Beezer Clarkson leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Beezer began her career in financial services over 20 years ago at Morgan Stanley in its global infrastructure group. Since, she has held various direct and indirect venture investment roles, as well as operational roles in software business development at Hewlett Packard. Prior to joining Sapphire in 2012, Beezer managed the day-to-day operations of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Global Network, which then had $7 billion under management across 16 venture funds worldwide.

In 2016, Beezer led the launch of OpenLP, an effort to help foster greater understanding in the entrepreneur-to-LP tech ecosystem. Beezer earned a bachelor’s in government from Wesleyan University, where she served on the board of trustees and currently serves as an advisor to the Wesleyan Endowment Investment Committee. She is currently serving on the board of the NVCA and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Chris Douvos founded Ahoy Capital in 2018 to build an intentionally right-sized firm that could pursue investment excellence while prizing a spirit of partnership with all of its constituencies. A pioneering investor in the micro-VC movement, Chris has been a fixture in venture capital for nearly two decades. Prior to Ahoy Capital, Chris spearheaded investment efforts at Venture Investment Associates, and The Investment Fund for Foundations. He learned the craft of illiquid investing at Princeton University’s endowment. Chris earned his B.A. with Distinction from Yale College in 1994 and an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management in 2001.

You can find Chris and Beezer on their socials here.

Connect with Beezer here:Twitter: https://twitter.com/beezer232LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethclarkson/

Connect with Chris here:Twitter: https://twitter.com/cdouvosLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdouvos/

And huge thanks to this episode's sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters

OUTLINE:

[00:00] Intro

[03:07] Beezer's childhood dream

[04:29] How Chris was let go from his $4.15 job at Yale

[08:09] Concentrated vs diversified portfolios

[09:30] First fund that Beezer and Chris invested

[11:42] Funds that CD and Beezer passed on and regret

[16:07] Favorite term in the LPA? Or not?

[19:18] What piece of advice did a GP in their portfolio share with them?

[23:15] What's something that Beezer/CD said to a GP that they regret saying?

[28:06] What's the most interesting fund model they've seen to date?

[33:20] What fund invested in 2020-2021 inflated valuations that they've reupped on?

[40:18] Events that they went to once but never again

[44:24] Life lessons from CD & Beezer

[54:02] The founding story of Open LP

[55:02] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring!

[57:58] If you learned something new in this episode, it would mean a lot if you could drop a like, comment or share it with your friends!

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