Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.
Today we’re thrilled to bring you my conversation with Justin Fishner-Wolfson, co-founder and managing partner of 137 Ventures, a growth-stage venture firm that provides customized liquidity solutions to founders, investors, and early employees of high-growth private technology companies.
With a total AUM of $1.5B, 137 Ventures has backed some of the most impactful companies of the past decade, including Wish, Flexport, SpaceX, Uber, and Airbnb.
Prior to launching 137 ventures in 2010, Justin worked on the investment team at Founders Fund.
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In this episode we discuss:
02:10 Justin’s journey into venture capital
03:36 Learnings from Founders Fund
05:52 Differentiating yourself in tangible ways
07:45 How Justin thinks about the sales process
10:34 Fund sizing
14:59 Liquidity solutions for the future
17:42 How efficient are the secondary markets right now?
20:40 Justin’s philosophy on risk
26:00 The considerations of check size and ownership requirements
28:53 What are the toughest things to get right in building a firm?
31:01 Avoiding talent atrophy and ensuring generational succession
32:56 The hardest lesson learned in building a firm
39:47 The most counterintuitive lesson Justin learned in investing
42:19 Learnings from misses
43:47 Justin’s inspirations
Mentioned in this episode
137 Ventures
I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Justin. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.
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