Pod Insights The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch 20VC: Why Many VCs Fail To Raise, Why LP Compensation Is A Massive Problem & Why Fund of Funds Will Become More Prominent with Lindel Eakman, Managing Director @ Foundry Group About this episode Lindel Eakman is a Managing Director @ Foundry Group and is a nationally recognized leader in the LP community having successfully managed the private investment program for the combined $35 billion pool of capital managed by the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO). There he was responsible for overseeing a portfolio of private equity fund managers which represented approximately 25 percent of endowment assets. Prior to UTIMCO, Lindel worked for KPMG in the mergers & acquisitions tax practice where he worked with many fund managers across due diligence processes and private investment partnership activities. Check out Lindel's Partner @ Foundry, Brad Feld, on the show here. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Lindel made his way into the weird and wonderful world of LPs and then Foundry? What is the origin story behind is first fund investment, Union Square Ventures? 2.) Question from Michael Kim @ Cendana: How is Lindel approaching portfolio construction for Foundry Next? What combination of GP portfolio & direct exposure diversifies the portfolio while retaining upside through individual deal performance? 3.) With the direct co-investment platform how does Lindel look to mitigate the negative signalling that can occur with opportunity funds? Does Lindel agree with Chris Douvos in stating this could lead to the 'hybridisation of GP and LP'? 4.) Where do most prospective fund managers fail when pitching to LPs? What does Lindel look for in a risk strategy for a potential fund investment? 5.) What are the biggest problems with the LP community today? What would Lindel like to see change? What do the financial compensation plans look like for LPs? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Lindel’s Fave Book: The Creature from Jekyll Island, Daemon Lindel's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Reiley Brennan: Future of Transportation, Fred Wilson, Benedict Evans Lindel’s Most Recent Investment: Resolute Ventures As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Lindel on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Angelloop is the leading post funding management platform for private market investors and their portfolio companies. They help investors manage and track their portfolio companies on the cloud while providing them with access to their investments performance data. Angelloop helps founders of startups track their performance, manage their cap table and keep their investors in the loop. Investors get free access while their portfolio companies pay only $49/Month. Use or share the promo-code 20MinVC to get your portfolio companies online with a two month trial. I’d like to thank Wealthfront for sponsoring today’s podcast. Wealthfront are financial advisors that can help you invest your hard-earned dollars. Wealthfront’s modern financial services helps tailor plans specifically for you, making it easy to reach your financial goals. Wealthfront has low fees and no trading commissions… It’s financial advice at a fraction of the cost of a traditional advisor, all online. And if you sign up using my URL, you’ll get your first $15,000 managed for free. Go to Wealthfront.com/20vc.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Welcome back to the 20 Minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings on Snapchat at H Stebbings. And following our episode on Monday with Mike Maples at Floodgate, we're swapping sides of the table now to the land of LPs, those that invest in the funds. And joining me today, I'm delighted to welcome Lyndall Eakman, Managing Director at Foundry Group. And Lyndall is a nationally recognised leader in the LP community, having successfully managed the private investment programme for the combined 35 billion pool of capital managed by the University of Texas Investment Management Company, otherwise known as UTIMCO. There, he was responsible for overseeing a portfolio of private equity fund managers, which represented approximately 25% of endowment assets. And prior to UTIMCO, Lyndall worked for KPMG in the mergers and acquisitions tax practice,
0:44 Speaker 00 where he worked with many fund managers across due diligence processes and private investment partnership activities. I also want to say a huge thank you to Lyndall's partner Brad Feld for the intro today. If you have not heard Brad's show, you can find that in the show notes too. I'd absolutely love to hear your thoughts. But before we head into the show today and meet Lyndall, I'd like to thank my friends at Wealthfront for sponsoring today's podcast. In today's complex financial world, it's tough to be a financial whiz, and that's one of the main reasons I'm such a big fan of Wealthfront. They're a financial advisor that can help you invest your hard-earned dollars by combining financial experts with Silicon Valley engineers. Wealthfront's built a modern financial services company that helps tailor plans specifically for you, making it easy to reach your financial goals. And Wealthfront has low fees and no trading commissions.
