Claim◆Audio · 9:49 — 10:47
Small venture capital funds outperform large funds, as shown by the data.
Bill Maris presents data showing that VC funds under $750M significantly outperform larger funds in DPI, arguing the math is simple and objective. ✦ AI generated
Bill Maris · All-In Podcast · 2026-06-09 · original ↗
plays this moment only · 9:49 — 10:47
Smaller funds, you can have more focus. I mean, I've already managed A multi-billion dollar fund with hundreds of employees. It's distracting. You cannot give the attention to founders that I would like to give. There are many reasons for this. And if we look at top decile performance of DPI. Funds smaller than 750 million, average return of 4.76x, and funds larger than a billion, 2.42x. Funds below 750 million across that time period represented 95% of top decile performers with discontinuous return compression above 750 million.
verbatim transcript · starts at 9:49
- ·VC funds under $750M significantly outperform larger funds
- ·Smaller funds allow more focus and founder attention
- ·Large funds with hundreds of employees create distraction
- ·Sub-$750M funds average 4.76x DPI in top decile
- ·Funds over $1B average only 2.42x DPI
- ·Small funds represent 95% of top decile performers
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explains mechanism → A large VC fund's math often doesn't work because the required exit values can exceed the total available market for venture-backed exits.Bill Maris · All-In Podcastexplains mechanism → Venture capital's incentive structure is broken: a $5B fund returning 1.01x earns more for its GP than a $500M fund returning 3x, and large funds outbid smaller ones on valuation to deploy capital, hurting entrepreneurs.Bill Maris · All-In Podcastprovides context → If you take venture capital, no matter how many smiles there are in the room, everyone's expecting to earn a big return on some timeline that makes sense to pension funds in Canada.Simon Eskildsen · The Pragmatic Engineer