12/10/2023 0 Comments Arlan hamilton![]() ![]() TechCrunch has noted that LPs need to take more responsibility for where and to whom their money is deployed. “You gotta ask these LPs, you gotta ask these family offices, you gotta ask these people who ask me, ‘how can I be helpful,’ and I say ‘invest in our fund,’ and I never hear from them again.” “Somebody asked me, ‘why don’t you have more under management?’” she said during the podcast. ![]() ![]() Without more support, it becomes difficult to close shop on new investments, bring more assets under management, and bring more follow-on investments, she said. Hamilton said that Apple told Backstage the fund was too far along to invest in, while JP Morgan said it wasn’t far along enough. However, that’s not necessarily the case. Saying she’s grateful for the support so far, Hamilton also expressed her frustration with LPs, adding that Backstage has found itself in a “purgatory kind of position” because some investors feel it already has all the support it needs. Now we know that Backstage doesn’t have much dry powder left, so it shows a general slowdown at the firm.ĭuring the podcast, Hamilton said that the changes have “taken a toll it’s been a depressing, deflating time.” She also said she’d been medically burnt out for at least three years. It’s rare to see a firm say they are growing assets under management while declining to make new investments, especially considering it had fresh capital from Comcast and filed plans for a $30 million Opportunity Fund. At the time, Hamilton said that “there will be people who take this negatively or will take this as us not being active, and it is anything but.” Hamilton did not respond to TechCrunch’s request via email for further comment.īackstage announced in March it was pivoting to fund only existing portfolio companies and would no longer make new investments. “It’s not that I feel like there’s any sort of failure on the fund side, on the firm’s side, on Backstage’s side, it’s that this could have been avoided if systems were different if the system we work within were different,” Hamilton said during the podcast. This workforce reduction further underscores that the venture capital firm is struggling to grow, both externally and internally. The layoff comes nearly three months after Backstage Capital narrowed its investment strategy to only participate in follow-on rounds of existing portfolios. Backstage Capital has downsized its staff from 12 to three people, managing partner and founder Arlan Hamilton said during her “Your First Million” podcast that was published Sunday. ![]()
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