1:28 Speaker 00 It really is financial advice at a fraction of the cost of a traditional advisor, all online. And if you sign up using my URL, you'll get your first $15,000 managed for free. This really is a no-brainer of a great opportunity, getting you the help you need to get where you want to be. You work hard for your money and it should work hard for you. Go to wealthfront.com/20vc, that's wealthfront.com/20vc. And if Wealthfront's the go-to place for investing your money, Angel Loop is the go-to place for managing investor-to-founder relations. Angel Loop are the experts in facilitating communication and data sharing between companies and investors. On the platform, founders track their performance metrics and can send out updates to their investors on the state of their business.
2:10 Speaker 00 Investors can then react to these updates in real time and help their founders with introductions, follow-on funding and much-needed advice. Angel Loop is free for all investors and only costs $59 for companies each month. Right now, they're also offering a free two-month trial with the promo code 20MINUTEVC. Check it out at angeloop.com or in the show notes. However, enough from me, so I'm now delighted to hand over to the main man, Lindell Echman, Managing Director at Foundry Group.
2:42 Speaker 01 You have now arrived at your destination.
2:46 Speaker 00 Lindell, such a pleasure to have you on the show today. Huge thanks to Brad for making the intro, but thank you so much for joining me today, Lindell.
2:52 Speaker 02 Thanks, Harry. Really glad we made this work.
2:54 Speaker 00 So talk to me, Lindell. How did we make the way into the world of LPs in the start? Was it a childhood dream or was it serendipity? What's your kind of entrance into the industry?
3:03 Speaker 02 I've yet to meet anybody that this was a childhood dream for. It'd be an interesting person indeed. I totally backed into this. Friend of mine found an internship. It was a paying internship, so those are good, at UTIMCO during business school. I like the idea of income. I also like the idea of finding out more about institutional money. As a young professional, even as a kid, I had been exposed to retail money, you know, Schwab, Fidelity and the sort here in the US. But I hadn't really thought about who managed the pools of capital, like retirement accounts, insurance or endowments, or even, you know, how foundations are actually funded. So for me, that was an interesting piece of it. The actual internship was finding artful ways to say no to hedge fund managers.
3:48 Speaker 02 It was a lot of fun. My friend Darren, who had found the internship for us, we sat next to each other, goading one another on the phone. An interesting thing, when I look back at that time, is that, funny enough, investing kind of at any level is about having the ability and actually the fortitude to always say no without fear of missing out and to only say yes when everything lines up. And I think that's something that even as an intern, I began to learn by getting so many repetitions on how to say no, you know, to hedge fund managers. And actually, for the audience members... Howard Marks wrote a book, he's out of Oak Tree Capital Management, The Most Important Thing. I think it's a very digestible book on these ideas.
4:28 Speaker 00 Absolutely. And then why did you decide to leave UTIMCO in the end, after so many successful years there for Foundry? What was the incentive behind the move to join the team at Foundry?
4:38 Speaker 02 Well, you know, I got lucky originally at UTIMCO by joining the private equity team where I was more suited. And that really was my friend Darren joined the hedge fund team, I joined the private equity team. And we actually found a place to live on Lake Austin. So that everything was working out great. And in actuality, for 13 years, UTIMCO was a great place for me. So I'm very thankful for the opportunity I had there. But really, when you think about Foundry, I mean, Brad, Jason, Seth and Ryan are my friends. I mean, who doesn't want to work with their friends? I don't think that changes. It's also the case that I get most excited personally about technology. So it was natural for me to focus there. And yeah, it helped that my best returns were in venture too.
5:18 Speaker 00 Absolutely. I'm intrigued then, in terms of the investment thesis that you've got now, how are you approaching the portfolio construction with Foundry next? What combination of GP portfolio and direct exposure do you think adequately diversifies the portfolio while retaining the upside through individual deal performance?
5:36 Speaker 02 When you think about our portfolio here at Foundry, it's very different than what I had previously done. At Foundry, we're focused on taking our fund and we are investing that in a mix of direct deals and portfolio of fund managers. In our case, we're putting 25% of the fund into the manager side of that. We are excited about that piece and then 75% in directs that come both from those underlying managers. They may come from our themes outside of those managers and also, of course, from our early-stage funds.
