# Superclusters: the investor podcast, by episode

> Superclusters: Emerging LPs on backing venture funds: the questions they ask and how they decide. 83 episodes, each linked to the investors in it.

Source: https://millionrounds.com/podcasts/superclusters (Millionrounds; every figure on the page links to its filing or article)

LPs · new episode 15 Jun 2026

# Superclusters

Hosted by **David Zhou**

Emerging LPs on backing venture funds: the questions they ask and how they decide.

Follow on Apple PodcastsBrowse the episodes

**83** episodes

**26** investors heard as guests

**1h 8m** an average episode

19 in the last 12 months

## The regulars

Investors named as guests in the most episode titles on Superclusters.

[BC *6* **Ben Choi** Maveron](https://millionrounds.com/person/ben-choi)[CD *3* **Chris Douvos** Ahoy Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/chris-douvos)[AM *2* **Adam Marchick** Emory University](https://millionrounds.com/person/adam-marchick)[AM *2* **Apurva Mehta** Summit Peak Investments](https://millionrounds.com/person/apurva-mehta)[AS *2* **Asher Siddiqui** 500 Global](https://millionrounds.com/person/asher-siddiqui)[KF *2* **Kelli Fontaine** Cendana Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/kelli-fontaine)[AA *1* **Albert Azout** Level Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/albert-azout)[AB *1* **Alexa Binns** Spacecadet](https://millionrounds.com/person/alexa-binns)[AV *1* **Aram Verdiyan** Accolade Partners](https://millionrounds.com/person/aram-verdiyan)[AM *1* **Ashby Monk** KDX](https://millionrounds.com/person/ashby-monk)[DS *1* **Dan Stolar** Colibri Equity Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/person/dan-stolar)[DM *1* **Dave McClure** Practical Venture Capital](https://millionrounds.com/person/dave-mcclure)

