[a-posteriori]

Whenever I see articles like this I come back to Calpers venture returns over the last 20 years:

> Calpers' venture returns have been historically lackluster. From 2000 to 2020, its venture performance was a dismal 0.49%, compared to 11.59% in buyouts. Calpers declined to comment.

https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/calpers-venture-asset-cl...

How LPs didn't take a step back and ask, "does this strategy work?". I don't know.

[gumby]

When Calpers started reporting this info their portfolio companies (VCs like Sequoia) were furious and tried to block it. It exposed their made up IRR numbers to public view. But as a public agency, Calpers was able to stick to its guns and provide a valuable service.

People forget how tiny the VC business is: just a pimple on the PE market. Typically it’s a tiny part of a big investor’s portfolio, just to have some exposure diversity. You can tell how important it is to them when you attend an LP meeting for a VC fund: the GPs may be bowing and scraping* but among the LPs’ representatives are a lot of 22 year old first year associates, which shows how unimportant the sector is to these big guys.

* props to the GPs who are both not arrogant and not ingratiating to their customers (cough sorry, “LPs”). In my experience there are fewer than you would think.

[a-posteriori]

Well put and I have also witnessed the same patterns at GP/LP meetings.

Ironically, Calpers' excuse for their poor returns is that the "top tier" VCs (such as Sequoia) now exclude them due to their public reporting requirements, and therefore they are forced to deploy to tier 2 managers.

[hef19898]

Hoping either for an IPO, SPAC or SoftBank? After all, people bet on horses, sports, play the lottery...

[Given_47]

Sports is easy enough. The hardest part is getting around limits and finding new accounts cuz anyone with a brain inevitably gets kicked. But overall relatively easy side income

[jasmer]

Just because Calpers fails doesn't mean the industry is a failure.

VC is a wide gamut, the top 25% generates something like 30% IRR while the bottom 25% is negative return.

LP in VC is just like VC - have to get in on the good deals and I think maybe since it's harder to evaluate deals, than say for building some homes, a lot of money goes to crap.