Rahim Noorani

Numbers & insights from a €750M VC Fund of Funds that invested in ~100 VC Funds. How LPs invest and what's wrong with GP outreach & theses? I spoke with Joe Schorge, who spent 30 years in tech/PE/VC incl. Cambridge Associates & Pomona Capital. Then launched Isomer Capital, one of Europe's largest Funds of Funds: 6 funds (VC FoF / co-invest / secondaries), €1-15M checks. 51 unicorns across 2,000+ portfolio companies Sweet spot: <€100M seed funds. Target ~10% LP positions. Micro funds €20-30M are for experiments – when they perform, it's not 3x, it's 5-10x 1. The #1 question they ask when selecting a GP: "If I were a great founder, who would I want as my first investor?" 2. The quote that resulted in an LP check into a VC fund: a founder said about a solo GP – "there's always room for him on our cap table." They wrote it into the investment memo 3. 3 GP profiles they like to back: (a) former founders who exited and went pro-VC, (b) spinouts from big firms with a differentiated thesis, (c) big tech executives from Google/Apple/Microsoft who ran startup-facing units 4. Having capital alone was a competitive advantage for seed funds in 2013-2015. Not anymore. If you're starting a new fund as "a generalist software VC" – no founder will choose you over a VC with a specific thesis 5. GPs – specialize! A network-effects-focused fund in Europe built its entire thesis on helping startups scale from 10 to 10,000 users. No general board advice – hyper-specific expertise. They've done incredibly well! 6. Joe calls it "360 DD." They don't just read the VC fund data room. They call founders, co-investors, and people around the GP that the GP doesn't even know they know. The most revealing call: asking an investor in a GP's failed company – "Would you back them again?" 7. AI has made LP outreach unbearable. The volume of AI-crafted cold emails Joe gets daily is "really stupid" – they all follow the same template. His advice to GPs: don't spam. The strongest channel is referrals from LPs who had a good experience 8. Many LPs rely on social proof – they look at who the other LPs are. Joe calls it lazy: it gives a signal but not the answer. Past success attracts big LP names, but those funds aren't always successful going forward 9. Most common LP mistake: waiting for good funds to come to you. The great funds don't need to come. This creates adverse selection – you only see what's actively marketing to you 10. Isomer's fastest VC fund commitment: 2-3 months for a hot emerging fund. But most GPs they invest in, they've known for years. Co-investment decisions can happen in 1 week 11-20. In the picture 21-100. Full interview – how secondaries work in 2026, bad/good founder secondaries, FO/LP/GP relationships, FoF reputation, Japanese corporate LPs: youtu.be/lDTu6jVtTss 🎉 Joe will speak on Zoom at our free virtual LP Conf – Apr 30. 👉 Like & comment with your biggest insight or what you agree/disagree with, and I'll DM you when registration opens

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Founders do not need to become experts in VC secondaries. But they should understand why liquidity pressure matters. Because when exits slow down, everything downstream starts to change. LPs wait longer to get capital back. GPs face more pressure to show DPI. Fundraising for new funds gets harder. Follow-on decisions become more selective. Bridge rounds get more scrutiny. And investors become more sensitive to how, and when, a company can turn paper value into real outcomes. None of this means good companies cannot raise. But it does mean the market starts rewarding a different kind of story. Not just growth. Durability. Not just ambition. Capital efficiency. Not just a large market. A credible path to liquidity. That is why founders should pay attention to what is happening inside venture funds, not just what investors are saying publicly. Fund dynamics shape founder outcomes. When capital gets tighter, the founders who understand those dynamics can navigate the market with more precision: who to approach, what to emphasise, how to frame the round, and when to push for speed. At EUVC, we track the capital dynamics shaping European tech, from liquidity and fund construction to CVC strategy and LP pressure. If you’re a founder raising in Europe, subscribe (link in first comment)

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I’ve known David Meister for years and backed him at Sydecar, so I’ve seen his ability to build through complexity. Axiom Trust is taking on one of the most outdated parts of wealth infrastructure, trust administration, by pairing a regulated trust company with AI-native workflows. We're proud to invest again and congrats to the team on the launch!

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