20VC: The Most Powerful Investor You Might Not Know | Why The Distinction Between Public vs Private is BS | The Misalignments Between GPs and their LPs | Portfolio Construction 101: Diversification, Capital Concentration, Loss Rates with Peter Singlehurst
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2022
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Peter Singlehurst is the Head of Private Companies at Baillie Gifford. As of 31st March 2022, funds under Baillie Gifford's management and advice totaled £277bn. The firm is owned and run by 51 of its senior executives who operate as a partnership, a structure that has endured for over a century. As for Peter, he has been with Baillie Gifford since graduating from Durham University 12 years ago and has backed some astonishing breakouts such as Wise, Grammarly and Zymergen to name a few.
In Today's Episode with Peter Singlehurst We Discuss:
1.) Entry into Venture:
- How Peter landed his role with Baillie Gifford straight out of university?
- Why does Peter and Baillie Gifford prefer to hire young people without backgrounds or studies in finance? Why do they tend to be better investors?
- What does Peter believe are the basic building blocks that can be taught in investing? What cannot be taught and needs to be learned with experience and time?
2.) The Biggest Misnomers and Misalignments in Venture:
- Why does Peter believe the distinction between public vs private markets is BS?
- Why does Peter believe it is an advantage to invest at the same time in both public and private markets?
- Why does Peter think there is an inherent misalignment in venture between GPs and their LPs?
3.) Baillie Gifford: Constructing a Portfolio with £277BN:
- How does Baillie Gifford approach portfolio construction today?
- How many lines do they want to have in their portfolio? What is the right level of diversification?
- How does Peter think about sizing each position? How does Peter think about capital concentration across rounds vs first check being the largest?
- How does Peter approach outcome scenario planning? How does Peter think about downside protection and loss rates?
4.) Peter Singlehurst: The Investor:
- How has Peter's investing style changed over the last 10 years? What has gotten easier? What has gotten harder?
- What is Peter's biggest miss? How did it change his approach?
- What is Peter's biggest hit? What did he learn and take from this?
- How did the crossover funds change and impact the way that later stage venture was conducted?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Peter's Fave Book: The Myth of Sisyphus
Peter's Most Recent Investment: Grammarly
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We are back and this is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and today we bring you a show with one of the most influential and successful firms in the investing world that you might not have heard of. |
| 0:08.8 | Welcome Bailey Gifford. As of the 31st of March 2022, funds under Bailey Gifford's management and advice totaled 277 billion pounds. |
| 0:18.5 | They also have an incredible structure to the firm. It is owned and run by 51 |
| 0:23.2 | of its senior executives who operate as a partnership. Now this structure has endured for over a century, |
| 0:28.9 | and I'm so excited to say joining me in the hot seat from Bailey Gifford is Peter Singlehurst, |
| 0:33.3 | head of private companies at Bailey Gifford, where he spent the last 12 years, investing in some |
| 0:37.4 | game-changing companies from Grammally to Wise and Zimogen, to name a few. I'd also want to say a |
| 0:42.3 | huge thank you to Neela Warby Parker for some fantastic question suggestions today. But before we |
| 0:47.1 | dive into the show today, I want to talk about an incredible tool that I use every single day, |
| 0:51.4 | Notion. Now, I am the worst for having 50 tabs open and constantly hopping between an endless array of tools. |
| 0:57.6 | Do you feel me? |
| 0:58.2 | Are you with me? |
| 0:59.0 | Well, then Notion came into my life, providing one tool to do it all with everything from |
| 1:03.3 | seamless project management to easily organizing 20VCs company information. |
| 1:07.6 | A fascinating stand on Notion usage, more than 70% of companies who start |
| 1:12.0 | using Notion, stop using two plus other tools. And so Notion can even save you money, given how |
| 1:17.4 | many other tools it can displace. Notion has a worldwide network of millions of users, creating |
| 1:22.3 | templates, tutorials, and new inspiration. The product's getting better and better every single day, |
| 1:27.5 | and you always have the support you need. Learn more and get started for free at notion. |
| 1:31.3 | So, take the first step toward an organized happy team today, again at notion. So, |
| 1:36.9 | and speaking of foundational infrastructure like Notion there, Angel List has been a key partner for me in managing my investments. |
| 1:43.1 | I just love using the AngelList platform |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Twenty Minute VC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Twenty Minute VC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.