E159:How a 24-Year-Old VC Landed Cendana Capital as a Limited Partner w/Paige Doherty
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How did Paige Doherty secure Sundana Capital as a limited partner at age 24?
You have one of the top LPs on the planet, Sendana Capital, on your cap table as a 25-year-old VC. How did you accomplish this? three things that really differentiate behind Genius and myself as a GP. So the first is that we have a strong branding capability. I came into venture having a deep passion for educating the next generation of venture investors. I read a children's book about venture capital, started one of the most shared venture podcasts, Seed to Harvest, and I've continued to execute on our brand, especially focusing on video for storytelling. The second is exceptional grit. For our first fund, which was a $5 million fund, probably touch base with 1,700 investors before closing on 120 LPs. And the third is disciplined execution.
So I'm an engineer by training, and the way I think about investing is very much from the first principles approach. You're extremely passionate about venture capital specifically, not about investing, but VC specifically. What makes you so passionate about venture capital? Today, I'm excited to welcome Paige Doherty, founding partner of Behind Genius, a top pre-seed and seed venture firm. Paige, a Gen Z investor and author, shares how she raised her very first fund at the ripe young age of 22 and her second fund at 25 with prolific LPs, including Sindana Capital and David Sachs. We'll explore her unique investment thesis, focus on backing technical storytellers and applying AI to overlooked industries. Paige, welcome to the How I Invest podcast.
Thank you so much for having me, David. It's a pleasure to be here. Paige, you have one of the top LPs on the planet, Sendana Capital, on your cap table as a 25-year-old VC. How did you accomplish this? Great question. Why does one of the top LPs in the world invest in a 24-year-old VC, which is how old I was when they invested? I think there's three things that really differentiate behind Genius and myself as a GP. So the first is that we have a strong branding capability. I came into venture having a deep passion for educating the next generation of venture investors. So I've concentrated a lot on building a compelling brand. I wrote a children's book about venture capital, started one of the most shared venture podcasts, Seed to Harvest, and I've continued to execute on our brand, especially focusing on video-first storytelling. The second is exceptional grit.
For our first fund, which was a $5 million fund, probably touch base with 1,700 investors before closing on 120 LPs. And the third is disciplined execution. So I'm an engineer by training. And the way I think about investing is very much from a first principles approach. I think about container risk. Like when we're investing in early stage companies, there's obviously a lot of risk at the earliest stages. So how do you construct and execute on a portfolio construction that allows you to take that risk? And so for us, we worked with Eric Wu, who used to be the head of Institutional Capital Angelus and has seen hundreds, if not thousands of funds play out over the years. And he helped us construct a portfolio construction of between 25 to 30 bets that are all similarly sized. So When we make an investment, we're just focusing on the binary conviction in the company versus wiggling around on check sizing and then being disciplined on ownership. So we strive to invest early with high conviction. Venture in general is like it's a very network driven industry.
industry. And so Sundana actually passed on our first fund when I was 22. And I ended up having five Sundana-backed general partners invest in Heart Fund One and had them give strong references for the three things that I mentioned. And then Sundana ended up anchoring our second fund. Yeah, that is how one of the top LPs came to back a 24-year-old VC. Nearly every venture firm would love to have Sundana on their cap table. What do you think got Sundana Capital to ultimately make the decision to invest? I remember I would meet someone and I would see they were connected with Michael Kim on LinkedIn. I'd be like, hey, tell Michael I said hello. Tell Kelly I said hello. And so by doing that, I feel like I created not an echo chamber, but a lot of narrative gravity where they were hearing my name from somewhere. people in their circles that they respected or had invested in.
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Chapters
3 chaptersSpeakers
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