Dan is managing partner at Deciens Capital, a VC firm focused on early-stage investments in fintech. He shares market insights and ideas he's interested in funding in asset management, insurance, health, and creative economy fintech.
What edge would a VC firm have in starting their own alts business? Would be interesting to see someone attempt this as the upside is good. Just feels like in general the alts market is quite efficient.
The way I thought about Dan's idea was an openness to look beyond typical frame of "venture scale" to be open to other opportunities that could yield 10-100X return for early stage investment.
As a VC, I'd think about opportunity to create value through a deal. For example, bring together LPs, good operators/founder, and channel partners -- all of whom I know -- around opportunities. I think the best opportunities will be idiosyncratic to an investor's expertise and network.
Maybe it's for securitizatuion of music -- i.e. if you have connections in music industry and finance, you could help artists diversify their portfolio from highly concentrated IP (with royalty revenue stream). Similar for other creative industries -- just as one example.
By helping to incubate something like this, you could end up with way better economics and lower risk than you'd get as an outside investor: blending founder economics with maybe series A or B risk, depending on the market.
I see - I like the idea. It makes a TON of sense for the alternatives business to actually start pushing into ALTERNATIVES. It’s fairly clear that PE maps pretty closely onto public equities. Would definitely like to see more of the big players actually try and seek out uncorrelated returns through things like you describe. Cool article 👍
What edge would a VC firm have in starting their own alts business? Would be interesting to see someone attempt this as the upside is good. Just feels like in general the alts market is quite efficient.
The way I thought about Dan's idea was an openness to look beyond typical frame of "venture scale" to be open to other opportunities that could yield 10-100X return for early stage investment.
As a VC, I'd think about opportunity to create value through a deal. For example, bring together LPs, good operators/founder, and channel partners -- all of whom I know -- around opportunities. I think the best opportunities will be idiosyncratic to an investor's expertise and network.
Maybe it's for securitizatuion of music -- i.e. if you have connections in music industry and finance, you could help artists diversify their portfolio from highly concentrated IP (with royalty revenue stream). Similar for other creative industries -- just as one example.
By helping to incubate something like this, you could end up with way better economics and lower risk than you'd get as an outside investor: blending founder economics with maybe series A or B risk, depending on the market.
I see - I like the idea. It makes a TON of sense for the alternatives business to actually start pushing into ALTERNATIVES. It’s fairly clear that PE maps pretty closely onto public equities. Would definitely like to see more of the big players actually try and seek out uncorrelated returns through things like you describe. Cool article 👍