## Every episode 83 · page 1 of 3

- 83 **What is the density of your founder NPS? | El Pack w/ Charlotte Zhang** 15 Jun 2026 · 1h 14m [Helena Gagern](https://millionrounds.com/person/helena-gagern)[Lisa Yu](https://millionrounds.com/person/lisa-yu) About this episode “We’re going into a world where there will be an increase in inequality in terms of the have’s versus have-not’s. And so if you are invested in some of the have’s, I would actually bet on their acceleration of value aggregation in the later stages of scaling which is why I, personally, think a winning strategy is to… ▶Show page
- 82 **"You don't have enough dopamine in your pitch!" | El Pack w/ Asher Siddiqui** 8 Jun 2026 · 1h 18m [Asher Siddiqui](https://millionrounds.com/person/asher-siddiqui)[Gautam Shewakramani](https://millionrounds.com/person/gautam-shewakramani)[Manan Mehta](https://millionrounds.com/person/manan-mehta) About this episode “How you modulate a good story is by inserting dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins at the right times to be able to deliver that story so that the person listening to that story can form an opinion.” Asher Siddiqui from the Song Family Office joins me on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a… ▶Show page
- 81 **The Hardest Fund I to Underwrite | Zach Ruchman** 1 Jun 2026 · 1h 32m [BlackRock](https://millionrounds.com/fund/blackrock) About this episode “The question at Fund IV is, ‘Okay, you’ve proved that you’re a great firm builder. Congratulations, you’re raising Fund IV. Are you still a great investor?’” Zach Ruchman joined HB Wealth in 2025 as a Shareholder after working with WMS Partners since 2023. In his role as Managing Director, Private Markets, Zach… ▶Show page
- 80 **What Your Lawyer Isn't Telling You About LPA Terms | Apurva Mehta & JD Montgomery** 25 May 2026 · 1h 12m [Apurva Mehta](https://millionrounds.com/person/apurva-mehta)[Lehman Brothers](https://millionrounds.com/fund/lehman-brothers)[George Washington](https://millionrounds.com/person/george-washington) About this episode “Our best GPs are talking to their founders all the time. And our best GP relationships, we talk to all the time.”, Apurva Mehta “If you can’t handle something going to zero, then you shouldn’t do one.”, JD Montgomery Apurva Mehta is the co-founding Managing Partner of Summit Peak Investments, a fund-of-funds that… ▶Show page
- 79 **How Value Add Differs in PE vs VC | Julia Rees Toader** 18 May 2026 · 1h 19m About this episode "In private equity, some of the older tricks about just picking on more leverage are not going to work as well now because rates are higher. We need to have more focus on operational improvement and margin expansion. And in venture, you’re not expected to have good margins.”, Julia Rees Toader Julia Rees Toader is… ▶Show page
- 78 **Does a VC's Value-Add Even Matter? | Stacey Kline & Ben Gallacher** 11 May 2026 · 1h 14m About this episode “GPs over-index on how that value-add ties into a portfolio strategy.”, Stacey Kline Stacey Kline and Ben Gallacher are co-founders of February Capital, a fund-of-funds dedicated to providing access to the best in venture. Prior to starting February, they've each held roles as professional athletes, corporate… ▶Show page
- 77 **The 3 Big Family Office Transitions That No One Talks About | JD Montgomery Part 2** 4 May 2026 · 1h 9m About this episode “To whom much is given, much is expected.”, JD Montgomery JD Montgomery leads the Family Office division at Canterbury Consulting and is a seasoned advisor with nearly four decades of experience serving prominent families with a focus on strategy, organization and measurement. Based in Newport Beach, he serves a… ▶Show page
- 76 **What Makes a VC Inevitable | Sam Huleatt** 27 Apr 2026 · 1h 20m [Sam Huleatt](https://millionrounds.com/person/sam-huleatt)[Notation Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/notation-capital)[On Deck](https://millionrounds.com/fund/on-deck)[Outlander VC](https://millionrounds.com/fund/outlander-vc) About this episode “Lower barriers to entry doesn’t mean higher probabilities of success.”, Sam Huleatt Sam Huleatt is the co-founder of The Side Letter, a platform driving network-based research for capital allocators. Prior to The Side Letter, he created and ran the The LP Institute at VC Lab, as well as let On Deck Angels at On… ▶Show page
- 75 **"I Write-Off Every Sourcing Slide" | Alex Felman** 20 Apr 2026 · 1h 7m About this episode “The game you play as you’re building a reputation becomes a different game than when you have a reputation. And I tend to find, from an LP’s perspective, when you’re building reputation, that’s actually when you deliver the most value.”, Alex Felman Alex Felman is an entrepreneurial and family office professional.… ▶Show page
- 74 **"Venture is a Who Business, Not a What Business" | JD Montgomery** 13 Apr 2026 · 1h 17m About this episode “One thing that is unique to private equity and venture capital is persistence is a little easier because of the brand. ‘They did good deals, so therefore, the good deals come to find you.’ If you were in a long-only private equity shop or hedge fund, Amazon is not going to come find you because you invested in… ▶Show page
- 73 **Peter Walker as You've Never Seen Him Before | Peter Walker | Superclusters | S6PSE3** 29 Dec 2025 · 56 min [Atlantic](https://millionrounds.com/fund/atlantic) About this episode “You’re making decisions in an incomplete vacuum. What I think many people should do more of, in terms of those mental models, is frame it in the reverse. Which of these decisions am I going to make that is the most regret-minimizing? That I have the least likelihood of regretting later on in life, assuming that in… ▶Show page
