How Alumni Ventures Sources Deals
Venture Capital Fundamentals (VC 401) | Class 2
In this lesson, you’ll learn how Alumni Ventures sources venture investment opportunities through its network-powered investing model. We’ll explore how we co-invest alongside leading venture firms, leverage one of the largest investor and alumni networks in venture capital, and identify promising startups through founders, experts, scouts, and investment partners.
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What Is This Lesson?
Learn how Alumni Ventures finds investment opportunities and accesses venture deals through a network-driven sourcing model. - Home
Who Is It For?
Anyone interested in understanding how venture firms source opportunities and why networks play a critical role in venture investing.
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What You’ll Learn
- HomeHow Alumni Ventures participates as a co-investor
- HomeWhy networks are a competitive advantage in venture capital
- HomeHow founders, scouts, and investment partners contribute to deal flow
- HomeHow Alumni Ventures gains access to opportunities alongside leading venture firms
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Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ
How Venture Firms Find Deals
Venture capital begins with deal flow—the stream of investment opportunities that investors review and evaluate. The best venture firms see thousands of opportunities each year but invest in only a small fraction of them.
Deal flow comes from many sources, including founders, other investors, accelerators, universities, existing portfolio companies, and professional networks. Building strong relationships across the startup ecosystem is often one of a venture firm’s most important competitive advantages.
The Power of Networks
At Alumni Ventures, networks play a central role in how we source opportunities.
Our team draws on relationships with:
- Leading venture capital firms
- Founders and entrepreneurs
- University and alumni communities
- Industry experts and advisors
- Existing portfolio company executives
- Thousands of investors within the Alumni Ventures community
These connections help us discover opportunities across a wide range of industries and stages.
Our Co-Investment Model
Rather than leading most investments, Alumni Ventures frequently invests alongside established venture firms.
This approach allows us to:
- Access opportunities sourced by specialized venture investors
- Leverage the diligence and expertise of experienced lead investors
- Participate in companies across multiple sectors and stages
- Build diversified portfolios efficiently
Co-investing also allows us to focus significant resources on evaluating opportunities while benefiting from the insights of other respected investors.
From Thousands of Deals to a Select Few
Each year, venture firms review far more opportunities than they can fund.
The process typically involves:
- Initial sourcing
- Screening and qualification
- Investment team review
- Due diligence
- Investment committee discussion
- Final investment decision
Most opportunities do not advance through every stage. Successful venture investing requires discipline, selectivity, and consistency.
Why Access Is Important—But Not Enough
Many investors assume that gaining access to venture deals is the hardest part of venture investing. Access matters, but it is only one piece of the puzzle.
Long-term success also depends on:
- Careful evaluation
- Portfolio diversification
- Risk management
- Follow-on investment decisions
- Patience over long investment horizons
The goal is not simply to find deals. It is to identify opportunities that fit within a thoughtfully constructed venture portfolio.
The Alumni Ventures Approach
Alumni Ventures combines broad network access, relationships with leading venture firms, and a disciplined investment process to source opportunities across the venture ecosystem.
Our objective is to provide investors with access to professionally managed venture portfolios while leveraging the power of networks to identify promising companies and trends.
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About Your Instructors
Mike Collins
CEOMike Collins is an experienced operator across nearly every facet of venturing—from angel investing and venture capital to new business and product launches, as well as innovation consulting. He is a serial entrepreneur who has founded multiple companies, including one partially owned by WPP, and began his career at the venture capital firm TA Associates.
Meera Oak
PartnerMeera Oak is a Partner at Alumni Ventures with a background spanning institutional finance, product, and early-stage venture. Before joining AV, she managed a $1B P&L and led M&A at Yale University, then sourced and launched ventures in enterprise SaaS and infrastructure at firms including Create Venture Studio and Polymath Capital Partners. She holds a BA in Economics from Swarthmore and an MBA from Tuck at Dartmouth.
Rupika Brito
PrincipalRupika Brito is a Principal at Alumni Ventures with a background in venture capital, investment banking, and entrepreneurship. Before joining AV, she led corporate venture initiatives at Blockstream, a venture-backed Bitcoin infrastructure company, and previously founded a search fund that scaled to over $60 million in revenue through strategic acquisitions. She holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA from UC San Diego.
Matt Caspari
Managing Partner, Strawberry Creek Ventures, Deep Tech FundMatt is a two-time venture-backed founder/CEO with a decade of startup operating experience. Before joining Alumni Ventures, he was an Investing Partner at Spike Ventures, where he participated in over twenty investments. Matt holds an MBA with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BS in Biochemistry from Georgetown University.
Alumni Ventures and its personnel provide investment advice only to affiliated venture capital funds. AV Academy is not personalized advice for any participant.
This communication is from Alumni Ventures, a for-profit venture capital company that is not affiliated with or endorsed by any school. It is not personalized advice, and AV only provides advice to its client funds. This communication is neither an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any security. Such offers are made only pursuant to the formal offering documents for the fund(s) concerned, and describe significant risks and other material information that should be carefully considered before investing. For additional information, please see here. Achievement of investment objectives, including any amount of investment return, cannot be guaranteed. Co-investors are shown for illustrative purposes only, do not reflect all organizations with which AV co-invests, and do not necessarily indicate future co-investors. Example portfolio companies shown are not available to future investors, except potentially in the case of follow-on investments. Venture capital investing involves substantial risk, including risk of loss of all capital invested. Diversification cannot prevent investment loss; it is a strategy to mitigate investment risk. This communication includes forward-looking statements, generally consisting of any statement pertaining to any issue other than historical fact, including without limitation predictions, financial projections, the anticipated results of the execution of any plan or strategy, the expectation or belief of the speaker, or other events or circumstances to exist in the future. Forward-looking statements are not representations of actual fact, depend on certain assumptions that may not be realized, and are not guaranteed to occur. Any forward-looking statements included in this communication speak only as of the date of the communication. AV and its affiliates disclaim any obligation to update, amend, or alter such forward-looking statements, whether due to subsequent events, new information, or otherwise.