How I Invest with David Weisburd

The episode contains a handful of genuinely useful data points - 31% of private markets in venture/growth, less than 0.5% of venture NAV transacting in secondaries versus 2.5-3% in buyouts, the 8-10 manager construction framework - but is padded with standard LP wisdom on power law, relationships, and manager persistence that experienced operators already know.

“Within venture, there's based on our data as of December, there's 3,400,000,000,000 of NAV within venture and less than 0.5% of it”

“Their benchmark was 40% venture and growth. They had zero allocation to venture and growth”

The structural alpha argument for venture secondaries being an undercapitalized buyer's market is the most original idea here, but most other takes - power law dynamics, top-decile persistence, the Amazon IPO anecdote - are recycled frameworks that circulate widely in LP and VC conversations.

“you could argue the reason I love secondaries is it is a form of structural alpha”

“On average, venture has not really been worth the A median return is would be one of the worst asset classes in the world, if not the worst”

Miguel Luigna is co-head of Global Venture Capital at Hamilton Lane, a $1T AUM institution, with 15+ years of LP experience across multiple market cycles - a genuine scaled practitioner with direct deal and fund data, not a thought-leader or career podcaster.

“I started at Hamilton Lane in 2009”

“we've seen somewhere between 350 to 400 venture and growth funds per year”

The episode deploys real numbers with reasonable regularity - Amazon's $19M revenue and $350M market cap at IPO, Legora's $100M ARR in 18 months, top-10 firms at 2.5/30, the 40%-versus-0% client benchmark example - but some important claims (e.g., continuation vehicle timelines, co-invest fee advantages) are asserted without supporting data.

“Amazon went public in the late nineties. It had $19,000,000 of revenue and had a $350,000,000 market cap”

“companies go from $23,000,000 to over a $100,000,000 of recurring revenue in eighteen months”

The host shows genuine preparation - referencing specific prior guests, naming Justin Fisher Wilson and Luke Nosek with context, and framing the 31%-of-index short-selling point - but too frequently affirms the guest's answers rather than pressing on unsubstantiated claims, and multi-part questions occasionally dilute the conversation's focus.

“In q one, 75% of capital in the entire venture capital ecosystem went to a handful of companies, less than five companies. It feels like VC is becoming a consensus asset class. One is do you believe that to be true? And two, if that is true, how important is the selection part of the GP job?”

“Said another way, if 31% of the private markets is venture and growth, the decision not to allocate to venture and growth, you are short 31% of the index”