Webinar
VC 101: Venture Capital Fundamentals
The Alumni Ventures team broke down the fundamentals of venture capital from the ground up — because understanding how VC worked was the first step in deciding whether it belonged in an investor’s portfolio.
See video policy below.
In this session, the Alumni Ventures team walked through the essentials of venture capital: what it was, how it differed from private equity, how funds were structured, and how investments across stages — from seed to late stage — generated returns. Drawing on Alumni Ventures’ experience as one of the country’s most active venture investors, this VC 101 session covered the building blocks every investor needed to understand before entering the asset class.
The session also explored why venture capital had become an increasingly important component of sophisticated portfolios — from the Yale Endowment model to how individual accredited investors were gaining access to an asset class once reserved for pension funds and institutions. Topics included diversification within a venture portfolio, the potential benefits of uncorrelated returns, and the implications of companies remaining private longer than ever before.
Whether you were a current Alumni Ventures investor looking to deepen your understanding of the asset class or evaluating venture capital for the first time, this session provided a clear, jargon-free foundation. Watch the recording to gain a more confident understanding of how venture capital worked — and whether it was right for you.
Key Takeaway
- HomeDiscover how venture capital differs from other asset classes — and why its structure creates the potential for outsized returns.
- HomeGain a clear picture of how Alumni Ventures builds diversified VC portfolios across stages, sectors, and funds — and the logic behind each layer
- HomeUnderstand who venture capital is designed for, how accredited investors can access it today, and what your next steps would look like as an AV investor
Rated a Top 20 VC Firm by both TIME and CB Insights.
Alumni Ventures is America’s largest venture capital firm for individual investors.
About your presenters
Hilary is a senior leader in financial services with more than 15 years of experience working with investors across market cycles. Since joining Alumni Ventures in 2016, she has been instrumental in building and scaling the firm’s investor relations function, leading high-performing teams and partnering closely with investment, finance, legal, and operations groups to support investors throughout the lifecycle of their venture portfolios with rigor and transparency. Her background in retirement investment planning, including earlier Series 7 and 63 licensure, informs a disciplined perspective on portfolio construction, risk management, liquidity considerations, and long-term capital allocation. Hilary is known for her ability to bring clarity to complex investment topics and for upholding a thoughtful, investor-first experience. She graduated summa cum laude from Fisher College and is currently pursuing her MBA at Boston University.
Rob is a former entrepreneur, institutional fund manager, and software executive. He has served on many corporate boards and has founded or financed more than 40 companies, raising capital in both public and private markets. He is an internationally recognized expert and speaker on innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship. Most recently, Rob was on the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, where he taught entrepreneurship in the MBA program and was the Founder and Director of Texas Venture Labs. He was CEO and Founder of Business Matters, a venture-backed developer of financial modeling products that was acquired. He was also an executive with Pervasive Software, a company he helped take public. Rob holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue, an MBA from Babson’s Olin School of Management, and a PhD in Management from Capella University.