6:09 Speaker 00 How do you look to avoid then the negative signaling that's often inherent within kind of opportunity funds? Not that this is, but within funds that do specialize in follow-on. So how do you avoid that negative signaling?
6:22 Speaker 02 You know, we really haven't seen this differently from our early-stage funds or really any other market signal, you know, from existing investors. So in an early-stage fund, you will often participate in multiple rounds. So you have the same challenge whether or not you have an opportunity or a select fund, as they're called, and they're quite popular now. When we see something working, we try to get more of it. And the truth is that market dynamics will really dictate those outcomes around the financings. And I just haven't seen it, but I don't think a separate fund has changed any market perceptions around a given financing.
6:56 Speaker 00 And on the VC side, with the thesis in mind of being 25% manager-focused, would you say that you're less or more optimistic about the prospects for VCs to generate significant alpha? That one was from Michael Kim, actually, at Sendana.
7:10 Speaker 02 Thanks, Michael. You know, I would say alpha's a funny word, and as an institutional investor, you bandy that around a lot. I think, though, to be clear, to get alpha, you usually have volatility. And when we think of the small, early-stage funds, yeah, I think you are given that opportunity to have outsized alpha when basing it's the return profiles, but you can't have significant amounts of alpha without volatility.
7:34 Speaker 00 Absolutely. In terms of significant amounts of alpha, you did have significant amounts of alpha with some past investments of yours, USV, Foundry. I'd love to hear how those came about and how you first met the Foundry guys, actually.
7:48 Speaker 02 So for the Foundry guys, it actually ties back to Fred and the gang at USV. So they're definitely related. I was at Fred's annual meeting back in probably the fall of 2006. He usually has annual meetings sometime late fall, and we were in New York. I had flown up, spent a long, long day, meetings after meetings, and ended up at a dinner where this guy Brad Feld was softly pitching me. He had been strategically seated next to me, and I was like, I got it. It's venture, it's Boulder, my uncle lives in Boulder, I'll come see you guys. And we left it at that because I certainly didn't want to hear another pitch over dessert.
8:25 Speaker 00 That's hilarious. With USV though, this one's from Beza now, Beza at Sapphire. She asked, because it wasn't a hugely popular round when USV first went out to rate. So what did you see then that others didn't see in USV early funds?
8:40 Speaker 02 I think timing was important there and USV was actually my first venture investment. So certainly I got lucky in making that a part of it and luck undoubtedly plays a role in all of it. I do think it helped that I was young. I was 29, 30 years old at that time. I grew up with computers. I had an Apple 2GS was my first computer. It was, it was great. I still thank my dad for buying that for me. That was back in AOL chatroom times. So I understood the network thesis. That made sense to me. Yep, the fund size was right. And frankly, we could get a big piece if we moved early. It was helpful that it wasn't a quick round. And I think we had the opportunity to get 20% ownership and that's what we wanted, just like all the VCs do in companies.
9:21 Speaker 02 At Utemco and frankly, today, we like being an important part of the capital base. The big thing though, for Fred and Brad and USV was the way they balanced each other. And that's the thing we always look at is partnership dynamics. If you look at Foundry, that's certainly the case too with a very balanced partnership. Importantly, Fred and Brad had experience and history together. And I think if, if you were to say, what is it I pick on? It's always about partnership dynamics and decision making. And if you eliminate all the noise, and frankly, there's often a bunch of male posturing nonsense in these venture capital firms. If you can get rid of all that noise, you end up with a way better chance of making good decisions.
9:59 Speaker 00 I'm really intrigued in London. It's a very strong and popular theory to throw around for kind of more established VCs. The importance of generational transition. How important a role does that play for you when selecting your fund investments?
10:13 Speaker 02 Well, I think Foundry is on the record as saying that, you know, we're not going to transfer this to a generational transition. And frankly, if you look at this, it's very difficult to do. If you look at the industry, it's been, you know, it's been screwed up way more than it's been done right. And I think that's a hard thing to do. So I'm really looking at who the current principal decision makers are today and how committed they are to. The current fund and to each other to continue working hard.
