Amplify Partners has quickly become one of the true breakouts from the early emerging manager movement. Led by Sunil Dhaliwal, who started Amplify nearly a decade ago after a 14 year tenure at Battery Ventures, the firm has over $750MM in AUM and has invested in companies such as Datadog and Fastly.

This was a fun wide ranging discussion about the current state of VC and where we think the industry is headed now that there are so many new emerging managers and potential LPS.

Prior to Amplify, Sunil invested in early-stage IT infrastructure companies at Battery and was named to the Forbes Midas List for 2011, which ranks the top 100 venture capitalists around the world. He was also named to the AlwaysOn Top 100 list of VCs and Business Insider’s 15 Most Powerful Venture Capitalists on the East Coast.

In this episode we discuss:

1:37    What he learned at Battery and why start a new firm

06:54    Decisions around Amplify’s fund one raise

10:59    How fund stages and sizes changes competition for deals

16:29    Moving between weight classes and the challenges around that

19:08    Competing at seed stage against large firms

21:26    How both Samir and Sunil underestimated the size of the venture market

22:19    Market forces disrupting early stage venture in 2021

24:24    Why certain things may never go back to the way they were 

30:01    How fear will change the VC market

35:45    The luck of timing; downturns are difficult yet provide opportunities

37:19    How LPs look at emerging managers and how to differentiate

40:22    Institutions and retail players bringing new money into early stage funding

Mentioned In This Episode:

* Amplify Partners

* Battery Ventures

We’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Sunil! Follow @SamirKaji and give your insight and questions using the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

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