Scott Kupor, managing partner at VC firm Andreesen Horowitz was interviewed on the main stage by Mark Radcliffe, partner at law firm DLA Piper and sponsor of the GCVI Summit. Radcliffe noted that Kupor’s latest book – “Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture capital and how to do it”, of which delegates received a complimentary copy – provided readers with insights on how venture capital really works and vouched for the description of the legal intricacies of venture investing.
Kupor explained that investors from Andreesen Horowitz “believe very strongly in founders as CEOs” and aimed to “surround them with people with skills who would help them succeed in the long run”, adding that corporate venturers were among those peers.
When asked about the biggest changes for VC over the past decades, Kupor pointed to the institutionalisation of VC capital and wider availability of capital, which he described in positive terms: “It is a wonderful – we are doing eight times more VC deals – and it is fantastic for entrepreneurs as it enables them to do a lot of experimentation.”
Kupor also said that he had observed a “dichotomy” between opportunities in private and public marketers: “It is cheaper than ever to start a company and more expensive than ever to take it to public markets, so a lot of wealth accretion is happening in the private markets.”
Pondering challenges going forward, Kupor noted the prevailing notion of the abundance of capital, which dictated the need for differentiation among VC investors: “The idea that capital is no longer a scarce resource is prevalent today and that was not the case up until a decade ago.”
He attributed this to the lower interest rates environment and the emergence of many new players on the venturing scene. This abundance drove the need for differentiation among venture firms, which were now asking themselves: “what else do we bring to entrepreneurs in addition to financial capital?”
Andreesen Horowitz boasted a team of 185 people and about two thirds of them were in operating functions – interfacing with portfolio companies and dedicated to business development – Kupor said.
Kupor also made a prediction regarding the liquidity and activity in private markets, given that public markets were not as easy to access for emerging businesses today as they once used to be. He said he expected to have “much more liquid secondary private markets in the future with more information disclosure and more democratised trading within the next decade.”