10:39 Speaker 00 I recently had Mike Maples from Floodgate on the show and he said venture is a game of picking and LP is a game of access with the likes of the top LPs getting the best access. To what extent do you agree with this assessment of the primary importance being access and not picking?
10:55 Speaker 02 Access is just as important for VCs. So I would argue with Mike about that some. I always look at sourcing advantage is what I call it, but that's access by another name. As to, you know, why do deals come to you and why do you get access to a given set of entrepreneurs? Who are really the talent in all of this? When you think about the difference between a VC and an LP, I would argue what we're doing is just one level up. It is more diversified so that you certainly, but you're still picking a team against a given strategy or mandate. And it's something they haven't built yet. It's something they're saying they're going to build. Because you don't invest in existing funds or old funds. You invest in the new fund.
11:36 Speaker 00 I had Chris DuVos on the show recently. He said that with direct co-investments with the likes of Foundry Next, we were going to see the hybridization of GPs and LPs. Do you agree with that statement in terms of the hybridization?
11:49 Speaker 02 Well, I think certainly we're a case in point, so it's hard to argue against it. I will say though, that I very intentionally chose this platform for that model. I don't think most platforms lend themselves to it. And certainly traditional institutional LPs, I don't think they make great direct investors. And in general, they aren't able to attract the most talented direct investors to their platform. Certainly it was always a challenge at Utemco to get the very best talent and keep them. It's definitely the case when you go more into the public realm with the larger institutions.
12:23 Speaker 00 How's being at Foundry and having the new platform changed how you think about investing then?
12:29 Speaker 02 I mean, there are certainly changes. My mandate's different. The portfolio construction is different. So it's definitely different investments that we're targeting. I think, though, that you think about risk differently every time you have a different portfolio strategy. I think many GPs miss on portfolio strategy. That's probably the place that when we ask questions, GPs just flail about, especially newer or emerging GPs. And they're unaware of the risk characteristics that are different in a total portfolio versus an individual position. And so in our case, we have a very different portfolio strategy than I did at UTIMCO. That's the difference. The really big difference, though, of course, is having partners that can underwrite a portfolio, partners that have a 20-year
13:13 Speaker 02 history in the venture market. They know previous mistakes and they know some of the skeletons that are buried in the closets.
13:19 Speaker 00 What do you want to see in a risk strategy, then, from an incoming GP at a fund? What makes you impressed when they show an awareness of a particular risk strategy?
13:28 Speaker 02 You know, it's not a specific answer that you're looking for because each one is coming at it from a different strategy, from a different platform. It's an awareness and a thoughtfulness of how they're going to build a portfolio. Because I think if you have a plan around portfolio strategy and an understanding of how the pieces fit together, that allows you to be a better investor. I think that allows you to be more thoughtful in which deals that you do and which deals you avoid.
13:55 Speaker 00 Absolutely. And in terms of the LP branding, Foundry's already got quite a strong brand, and we spoke about access there. How important do you think it is for LP branding nowadays? And do you think LPs are doing a good job in the ecosystem like the likes of Brad R and VC in terms of branding themselves?
14:11 Speaker 02 Well, first, I think branding does matter. I think LPs have historically been prized for permanent capital, for consistent staffing. They were prized for a commitment to the asset class and frankly, limited fundraising hassle. I don't think any of that changes. I will say a challenge for venture writ large and a challenge for LPs is that institutional LPs are changing. They're all struggling with staff turnover. Many have vacillated in their commitment to venture. Because of that, I think you've seen venture fund to funds take a more Or high profile role. I mean, I'm certainly not the only one of my peers to make the jump to private capital. I'm just the latest. I mean, think of Duvo's, think of Do and Elizabeth at Horsley. I mean, those are people that came out of the institutional background. I think the GPs are recognizing and appreciating the commitment.
