Podcasts · VC10X - Investing, Venture Capital, Asset Management, Family Office, Wealth Management

VC10X - Why VCs are struggling to return capital to LPs - Sean Byrnes, GP, Near Horizon

· 47 min

Episode VC10X - Why VCs are struggling to return capital to LPs - Sean Byrnes, GP, Near Horizon

0:00 46:58

Sean Byrnes is a co-founder & General Partner at Near Horizon. Sean has spent the past 20 years founding and scaling companies that have defined new categories, including Flurry—the world’s largest mobile analytics platform, acquired by Yahoo—and Outlier.ai, an automated data analysis leader.

At Near Horizon, Sean partners hands-on with founders, combining deep operational expertise and capital to help launch the next generation of AI-powered startups.

⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://podcast10x.com

Near Horizon website - https://www.nearhorizon.vc/

Breaking Point Newsletter - https://www.breakingpoint.tech/

Sean Byrnes on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbyrnes/

🎙️ Hosted by Prashant Choubey

Follow Prashant on X - https://x.com/ChoubeySahab

Follow Prashant on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/choubeysahab

In this episode, we talk about -

- Why Sean thinks venture capital is the most risk averse asset class?

- Why VCs are struggling to return capital to LPs?

- His unique approach to investing at Near Horizon Ventures

- What should founders focus on in the earliest stage of a startup?

- Why founders need to think small to move faster at the early stage

- How can founders be more outcome focused?

& lots more

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(04:13) Near Horizon's unique investment model of working with solo founders

(08:28) Challenges of innovating in venture capital

(09:15) Perspectives on LP (Limited Partner) resistance to new VC models

(14:06) Discussing liquidity problems in venture capital

(18:25) Strategies for early exits and secondary markets

(22:26) Why venture capital is the most risk-averse asset class

(27:03) Key focus areas when working with early-stage companies

(31:26) Importance of customer research and distribution advantage

(35:41) The concept of "thinking smaller" to grow faster

(38:26) Why status meetings are ineffective

(41:12) How founders can be more outcome-focused

(43:33) Rapid fire round of questions about Near Horizon's investment approach

(46:16) Closing remarks and ways to follow Sean Byrnes

For sponsorship or guest appearance requests, write to prashantchoubey3@gmail.com

Subscribe to VC10X on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.

The episode on the publisher’s site (opens in a new tab)

Transcript

    Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.