- 72 **The Most Disappointing Podcast You'll Ever Listen To (ft. Allie Garfinkle)** 22 Dec 2025 · 1h 12m [Elon Musk](https://millionrounds.com/fund/elon-musk)[The University of Chicago](https://millionrounds.com/fund/the-university-of-chicago) About this episode Warning: This is a brief-ish, but hopefully entertaining intermission from the usual Superclusters programming. When we passed the 50th episode mark more than a few episodes ago, Tyler (my editor) and I thought it'd be interesting to record an episode where I change seats. Instead of me asking the questions, someone… ▶Show page
- 71 **Timeless VS Just-In-Time Lessons | Earnest Sweat & Alexa Binns | Superclusters | S6PSE1** 15 Dec 2025 · 42 min [Alexa Binns](https://millionrounds.com/person/alexa-binns)[Earnest Sweat](https://millionrounds.com/person/earnest-sweat) About this episode The holiday season has always been a great time to celebrate the movers and shakers in our world. This season we're celebrating my personal favorites in the LP world. To start this mini-holiday series off, Earnest Sweat and Alexa Binns runs one of the most popular podcasts on venture capital limited partners, Swimming… ▶Show page
- 70 **When Do You Know If You've Grown Up as a VC? | El Pack w/ Ben Choi | Superclusters** 8 Dec 2025 · 1h 15m [Ben Choi](https://millionrounds.com/person/ben-choi)[Miguel Armaza](https://millionrounds.com/person/miguel-armaza)[Tara Tan](https://millionrounds.com/person/tara-tan) About this episode Ben Choi from Next Legacy joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on 3 GPs at VC funds to ask 3 different questions. Gilgamesh Ventures' Miguel Armaza, also host of the incredible Fintech Leaders podcast, asks Ben what is the timing of when a GP should… ▶Show page
- 69 **"Venture Should Play More Like Moneyball" | Carson Monson | Superclusters | S6E9** 24 Nov 2025 · 1h 19m About this episode "The limiting downside is actually something a lot of emerging managers don’t think about. If you can turn all of your portfolio companies that don’t hit that exit velocity, if you can find a soft landing for those companies versus that’s a writeoff and they’re dead and done, that’s extra effort, but that’s an extra… ▶Show page
- 68 **Can Your Check Size Win You Board-Level Transparency? | Apurva Mehta | Superclusters | S6E8** 17 Nov 2025 · 49 min [Apurva Mehta](https://millionrounds.com/person/apurva-mehta)[Lehman Brothers](https://millionrounds.com/fund/lehman-brothers)[George Washington](https://millionrounds.com/person/george-washington) About this episode “A manager doesn’t generally fit into their ultimate quartile until Year 6.” Apurva Mehta is the co-founding Managing Partner of Summit Peak Investments, a fund-of-funds that boasts a portfolio of both venture fund investments and direct investments, including the likes of Affirm, Anduril, Airtable, Opendoor, and… ▶Show page
- 67 **What does GP-Friendly ACTUALLY Mean? | Caroline Toch Docal | Superclusters | S6E7** 10 Nov 2025 · 42 min [Bain Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/bain-capital)[Bain Capital Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/bain-capital-ventures)[Dorm Room Fund](https://millionrounds.com/fund/dorm-room-fund) About this episode “It’s a mathematical reality that the highest performing GPs in this part of the market often also have the highest kill rates, which means some things are incredible and other things are super wonky and you have to be cool with that. You can’t be doing a six across the board.”, Caroline Toch Docal Caroline Toch… ▶Show page
- 66 **Where Does Intuition Come From? | Yiwen Li | Superclusters | S6E6** 3 Nov 2025 · 38 min [Alumni Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/us-strategic-tech-fund-an-alumni-ventures-fund) About this episode “The intuition part comes from activities of creativity that change your perspective.”, Yiwen Li Yiwen Li is a seasoned investor with a successful track record of investing in AI, blockchain, and healthcare tech while developing global business partnerships to fast-scale the business. Yiwen is currently Head of… ▶Show page
- 65 **$80M vs $800M vs $8B Endowment | Trish Spurlin | Superclusters | S6E5** 26 Oct 2025 · 53 min About this episode “Once you hit a billion dollars, you should probably consider some sort of internal team. Just to mitigate risk. There’s audit risk involved when you have such a small number of people managing a huge pool of capital. It’s going to differ for everyone. That’s probably a good benchmark.”, Trish Spurlin Trish Spurlin… ▶Show page
- 64 **The Seneca of Investing | Jacob Miller | Superclusters | S6E4** 20 Oct 2025 · 41 min About this episode “There’s this thing called alpha, which is returns driven by skill not market return. And when you start to think about what does that mean, skill means you’re doing something that other people aren’t. You have to be different from the average. What can drive that? How are you going to have that be positive expected… ▶Show page
- 63 **Helpful is a 10-Letter Word | Eric Sippel | Superclusters | S6E3** 13 Oct 2025 · 1h 5m About this episode “I hate checklists. I like outlines. I don’t like checklists. A checklist says ‘I have to have this, and then I’m good. An outline is ‘This is my starting point. These are the kinds of things I want to talk about or kinds of things I need to look at.”, Eric Sippel Eric Sippel currently runs his family office and is… ▶Show page
- 62 **The Most Frequent VS Most Important LP Conversations | El Pack w/ Adam Marchick | Superclusters** 6 Oct 2025 · 1h 22m [Adam Marchick](https://millionrounds.com/person/adam-marchick)[Bain Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/bain-capital)[Bain Capital Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/bain-capital-ventures)[Menlo Ventures](https://millionrounds.com/fund/menlo-ventures) About this episode Adam Marchick from Akkadian Ventures joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on 3 GPs at VC funds to ask 3 different questions. Cocoa VC's Carmen Alfonso Rico asks what belief Adam held firmly for years but changed his mind recently on. Good Trouble Ventures'… ▶Show page
