The last decade of monetary policy was defined by quantitative easing (QE). This was designed by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to stimulate the economy in a zero interest rate world.The mechanics of this effort entailed central banks buying up assets such as Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities (MBS), corporate bonds, and stocks, in some instances.
While modern day venture capital originated in the 1940s, the very first iteration of venture capital (VC) investments--where a general partner (GP) investments capital on behalf of a limited partner (LP)--dates all the way back to the early 1600s with the founding of East India Company (EIC) under Queen Elizabeth I.
To give a sense of its magnitude, EIC was the equivalent of today's Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) or Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). It was the antecedent to modern day corporations.
Now, granted today's investment model is arguably a more ethical and sustainable evolution of that model. However, this goes to show that while modern-day venture capital really exploded over the last decade or so given some of the lowest interest rates in recent history, the high-risk high-reward model isn't as new as some might have anticipated.
And now, the industry is once again ripe for disruption.
Enter the solo GP. Coined by Nikhil Trivedi, and often referred to as "solo capitalist". In his view, one must meet the following criteria for a solo GP:
The sole general partner who manages a fund's operations and admin needsThe sole decision market on capital allocations (i.e., is the investment team and committee)conducts all due diligence on potential investment opportunities,Builds industry relationships and personal branding to source investments (not all dollars a...
