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Origins: Inside Venture Capital

Hosted by a General Partner (GP) and a Limited Partner (LP), Origins dives into the venture capital ecosystem to learn how the people behind the money make decisions: How LPs choose VC funds to invest in, what drives performance in venture, the dos and don'ts of fundraising, what founders/entrepreneurs/CEOs need to do to raise a Seed, Series A and beyond, what it takes to go from emerging manager to franchise VC, and the latest private market trends and dynamics shaping the investment ecosystem.…

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Minisode: The Endowment Model, LP Culture Fit & Surviving Venture Cycles

Origins hosts Nick Chirls (GP, Asylum Ventures) and Beezer Clarkson (LP, LGT Capital Partners) unpack their recent conversation with Thomas Kristensen, Beezer's new colleague at LGT Capital Partners. They discuss what it actually takes to merge investing teams, why the endowment model still matters, and how a platform built on 700+ years of institutional history changes how you think about…

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The Second Cognitive Revolution: What AI Actually Means for Venture Capital

What separates the investors and founders who thrive in moments of radical change from those who don’t? According to Alec Litowitz, it isn’t intelligence or emotional maturity - it’s adaptability. Alec is the founder of Magnetar Capital, one of the most respected multi-strategy hedge funds in the world, and the founder and managing partner of QStar Capital, his single family office and investment…

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Fund Commitments, Co-Invest & Secondaries: The $120B LP Playbook

What does it look like when one of the world’s most longstanding institutional investors ($120B) decides to go deeper into venture capital? And what happens when one of the most respected LP teams in the business joins forces with them? Thomas Kristensen, who is responsible for the venture capital business at LGT Capital Partners, joins hosts Nick and Beezer for a wide-ranging conversation that…

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Minisode: The Conversation Happening in Every Early-Stage Boardroom Right Now

Origins hosts Nick Chirls (GP, Asylum Ventures) and Beezer Clarkson (LP, Sapphire Partners) react to their conversation with Nicholas Csicsko, a public/private investor at Trinity. They dig into his framing of “cynical optimism” and why it might be the right posture for venture investing, unpack the growing obsolescence risk for SaaS companies from earlier vintages, and cap it off with a live…

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From Juilliard to $6B AUM: How a Musician Built One of Venture's Most Unconventional Endowments

What happens when a classically trained musician from Juilliard ends up managing a $6 billion endowment? Today's episode of Origins explores exactly that journey - and what it reveals about how the best institutional investors really think. Nicholas Csicsko, Managing Director of Investments at Trinity Church NYC , brings a rare perspective to venture capital - one shaped by years of classical…

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Minisode: The Brutal Math Behind VC Consolidation

Origins hosts Nick Chirls (GP, Asylum Ventures) and Beezer Clarkson (LP, LGT Capital Partners) unpack a recent conversation with David Clark, CIO of VenCap International PLC on megafunds vs small funds and a16z returns. They also discuss Beezer’s article “I See Dead VCs,” which explores how VC is in the first meaningful industry-wide contraction in modern venture history, risks to seed formation,…

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Why Power Laws Still Drive Outperformance with VenCap’s David Clark

What does patience look like today when the best companies take 10–15 years to exit, and is it still worth it to wait that long? Today’s episode of Origins dives into one of the most pressing questions in today’s market: how to balance long-term conviction with the need for liquidity. David Clark, CIO of VenCap and a three-decade veteran of institutional venture investing, returns to the show to…

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Minisode: Does the Data Match the Anecdotes?

Origins host Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, and Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, dig into their recent conversation with Dan Gray, prolific venture writer and Research Lead at Odin. They discuss various levels of risk tolerance across the ecosystem – including who the data says can stomach more – whether GPs are giving up on founders earlier than they used…

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Venture’s Haves and Have-Nots with Dan Gray

Dan Gray is a prolific thinker, writer and researcher in the VC world, who describes himself as best known for “long walls of text on Twitter about the venture industry.” Now the Research Lead at Odin, he sits down with Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, and Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, to discuss the bifurcation of VC, the different types of risk in venture, and the role…

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What Venture's Top Voices Expect Next in AI

2025 was, undoubtedly, the year of AI. In the first episode of 2026 Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures revisit some of their favorite moments from the year before to see what the top voices in VC saw as emerging AI trendlines and how the venture ecosystem and global markets might respond next. In this episode we’ll hear from – among others –…

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