Minisode: Franchise Funds: Grading Performance
Minisode: Franchise Funds: Grading Performance  
Podcast: Origins - Inside Venture Capital, Hosted by a GP and an LP
Published On: Wed Jan 22 2025
Description: Origins host Beezer Clarkson sits down with her colleague Laura Thompson, fellow LP and Partner at Sapphire Partners, to unpack her recent conversation with Jessica Archibald, a GP at Top Tier Capital. They discuss Jessica’s engineering-based analytical approach to answering the question “what makes a franchise?” and discuss some surprising things they learned - Jessica’s view that there’s only one real way to do succession, the importance of breaking good and bad news in a way that creates a performance culture, and whether or not they’re going to adopt Jessica’s policy of assigning letter grades to funds at Sapphire Partners.Learn more about Sapphire Partners: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more about OpenLP: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://openlp.vc⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more about Asylum Ventures: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://asylum.vc⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more about Top Tier Capital Partners: https://ttcp.comRead Laura Thompson’s blog on why venture reserves aren’t always a good thing:sapphireventures.com/blog/dirty-secret-venture-reserves-are-not-always-a-good-thing/Read Laura Thompson’s blog on fund recycling:sapphireventures.com/blog/fund-recycling-moves-the-needle-for-both-lps-and-gps-heres-how/Read Laura Thompson’s blog on QSBS:sapphireventures.com/blog/how-lps-gps-and-founders-can-leverage-qsbs-to-make-more-money/Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox.CHAPTERS:(0:00) - Intro(1:08) - Jessica Takes It In a Different Direction(3:41) - Communicating with your LP base (So There Aren’t Surprises)(7:15) - Franchise Funds Are Intentional(9:44) - Getting to 1x DPI in Nine Years(15:55) - 2x is the new 3x(19:43) - Giving Funds Letter Grades