0:26.4 | and star seat on the direct side. And prior to Plexo, Lo was a partner at GV or Google Ventures, |
| 0:31.9 | and before that was a partner with Comcast Ventures where he led the Catalyst Fund. Before venture, |
| 0:36.2 | Lo was an operator, enjoying exact |
| 0:38.0 | roles at Zinger, Nike and eBay to name a few. But before we dive into the show today, you have to |
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... |
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