Nicholas DuBray

Numbers & insights from a €750M VC Fund of Funds that invested in ~100 VC Funds. How LPs invest and what's wrong with GP outreach & theses? I spoke with Joe Schorge, who spent 30 years in tech/PE/VC incl. Cambridge Associates & Pomona Capital. Then launched Isomer Capital, one of Europe's largest Funds of Funds: 6 funds (VC FoF / co-invest / secondaries), €1-15M checks. 51 unicorns across 2,000+ portfolio companies Sweet spot: <€100M seed funds. Target ~10% LP positions. Micro funds €20-30M are for experiments – when they perform, it's not 3x, it's 5-10x 1. The #1 question they ask when selecting a GP: "If I were a great founder, who would I want as my first investor?" 2. The quote that resulted in an LP check into a VC fund: a founder said about a solo GP – "there's always room for him on our cap table." They wrote it into the investment memo 3. 3 GP profiles they like to back: (a) former founders who exited and went pro-VC, (b) spinouts from big firms with a differentiated thesis, (c) big tech executives from Google/Apple/Microsoft who ran startup-facing units 4. Having capital alone was a competitive advantage for seed funds in 2013-2015. Not anymore. If you're starting a new fund as "a generalist software VC" – no founder will choose you over a VC with a specific thesis 5. GPs – specialize! A network-effects-focused fund in Europe built its entire thesis on helping startups scale from 10 to 10,000 users. No general board advice – hyper-specific expertise. They've done incredibly well! 6. Joe calls it "360 DD." They don't just read the VC fund data room. They call founders, co-investors, and people around the GP that the GP doesn't even know they know. The most revealing call: asking an investor in a GP's failed company – "Would you back them again?" 7. AI has made LP outreach unbearable. The volume of AI-crafted cold emails Joe gets daily is "really stupid" – they all follow the same template. His advice to GPs: don't spam. The strongest channel is referrals from LPs who had a good experience 8. Many LPs rely on social proof – they look at who the other LPs are. Joe calls it lazy: it gives a signal but not the answer. Past success attracts big LP names, but those funds aren't always successful going forward 9. Most common LP mistake: waiting for good funds to come to you. The great funds don't need to come. This creates adverse selection – you only see what's actively marketing to you 10. Isomer's fastest VC fund commitment: 2-3 months for a hot emerging fund. But most GPs they invest in, they've known for years. Co-investment decisions can happen in 1 week 11-20. In the picture 21-100. Full interview – how secondaries work in 2026, bad/good founder secondaries, FO/LP/GP relationships, FoF reputation, Japanese corporate LPs: youtu.be/lDTu6jVtTss 🎉 Joe will speak on Zoom at our free virtual LP Conf – Apr 30. 👉 Like & comment with your biggest insight or what you agree/disagree with, and I'll DM you when registration opens

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