14:53 Speaker 02 But when it comes to branding, in our case, we differentiate because of our access to an experienced LP in my background, but really it's about access to my partners and their GP perspective. You know, many of our, our GPs are newer. They appreciate that we can be available to help them with, you know, tactical advice on the company financing, portfolio construction, which we spend a lot of time on, you know, and, and things like that. I also think LPs can serve an important role for GPs in building their own businesses. And we want to be seen as a mentor and advisor, and that includes helping them with fundraising. If, if I were to say it differently, I would, I guess I would say our engaged LP role really to me is no different than that of the traditional VC.
15:37 Speaker 02 I think of these newer emerging managers as a small company that maybe we could help in their progress.
15:43 Speaker 00 Absolutely. And, and in terms of the privatization and moving to the private money, do you think this is a continuing trend that we'll see with institutional rounds not increasing their venture on venture?
15:54 Speaker 02 Well, you know, I come from a, a large institution background and I think we were one of the better staffed large institutions out there. And even in that scenario, it was difficult to focus on venture because you're not able to put, you know, large checks to work. And in some ways that's, that's part of the problem I'm solving here with Founder Group Next is solving some of that challenge for some of those larger institutions recognizing what I had seen myself. I do think you're going to see institutions continue to support venture. That, that's, that shows up in the fundraising numbers. I don't think that, I'll say writ large North American institutions do a great job of incentivizing their staffs. Probably a whole nother podcast with you on that, but the population here in the U.S.
16:37 Speaker 02 has a real concern about retirement accounts and how those are invested. And I think we've got a real problem when you look at that.
16:44 Speaker 00 Okay, that's a really interesting one. And it touched on something that I, I don't actually know. So you're really teaching me here. I know compensation structures, financial compensation structures for GPs and for VC funds. How does it work for LPs?
16:55 Speaker 02 Obviously varies. To summarize it though, generalize. LPs are generally compensated on a cash basis, you know, compensation plus a bonus. And that bonus is often derived from some combination of return performance over a period of years. Back in the day, we did some studies on this, the most common are sort of three to five year time periods. And you look at an IRR, because frankly, you don't know whether someone's a good venture LP in three years. You certainly know it in five, eight or 10 years.
17:27 Speaker 00 So what would you like to see change then in the LP ecosystem before we dive into a quickfire?
17:31 Speaker 02 Where do I start, Harry?
17:34 Speaker 02 On the LP.
17:35 Speaker 00 Is it that bad?
17:36 Speaker 02 I think there are a lot of things that LPs could do better. Compensation structures are certainly an issue. Public disclosure is always a challenge that we face. In general, I think that we need to appreciate the importance of the pools of capital, the large pools of capital, and the importance of what they do for the economy and what they will do for, you know, those people they actually support. And if those pools are important, then we should certainly be mindful of the talent we're able to attract when we're looking at who's investing those pools.
18:08 Speaker 00 And then I'd love to dive into a quickfire with you now. So I say a short statement and you give me your immediate thoughts. How does that sound?
18:14 Speaker 02 Let's go.
18:15 Speaker 00 About 60 seconds per answer. Okay, so let's do pushing hard for exits, good or bad?
18:20 Speaker 02 Absolutely. Get out if you're even close to the door.
18:24 Speaker 00 The funnest prank you've pulled on the Foundry Group partners. That was from Brad.
18:28 Speaker 02 Wow, that's a good one. There are many more to come. At the annual meeting every year, we have a continuing theme of trying to sneak silly phrases into the presentation. And there's been some chicanery around that. And that will certainly continue, and I'm certain that I will be the target of it.
18:46 Speaker 00 The intellectual stimulation that goes on at your AGMs. Let's do the biggest learning curve since moving to Foundry.
18:52 Speaker 02 I think it's actually focus. Small funds and helping GPs raise small funds, that's different and it's hard. There are a lot of them and differentiating is challenging.
19:02 Speaker 00 And then let's do favourite blog or newsletter. What are your must reads?
19:06 Speaker 02 Fred hasn't led me astray yet, so it's hard not to mention Fred and certainly Brad, my partner. I think that Dixon and Evans from Andreessen put out good content. I like vertical newsletters. One people may not know about is Riley Brennan. He has a small fund, but he also puts out a great newsletter called Future of Transportation.
