Griffin Cock Foster

A lesser talked about aspect of fundraising that I’m lately thinking about is *founder-fund fit*. Most times, we as investors tend to make a decision about the founder and their idea or company within 5 minutes of conversation (with list of checkboxes to tick off) - same applies on the other side too wherein founders tend to focus more on the round size, valuation and who-offers-first. While team, market size, and execution agency are all considered, sometimes VCs and founders lack clarity on what true founder-fund fit looks like for them. Here’s the catch: a myopic way of evaluation hurts both sides. Founders end up feeling they weren’t understood holistically, and VCs make hasty judgments based on surface-level patterns. Knowing what founder-fund fit looks like for you as a business and as an investor enables more honest, comfortable conversations. It requires deeper introspection from both parties. VCs need to ask: "Does this founder fit the persona we're looking for?" And founders must consider: "Does this fund fit the persona I want to take a decade-long journey with?" High levels of value alignment with their investors, empower companies to take more bets, experiment and ultimately generate outsized returns, since they have co-creators through the ups and downs of the journey. VC is a business of judgment, but it has to come from a place of self-awareness, not hidden biases or assumptions that overlook the nuances of true alignment.

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3 Comments

We analyzed data from nearly half of all new and emerging VC funds launched in 2024. Here are the craziest findings: 👉 Emerging VCs are getting younger. Managers under 40 rose from 35% in 2023 to 46% in 2024. 👉 Gender diversity is rising slowly but (hopefully) surely, with female and non-binary managers increasing from 25% to 27%. 👉 Solo GP funds now make up 53.4% of all emerging manager funds, signaling their viability alongside team-led funds (46.6%). 👉 Most new funds target smaller fund sizes. In 2024, 67% of emerging managers aimed for funds under $10 million, down slightly from 71% in 2023. 👉 Only 26% of new funds launched are agnostic, vs. 74% targeting a specific sector. Most new sector-specific funds invest in DeepTech, AI, and B2B/SaaS. ✅ Among those who set out but failed to launch a fund, 25% claim they had difficulties fundraising, 21% said they had resource constraints (e.g., family commitments), and 11% faced team issues. ❌ Among those who succeeded, managers with prior angel investments did better, as well as those who managed to double or triple their LP commitments in the first 3 months of fundraising. We're starting to really deeply understand the new face of Venture Capital and love the direction it's headed. The full report will be made available by VC Lab so stay tuned!

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In a small VC team, there’s no such thing as a defined role. It’s a lot like working in an early-stage startup—you’re navigating moving parts, wearing multiple hats, and figuring things out as you go. One moment, you’re evaluating companies. Next, you’re deep in compliance work. And somewhere in between, you’re helping founders, managing LP relationships, and figuring out fundraising. There’s no playbook. You learn on the go—because you have to. One day it’s legal docs. Another day it’s structuring internal processes or jumping on calls about something you’ve never done before. What makes it work is adaptability. You build muscle memory for switching gears, asking better questions, and knowing when to go deep and when to ship fast. The biggest challenge? Context-switching. You’re constantly jumping between different problem statements, each requiring a different skill set. But over time, you start recognising patterns, and things that once felt intense become second nature. That’s the reality of working in a small team: You grow fast, but only if you’re willing to stretch beyond what you already know. Atrium Angels, Atrium Ventures (fka Alluvium Capital), Consumer Collective by Atrium, Umang Kumar, Varun Laul, Siddharth Puri, Nikita Dhingra, Abhishek Nag, Karthik Bhat, Sushma Kaushik, Varun M., Rohit Kapoor, Pranav Obhrai, Naveen Jain, Ambika Pande, Arun Rao

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Mildly spicy take: Seed investors should almost never be on the board. If you need to invoke board governance at the seed stage, you’ve already lost the game. Why this matters for founders: Series A and B investors usually require board seats. I’ve seen too many cases where seed investors refuse to step off, leaving founders stuck with three preferred seats before even raising a Series C. Suddenly your board needs to be seven people just to preserve founder control and make room for new investors. That’s a governance mess, especially for a company still relatively early.

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Breaking: You can now become a venture capitalist without owning a Patagonia vest. The barriers to entry just collapsed. Start funds, lower minimums, and remote-first operations mean geography is no longer destiny. Your local coffee shop probably has better WiFi than most Sand Hill Road offices anyway. Time to disrupt the disruptors.

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26 Comments