- Collaboration creates long-term value when navigating fundraising – solidarity among investors contributes to lasting success.
- Help investors understand that a disciplined approach and patient capital are crucial at a time when companies are staying private longer.
- Stay true to your mission and purpose to build trust and drive long-term results.
Navigating today’s fundraising environment and working with investment partners can be challenging. With an uncertain economy and the temptation for valuation-sensitive founders to delay liquidity events, investors and entrepreneurs need to be thoughtful about how they deploy their resources and manage relationships. They need tools and fundraising strategies that will help them accomplish goals and generate long-term value.
Claude Grunitzky, Managing Partner and CEO of the Equity Alliance, shares his experience. He talked specifically about the ways collaboration contributes to value creation, the importance of staying patient with capital, and how investors can build a legacy.
How can collaboration with other investors create value over time?
Fostering community pays dividends in the long run – a core principle for fund managers navigating fundraising in a competitive venture capital ecosystem. Grunitzky explains:
Transcript: Dick Parsons, my late mentor and business partner, whose idea it was to start the equity lines. As I said, he died on December 26th of 2024, but before he died, he made sure that we were in a position to punch above our weight and help to foster a community of solidarity. What I've been calling active solidarity.
We could look out for each other, make intros to people in our in our network and do it in a way that it doesn't feel transactional, but really about long-term value creation around this is not about the equity lines. This is about the broader equity lines. Which is why Dick Parsons called it an Alliance. He didn't call it the Equity Fund. He called it an alliance, because he knew that we would be stronger together, and I feel like that mindset of supporting each other through active solidarity is something that will help everyone. It's really that rising tide that will lift all boats.
How do I reassure limited partners about liquidity as investments mature?
Patient capital creates value, especially in a fund of funds strategy where distributions take longer than direct venture capital investments. Here, Grunitzky explains why it’s important to think long-term:
Transcript: We actually are not yet in a position to return much actual capital because we're a 2021 vintage fund, and as a fund of funds it takes longer for us. And that's why I talk about kind of long-term thinking and kind of a more disciplined approach to thinking about patient capital.
And they always say, ‘Well, you're delaying our liquidity events. There's fewer ipos and fewer acquisitions. So the M&A activity is not what it used to be.’ But we're saying that our numbers look really good from multiple, uninvested capital and the kind of people that we back.
It'll take a little bit longer for them to see distributions. But given that our multiple and invested capital is really increasing all the time, if you're really thinking about a longer holding period, think of it on a decade. And even though you might see delayed liquidity, you'll see true liquidity. And also you'll see real impact in these communities. And a lot of these later stage startups become so profitable, but it takes them 5 to 7 to 10 years to get there.
How important is an investor’s mission in creating value and building a legacy?
What goes around always comes around. Grunitzky explains how staying true to your goals and purpose while fundraising compounds impact over time.
Transcript: I want my legacy to be about somebody who believed in other people and empowered other people and lifted other people. So I've been doing this again since I was in my early twenties. I've spent my entire adult life in the same space, lifting people of color, lifting women initially through media ventures like the trace media venture dimension. Ultimately, it's about how much I will have impacted other people and helped them with their own self-actualization that I described earlier, so that they can chart their own path based on conviction, and not be slowed by so much of the self-hate that I see in our black community. This is what I’ve done and I want my legacy to be about how it wasn’t just about me, but how I was able to create value and help other people find their way in the way Dick Parsons helped me find my way and aim higher.
Conclusion
In today's dynamic fundraising environment, Grunitzky's emphasis on solidarity, patient capital and unwavering mission reminds us that true value emerges from thoughtful, long-term partnerships. By prioritizing collaboration and purpose over short-term gains, investors and founders can not only weather economic uncertainties but also create meaningful legacies that uplift communities and drive sustainable growth.
At SVB, we're dedicated to empowering these strategies, providing the tailored expertise to help you navigate the path ahead with confidence. Let’s get started.