- 61 **NO Diligence is Ever Enough | Anurag Chandra | Superclusters | S6E2** 29 Sept 2025 · 1h 14m About this episode “There are a thousand ways to put lipstick on the pig and there are a thousand skeletons [in the closet]. I’ve only seen five or six because I’ve only seen three startup experiences. And so you need to deputize as many people as you possibly can to essentially triangulate.”, Anurag Chandra Anurag Chandra has spent… ▶Show page
- 60 **How to Not Get Fired When Changing Your VC Strategy | El Pack w/ Beezer Clarkson | Superclusters** 22 Sept 2025 · 1h 10m [Charles Hudson](https://millionrounds.com/fund/charles-hudson)[Kevin Novak](https://millionrounds.com/person/kevin-novak)[Stephanie Palmeri](https://millionrounds.com/person/stephanie-palmeri) About this episode Beezer Clarkson from Sapphire Partners joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on four GPs at VC funds to ask four different questions. Precursor Ventures' Charles Hudson asks what is the one strongly held belief about emerging managers that she no longer… ▶Show page
- 59 **How to Read Investors Like a Book | Thorsten Claus | Superclusters | S6E1** 15 Sept 2025 · 1h 17m [Howard Marks](https://millionrounds.com/fund/howard-marks) About this episode “You need to make space for weird types of conversations to happen on the fringes that really inform you what’s going on at the frontier.”, Thorsten Claus Thorsten Claus is a venture investor and builder with more than 15 years of private equity and venture capital experience. He has raised nine funds, managed over… ▶Show page
- 58 **How to Increase Dialogue with your LPs | El Pack w/ Kelli Fontaine | Superclusters** 11 Aug 2025 · 1h 24m [Kelli Fontaine](https://millionrounds.com/person/kelli-fontaine)[Cendana Capital](https://millionrounds.com/fund/cendana-capital)[Founder Collective](https://millionrounds.com/fund/founder-collective)[Lerer Hippeau](https://millionrounds.com/fund/lerer-hippeau) About this episode Kelli Fontaine from Cendana Capital joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on three GPs at VC funds to ask three different questions. The Council's Amber Illig asked what happens when a solo GP is incapacitated or passes away. Oceans Ventures' Steven… ▶Show page
- 57 **81% of America is Underfunded | Vijen Patel & Grady Buchanan | Superclusters | S5PSE1** 4 Aug 2025 · 1h 1m [Vijen Patel](https://millionrounds.com/person/vijen-patel)[McKinsey & Company](https://millionrounds.com/fund/mckinsey-and-company)[Procter & Gamble](https://millionrounds.com/fund/procter-and-gamble)[Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation](https://millionrounds.com/fund/wisconsin-alumni-research-foundation) About this episode “19% of our GDP attracts about 55% of capital inflows, aka venture activity, and 81% is underinvested.” – Vijen Patel Vijen Patel is an entrepreneur and investor. He founded The 81 Collection, a high growth equity firm in boring industries. Previously, he founded what is now known as Tide Cleaners. He bootstrapped… ▶Show page
- 56 **How Many Exceptions Are Too Many? | El Pack w/ John Felix | Superclusters** 28 Jul 2025 · 1h 15m [Arpan Punyani](https://millionrounds.com/person/arpan-punyani)[Chris Leiter](https://millionrounds.com/person/chris-leiter)[Ihar Mahaniok](https://millionrounds.com/person/ihar-mahaniok) About this episode Pattern Ventures' John Felix joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on three GPs at VC funds to ask three different questions. Atria Ventures' Chris Leiter asked about the common mistakes LPs make when underwriting solo GPs. Garuda Ventures' Arpan Punyani… ▶Show page
- 55 **Uncompensated Risks in VC | Wendy Li | Superclusters | S5E12** 21 Jul 2025 · 1h 1m About this episode “It’s not the probability; it’s the consequence. It’s not the probability when something goes wrong. It’s the consequence when it goes wrong.” – Wendy Li Wendy Li is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at Ivy Invest, a fintech investment platform bringing an endowment-style portfolio to everyday investors.… ▶Show page
- 54 **The Inside Peek Into How Family Offices Gather | Samira Salman | Superclusters | S5E11** 14 Jul 2025 · 1h 26m About this episode “The very first thing everybody has to do is give themselves permission to lean into what they are interested in and what does it for them and what they understand and what they have an affinity for, regardless of what everybody else says you should be doing.” – Samira Salman Samira Salman is a generational force, a… ▶Show page

## Who the show talks about

Firms named in its episodes, and people named in descriptions: talked about, rather than on the show.

[**Bain Capital** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/bain-capital)[**Bain Capital Ventures** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/bain-capital-ventures)[G **George Washington** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/person/george-washington)[T **Top Tier** *3*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/top-tier)[B **Brown Brothers Harriman** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/brown-brothers-harriman)[**Cendana Capital** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/cendana-capital)[C **Columbia Business School** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/columbia-business-school)[**Founder Collective** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/founder-collective)[H **Harvard University** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/harvard-university)[**Lehman Brothers** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/lehman-brothers)[**Lerer Hippeau** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/lerer-hippeau)[**Menlo Ventures** *2*](https://millionrounds.com/fund/menlo-ventures)

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