event header image
https://flaia-cms-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/PVC_logo_2x_100_6279b15c57.jpg

Practical Venture Capital

Practical Venture Capital (PVC) is a Silicon Valley VC firm that buys secondary interests in mature, top-performing early-stage VC funds and companies. The co-founders and managing partners are Dave McClure and Aman Verjeeexperienced investors and internet startup veterans who have worked at PayPal, eBay, Sonos, Founders Fund and 500 Startups. They have been early investors in 30+ unicorns and 8 IPOs that have generated 50-100x+ returns including Credit Karma, Twilio, SendGrid, Lyft, TalkDesk, Canva, among others. 

Associated Speakers

Dave McClure
Founder
Aman Verjee
Founder / General Partner

Past Speaking Events

  • Practical VC - Portfolio Allocation in 2023 and Beyond
    December 02, 2022
    12:00 PM - 12:30 PM
    Webcast
    View Details

    Most of the last 40 years in the US have seen both low inflation and steady economic growth, a combination that is historically very good for stocks. But the global economy is now in an unusual low-growth / recession and high inflation environment, which means that investors have to re-think their allocation strategy. 

    Join us for an in-depth discussion with Aman Verjee, JD, CFA, co-founder and managing partner of Practical Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley venture secondary firm. Here are some of the topics that will be covered: 

    • Which asset classes have performed the best during different macro-economic periods in US history (e.g., stagflation, growth periods, recessions)?
    • Should money managers follow the traditional 60-40 split between equity and fixed income?
    • What are the lessons from the "lost decade" of stock market returns (1966 to 1982)?
    • How can investors identify alpha-producing investments to diversify risk across future market cycles?
    • New data over the past several years shows the correlation between realized investment returns from venture and large cap equity returns is close to zero.

    Speakers: Aman Verjee

  • FIRESIDE CHAT WITH AMAN VERJEE "PRICE TAGS ON TECH COMPANIES: ANALYZING PRIVATE AND PUBLIC VALUATIONS"
    November 04, 2022
    12:00 PM - 12:30 PM
    Webcast
    View Details

    Thank you to Aman Verjee for agreeing to join us for a fireside chat. Aman is the General Partner of Practical VC, which buys unicorns on sale and invest in VC funds that are already winning to skip the first 5 years of risk associated with start up businesses. Aman's most recent venture is buying secondaries in funds at a 30% to 70% discount to the market. We are excited to have him come on our show to talk about "PRICE TAGS ON TECH COMPANIES: ANALYZING PRIVATE AND PUBLIC VALUATIONS." My goal is to not only talk about Practical VC's investment strategy but to get into his learnings from his time with the PayPal mafia. We hope that he will wander off a little bit and talk about his time as CFO of SONOS as wells. Bring all of your questions with you or send them to me in advance at michael@flaia.org. In the meantime, let's wish Aman Verjee the best of luck with Practical VC.

    • Skip the J-Curve
    • Invest in VC Funds that are Already Winning
    • Review of Private Markets Performance (in the US)
    • Review of SaaS Performance

    Speakers: Aman Verjee

  • Price Tags on Tech Companies: Analyzing Private and Public Valuations
    July 14, 2022
    11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
    Keynote
    View Details

    Markets have been shaking through the first half of the year, leaving many investors hitting the pause button as they wait for valuations to stabilize. When is the right time for investors to jump in with confidence that prices have reset and are reasonable marks? 

    In this webinar, Aman Verjee, General Partner at Practical Venture Capital, will discuss private and public company valuations, taking a deep dive on pricing in the SaaS sector (“Software as a Service”). 

    Join us on July 14 for a webinar on private and public company valuations. Register here.

    Here’s a quick preview of the webinar…

    • The PVC SaaS Index is a proprietary index created by Aman Verjee that tracks a basket of 117 publicly traded US-listed SaaS companies that went public after 2015. The median company in the PVC SaaS Index had a blistering YoY revenue growth rate of +29% YoY for the full fiscal year.
    • Public SaaS companies are generating over $366B in ARR and a total enterprise value of over $4T. This kind of annual performance from such a large public market sector – showing top-line growth of nearly 30% with expanding profit margins, now through several straight quarters that include a US recession – is unheard of.
    • EV / trailing sales multiples have reverted back to pre-pandemic levels, with the median SaaS multiple compressing by 54% and the top-quartile multiple compressing by about 65%, from 31x at the peak to 11 today. The companies are generally performing extremely well, so we see this as an inevitable and healthy correction in valuations.
    • Valuations in the public markets and venture round sizes on the private side are tightly correlated. Historically, there is over a 90% correlation between movements in the NASDAQ Composite Index and venture capital round sizes.
    • After nearly two years of a government-fueled expansion, public markets have adjusted quickly and tech multiples for SaaS have corrected back to 2018-2019 multiples.
    • For any investor with a longer-term horizon, now is the least expensive time to buy in the extremely overpriced past 2 years.

