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 Micah Rosenbloom, Managing Partner at Founder Collective. They discuss the EQ and self-awareness required to switch from operator to investor, how to separate signal from noise in venture cycles, and how the speed of iteration is now such that a window of one or two days can change the entire calculus of an investment.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc

Learn more about Founder Collective: foundercollective.com

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: subscribe.openlp.vc

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

0:34 How Involved Should Operators Be With Their CEOs?

2:16 VCs and Trends Are Seven Years Too Late

3:19 Repeat Portfolio Companies: Courageous Or Insane?

5:42 How Do VCs Handle the Speed of Iteration?

Micah Rosenbloom is a Managing Partner at Founder Collective, a firm dedicated to seed investing and, crucially, to keeping their fund sizes below $100 million. Micah talks with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, to discuss Founder Collective’s philosophy of keeping their fund size small to avoid the “billions or bust” mentality, how most investors have a bad track record of spotting trends at seed, and how consumer goods are still worthwhile investments even against the backdrop of AI. They also debate a recent post from Nick to get to the fundamental question of whether investors taking big risks are courageous or lucky.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc

Learn more about Founder Collective: foundercollective.com

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: subscribe.openlp.vc

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

2:16 What Can Small Do For You?8:57-A Whole Team of Ex Operators

14:52 How Micah’s View of the Market Has Changed18:48-Why the Market’s Tough Right Now

21:49 Early Stage VCs Are Usually Seven Years Too Late
30:14 Investing: Courage or Luck?42:59-Predictions for 2026

Origins host Beezer Clarkson,  LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, and Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, dive into their recent conversation with Kyle Samani, Founder and Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital. They discuss their learnings on crypto, including why Nick is more bullish on bitcoin than Kyle, and how LPs conceptualize investing in firms like Multicoin. They also break down why people who came up as Crypto traders and investors are uniquely positioned to excel in early stage venture.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc

Learn more about Multicoin: multicoin.capital

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: subscribe.openlp.vc

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

1:02 Is Bitcoin an Unproductive Asset?

1:56 The Problem With Web3.0

3:49 Assessing Crypto Managers As an LP

6:21 The Hard Part Isn’t Buying Bitcoin, It’s Holding It

8:21 Trained In Crypto, Excelling In Traditional Markets

Kyle Samani is the Founder and Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital, a thesis-driven investment firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain companies reshaping trillion-dollar markets. He joins Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, to discuss the philosophies that underpin Multicoin’s investment strategies. He also unpacks how blockchain technologies are already reshaping global finance away from legacy systems and towards embedded trading platforms that will sit within traditional messaging and media platforms.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.vc

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: https://asylum.vc

Learn more about Multicoin: https://multicoin.capital

Jerry Neumann’s post on markets v. innovation: https://reactionwheel.net/2025/07/a-look-at-growth

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: subscribe.openlp.vc

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

2:43 The Origin Story of Multicoin

7:07 Financially Long & Intellectually Short Bitcoin

8:53 What Is an Internet Capital Market?

19:18 What Happens to Banks?

21:14 What Did You See In Solana?

30:22 The Rise of DATs

36:40 Did Web3.0 Live Up To Its Promise?

Origins host Beezer Clarkson,  LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP, and Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures, unpack their recent conversation with Sarah Tavel, Partner at Benchmark. Together they discuss their takeaways from Sarah’s recent decision to take a step back at Benchmark to fully focus on AI, getting into the lessons they can learn from that approach and what that means for the future of artificial intelligence. They also discuss the current state of venture in light of this decade’s AI boom, and theorize where this will put the ecosystem in the future.

This episode of Origins is supported by Sydecar. Visit https://sydecar.io/origins-podcast to learn more.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.vc

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: https://asylum.vc

Learn more about Benchmark: https://benchmark.com

Read Sarah’s Substack Posts: https://sarahtavel.com

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: https://subscribe.openlp.vc

Sydecar, Inc. (“Sydecar”) has acted as a financial sponsor within this Origins podcast. Sapphire Ventures, LLC (“Sapphire”) is not affiliated with or invested in Sydecar.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

0:48 How Do We Carve Out More Time For Thinking?

3:02 How Are LPs Handling AI Risk?

6:02 Can You Achieve AI Diversity as an LP?

 Eight years after becoming the first female partner at Benchmark, Sarah Tavel recently took on a new role as Venture Partner that allows her more time to fully immerse herself in AI, all while continuing to make new investments on behalf of Benchmark and serving her current portfolio. She sat down with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, to unpack her learnings over the past few months, including what it means to be truly AI native, how the future of AI is social (not solo), and what that means for AI tools and the people who use them. She also discusses the importance of protecting your time as a VC and the advantages of devoting time each week to play.