19:24 Speaker 00 That's one to put on my list. I rarely get a new one completely. Thank you for that. Let's do what mistake do GPs make when pitching LPs?
19:32 Speaker 02 There's a lot of hubris in the room when GPs come in. I think the mistake they make generally is putting too much in a pitch deck and not limiting and not taking their own advice. They'll tell the company to have a pitch deck with 10 slides in it and yet they'll show up with a 45 page deck and expect to march through it in a fundraising meeting.
19:53 Speaker 00 And then let's favourite book and why?
19:55 Speaker 02 Let me give you a double bonus there. The Creature from Jekyll Island is important to understand the Fed monetary system in our world today. Might also give you a sense for my politics. For fun though, Brad and I have the same taste. One that just has stuck with me, I cannot shake from my head is Demon by Daniel Suarez. It's near term science fiction. It's all too real, especially around AI.
20:19 Speaker 00 Fantastic. And then let's do the most recent public investment you've made. This can be in a fund manager or in a direct call investment and why you said yes.
20:29 Speaker 02 I don't think we've announced this yet, but I'm happy to. We are investing with Resolute Ventures. It is a combination of real experience and portfolio strategy. So they nailed the portfolio strategy question in our first phone call. It was a very differentiated conversation and one that stuck with me. And that's why I took the time to meet a second partner. It's Mike Hirschlin and Renan Barco. And the way that those two interact together, back to my idea of partnership dynamics, I think is great. And then, you know, it really just struck, you know, struck all the boxes.
21:03 Speaker 00 Lyndall, it's been such a pleasure having you on the show. I've heard so much from Brad, but I'm really grateful to you for sharing your journey with us.
21:09 Speaker 02 Well, it's good fun and hopefully we'll get a chance to chat again.
21:15 Speaker 00 So fantastic to have Lindel on the show today and so appreciate him taking the time out to join me and again a huge thanks to his partner Brad Feld for making the introduction today without which the interview would not have been possible. And if you love the show and do not want to leave the world of the 20 minute VC then you can add me on Snapchat at H Stebbings or sign up to the newsletter on the 20minutevc.com so you never have to miss an episode or an update from us. However, before we leave you today, I'd like to thank my friends at Wealthfront for sponsoring today's show. In today's complex financial world, it's really challenging to be a financial whiz and that's one of the reasons I'm such a big fan of Wealthfront. They're financial experts that can help you invest your hard-earned dollars by combining financial experts with Silicon Valley engineers.
21:56 Speaker 00 Wealthfront's built a modern financial services company that helps tailor plans specifically for you, making it easy to reach your financial goals. Wealthfront has low fees and no trading commissions and it's financial advice at a fraction of the cost of a traditional advisor, all online. And if you sign up using my URL, you'll get your first $15,000 managed for free. This really is a no-brainer of a great opportunity, getting you the help you need to get you where you want to be. You work hard for your money and it should work hard for you. So go to wealthfront.com/20vc, that's wealthfront.com/20vc. Also a big hand to Angel Loop, the go-to place for managing investor-to-founder relations. Angel Loop are the experts in facilitating communication and data sharing between companies and investors.
22:40 Speaker 00 On the platform, founders can track their performance metrics and send out updates to their investors on the state of their business. Investors in turn can then in real time help their founders with introductions, follow-on funding and much more. Angel Loop is free for all investors and only costs $59 for companies per month. Right now they're offering a free two-month trial with the promo code 20minutevc. Check it out at angeloop.com or in the show notes. As always, we so appreciate all your support. You can always email me [email protected] . I always love to hear your thoughts and I cannot wait to bring you Friday's episode with Moisei Yuratsky at Digital Ocean.
Previous 20VC: Floodgate's Mike Maples on What Makes Category Kings, What Most Venture Funds Do Wrong When Hiring & 'The Dance Of Product Market Fit' Next 20VC: How You Can Learn To Be A Great Business Leader & Why All Successful Business Must Be Loved or Needed with Moisey Uretsky, Founder @ Digital Ocean Page updated October 26, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