    Speakers: Aman Verjee

  • Valuations Reality Check: Comparing Private to Public Performance
    February 17, 2022
    12:00 PM - 13:00 PM
    Panel
    View Details

    Join us for a panel exploring trends in public and private market valuations and how to strategically diversify your portfolio in today’s shifting market conditions. 

    This event is for you…

    • If you seek greater exposure to venture capital and want to put strong-growth unicorns in your portfolio at a discount of up to 50% NAV
    • If you are currently overexposed to public equites and are seeking guidance on diversification

    One way to gain access to top-performing VC portfolios ad venture-base companies is through the venture fund secondary market – a strategy with reduced risk, faster growth, and faster liquidity compared to traditional venture investments. 

    Venture Capital Secondary combines the rapid growth of tech companies with faster liquidity. It’s a bit like placing a bet on the winning team at halftime

    PVC offers their investors discounted access to top venture portfolios that already have $1B+ companies on course to IPO within 3 years or less. 

    Venture capital may seem like a challenging asset class to know where and how to get started. During the current climate, many investors are migrating to venture capital as a way to diversify away from public equities for several reasons:

    • Public equities in the US have performed very well over most of the past 40 years, but that favorable backdrop is unlikely to continue.
    • Modern Portfolio Theory investors should seek to diversify returns across different asset classes, to reduce the risk of losses.
    • Based on an empirical review of recent returns using Pitchbook data, Cambridge Associates data, and from reports by Invesco and AngelList Ventures, the long-term correlation between venture capital returns and the market (NASDAQ and S&P 500) is very weak.
    • Venture is a long-term bet on innovation, software, and small cap stocks, whereas large public indexes depend largely on financial services, energy, health care, and retail, as well as technology.
    • Investors should look to alpha-producing venture capital to diversify risk across future market cycles.

    Speakers: Dave McClure, Aman Verjee, Jeremy Johnson, and Eric M. Jackson

  • Venture Fund Secondary: Buy the Winning Ticket at Halftime
    November 10, 2021
    13:00 PM - 14:00 PM
    Panel
    View Details

    Venture capital isn’t for everyone. Most startups fail, and most investments return zero. Many VC funds don’t make any distributions in the first 5 years, and most of them take 10-15 years or longer to fully exit. The lack of predictability and a long period of illiquidity makes venture capital a challenging asset class for all but the most patient of investors.

    That said, top VC funds can perform far better than the rest of the market, and the best tech companies can turn into unicorns that generate 20x, 50x, or sometimes even 100x returns.

    If only there was a way to skip ahead five or more years and invest in just the VC funds that are doing well, wouldn’t that be great? 

    What if you could arrive at the game at halftime and bet on the team that was already ahead by 10 points? And what if you could buy that winning ticket at a discount?

    It’s possible. Enter Practical Venture Capital… 

    Practical Venture Capital (PVC) is a Silicon Valley VC firm that buys secondary interests in mature, top-performing early-stage VC funds and companies. The co-founders and managing partners are Dave McClure and Aman Verjee, experienced investors and internet startup veterans who have worked at PayPal, eBay, Sonos, Founders Fund and 500 Startups. They have been early investors in 30+ unicorns and 8 IPOs that have generated 50-100x+ returns including Credit Karma, Twilio, SendGrid, Lyft, TalkDesk, Canva, among others. 

    Venture Capital Secondary combines the rapid growth of tech companies with faster liquidity. PVC acquires secondary interests in top-performing VC funds and portfolio companies from LPs and GPs who want early liquidity, typically purchasing these assets at a 20-40% discount to NAV. From launching 20 VC funds globally and being an LP in a number of other funds, the PVC partners have one of the broadest GP networks in Silicon Valley and around the world.

    Investors get discounted access to top venture portfolios that already have $1B+ winners. They are diversified across 15+ early-stage VC funds with 30-40 Series B/C/D winners that may IPO within 3 years or less.

    • “Skip the J-Curve:” Buy secondary in mature, winning VC funds and pre-IPO unicorns
    • Many LPs and GPs want (some) liquidity after 5-10 years
    • Secondary from these LPs/GPs can be bought at substantial discounts to NAV (20-40%)
    • Portfolios growing @ 30-50% per year
    • Projected returns: 1x back in 3 yrs, 3x+ in 7 yrs
    • Sectors: Enterprise SaaS, eCommerce, Fintech, others; Geo: 70% US, 30% RoW

    Speakers: Dave McClure and Aman Verjee