This episode of Origins is supported by Sydecar. Visit sydecar.io/origins-podcast to learn more.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.vc

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: https://asylum.vc

Learn more about Benchmark: https://benchmark.com

Read Sarah’s Substack Posts: https://sarahtavel.com

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: https://subscribe.openlp.vc

Sydecar, Inc. (“Sydecar”) has acted as a financial sponsor within this Origins podcast. Sapphire Ventures, LLC (“Sapphire”) is not affiliated with or invested in Sydecar.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

1:46 Living & Breathing AI

8:58 AI As Both Solo & Social

16:13 What Does It Mean to be AI Native?

23:19 How Do Our Brains Need to Adapt to AI?

31:37 How AI Immersion Has Changed Sarah’s Investment Strategy

37:56 Looking For AI Frontier Companies & the Businesses Around Them

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 Alex Edelson, LP at Slipstream. They discuss whether a spate of recent 100X multiples means we’re living 2021 all over again, why that’s led people to deploy but not fundraise, and the level of curiosity you need to be an exceptional LP.

This episode of Origins is supported by Sydecar.

Visit https://sydecar.io/origins-podcast to learn more.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.vc

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: https://asylum.vc

Learn more about Slipstream: https://www.slipstreaminvestors.com/

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: https://subscribe.openlp.vc

Sydecar, Inc. (“Sydecar”) has acted as a financial sponsor within this Origins podcast. Sapphire Ventures, LLC (“Sapphire”) is not affiliated with or invested in Sydecar.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

2:01 Did We Learn Nothing From 2021?

4:09 High Prices, Quick Deployment

6:31 Venture Lives On Bubbles

Alex Edelson’s Slipstream is a fund of funds that focuses on firms that are “difficult to find, evaluate and access.” Together with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, and Nick Chirls, Partner at Asylum Ventures, Alex unpacks his strategy of investing in funds he believes can outperform, how to raise capital as an LP, and how to remain competitive against LPs investing in more established firms. The three of them also dig into a recent blog post by Beezer titled “Is Venture Broken?” - which explores the role of mega-funds in the early-stage market. You can read that here.

This episode of Origins is supported by Sydecar. Visit https://sydecar.io/origins-podcast to learn more.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners

Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.vc⁠

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: https://asylum.vc⁠

Learn more about Slipstream: https://slipstreaminvestors.com

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: https://subscribe.openlp.vc

Sydecar, Inc. (“Sydecar”) has acted as a financial sponsor within this Origins podcast. Sapphire Ventures, LLC (“Sapphire”) is not affiliated with or invested in Sydecar.

CHAPTERS:

0:00-Welcome to Origins

2:59-Why Start a Fund of Funds?

7:39-How Do LPs Raise Capital?

16:56-I’m the LP I Wanted to Work With As a GP

21:17-What Is Similar & Different Between Now and 2021?

30:41-What Is an Advantage One Day Is Table Stakes the Next

34:18-You Don’t Need a Big Winner to Have An Amazing Small Fund

39:08-Is Venture Broken?

Origins host Beezer Clarkson,  LP at Sapphire Partners and co-founder of OpenLP is rejoined by Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures to unpack her recent conversation with Sunil Dhaliwal and Mike Dauber of Amplify Partners. They discuss partner dynamics, the importance of maintaining relevance for the long haul, and the different ways curiosity can show up. Plus, Nick & Beezer dig into whether they count as extroverts at work and introverts everywhere else.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: ⁠https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners⁠

Learn more about OpenLP: ⁠https://openlp.vc⁠

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: ⁠https://asylum.vc

Learn more about Amplify: https://amplifypartners.com

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 Welcome to Origins

2:18 ”I’m Not Gonna Be a Solo GP Forever”

6:07 Pushing Decision Making to the Edge at Amplify

9:24 How Are You Relevant Five Years From Now?

13:24 Investors: Introverts or Extroverts?

Sunil Dhaliwal founded Amplify in 2012, and was joined by his longtime friend and colleague Mike Dauber in 2014. Beginning as one of the first solo GP, early-stage, sector-focused funds, Amplify has now grown to a team of 9 partners investing in the next generation of applications tools and platforms for developers, data teams, and ML engineers focused on AI, cloud infrastructure, and data security. Mike and Sunil sit down with Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Partners, to discuss their strategy of building for outliers, shaping founders into leaders, and making it easy for their GPs to back non-consensus companies. They also unpack their recent $900 million raise and their first dedicated biotech fund, Amplify Bio.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: ⁠https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners⁠

Learn more about OpenLP: ⁠https://openlp.vc⁠

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: ⁠https://asylum.vc

Learn more about Amplify: https://amplifypartners.com

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: subscribe.openlp.vc

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

2:17 The Origins of Amplify

5:21 Eliminating the Need for “Mr. Business”

10:25 Building Amplify for Outliers

25:08 Being Technical VCs in the Age of AI

28:47 Amplify Bio

36:19 Has Venture Actually Changed At All?