What We Would Tell Our Fund I Selves

This is part 9 of 10 of our 10 Years of Laconia Series.

“Don’t become a VC!”

Just kidding. But seriously, understand that the learning curve in venture capital is steep and often unforgiving. It’s practically nothing like angel investing. While angel investing may give you a taste of deal-making and the thrill of early-stage success, starting a VC fund is an entirely different endeavor. It’s a mix of excitement, strategy, and long-haul commitment that requires navigating uncharted waters.

Starting a venture fund is both similar to and distinct from launching an operating company. On the surface, the similarities are evident. You need to establish foundational elements: a clear value proposition, a go-to-market strategy, customer insights (in this case, your LPs), access to capital, a capable team, and a strong support system of accountants, lawyers, software tools, and operational infrastructure. But here’s where the differences emerge: in venture capital, all these systems and processes serve a performance outcome that may take years—even a decade—to reveal itself.

In this business, the timeline is both your ally and your nemesis. While founders and operators may measure success through quarterly revenue milestones or yearly growth metrics, venture capitalists operate in a realm where patience and perspective are everything. A portfolio company that seems to skyrocket early on can just as quickly plummet, while a laggard may discover product-market fit years later and become the crown jewel of the portfolio. Seed-stage VCs, on average, hold investments for nearly eight years before a liquidity event—a reminder that in venture capital, you “get rich slowly.”

The Reality of the Job
Between the high-stakes bets and the long timelines lies the gritty reality of venture capital. Glamorous as it might seem from the outside, the day-to-day involves a series of challenges and responsibilities:

  • Board Meetings: These are not mere formalities but critical touchpoints for guiding portfolio companies. They require preparation, insight, and the ability to balance oversight with support.

  • Founder Conflicts: You’ll often find yourself playing the role of mediator, therapist, or sounding board for founders navigating high-pressure situations.

  • Capital Raising: This is a near-constant activity. Building and maintaining relationships with LPs, pitching new funds, and justifying your strategy can feel like an endless loop.

  • LP Relations: Effective communication with your limited partners is crucial. This includes regular updates, quarterly reports, and the occasional crisis management call.

  • Compliance and Administration: Quarterly reporting, audits, and issuing K-1s are essential yet often underappreciated aspects of the business.

  • Portfolio Company Support: Fires will happen, whether it’s a missed product launch, a talent exodus, or a funding shortfall. Your ability to help steer companies through these crises can make or break outcomes.

So much for the Hollywood portrayal of VC life! The reality is a mix of strategic thinking, operational execution, and plenty of hard work.

The Path to Competency
Over the past decade, we’ve learned that you can get good at this game. While there is no single textbook or foolproof formula, venture capital is more art than science—or, more accurately, a craft that combines elements of both. The path to competency involves:

  • Discipline: The ability to make sound investment decisions, stick to your thesis, and avoid chasing shiny objects is critical.

  • Resilience: Investments will fail. There’s no avoiding it. The key is learning from those failures and applying those lessons to future decisions.

  • Humility: Beware of the smartest person in the room. Overconfidence is often the precursor to poor decisions. Instead, seek out diverse perspectives and remain open to new ideas.

  • Curiosity: Lifelong learning is a non-negotiable. The market evolves, industries transform, and new technologies emerge. Staying curious keeps you relevant and effective.

We use the term “competency” rather than “expertise” deliberately. In venture capital, there are no permanent experts. The landscape is constantly shifting, and success requires a commitment to perpetual learning and adaptation. Without a passion for growth and curiosity, you’ll quickly find yourself outpaced.

Final Thoughts
If we could go back and talk to our Fund I selves, we’d offer this advice: Embrace the grind, be patient, and approach the journey with humility and curiosity. The glamour of VC might be a myth, but the rewards—financial, intellectual, and emotional—come from the craft itself and the impact you make over time. This isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. And if you’re willing to put in the work, the learning never stops, and neither does the opportunity to grow.

David Arcara

Bringing On Mirit

This is part 8 of 10 of our 10 Years of Laconia Series.

Sometimes the best talent finds you. That's exactly what happened when Mirit Lugassi sent me a cold email after an Included VC workshop (thanks to our Venture Fellow, Ross Haleliuk, for the invite!). Little did we know that this email would lead to one of our most important team additions.

Here's the thing about Mirit: once you meet her, you start seeing her everywhere. She showed up at non-profit roundtables discussing LP perspectives. She appeared at Venture Cooperative AMAs. She participated in VC Unleashed events and practice pitch sessions. Usually, it’s hard for people outside VC to end up in the VC rooms, but it was like she had already broken into the industry. 

It wasn't just about showing up. Mirit brought something special to every conversation: a unique blend of operational expertise, strategic thinking, and genuine curiosity about transforming venture capital. With more than a decade of experience building B2B software companies across the US, UK, Israel, and Europe, she had the kind of global perspective we valued. She had transformed companies as Head of Growth & Customer Success at DueDil (acquired by Artesian) and VP of Customer Operations at a high-growth edtech startup. When we say she drives results, we mean it—we're talking about 10x ARR increases and 5x monthly customer acquisition acceleration.

Mirit’s work extended beyond traditional operations. She helped build 51 Unicorns, an investment club focused on female retail investors, and SeedImpact, connecting mission-driven angel investors with underrepresented founders. As an Included VC fellow, she was actively working to diversify the face of our industry.

The more we got to know Mirit, the more obvious it became: we needed her on our team. Her operational background meant she could offer founders practical, been-there-done-that advice. Her strategic mindset helped her spot promising opportunities others might miss. And her commitment to changing venture capital aligned perfectly with our mission.

In true Laconia fashion, this wasn't just about adding another investor to our team. It was about finding someone who would make us better—someone who brought new perspectives, challenged our thinking and shared our values of transparency, collaboration, and community.

As we celebrate our 10th anniversary and look toward the future, bringing Mirit onto our team stands out as one of our best decisions. She embodies everything we look for in a partner: whip-smart execution, genuine empathy, sharp judgment, and unwavering optimism about what venture capital can be.

You can reach Mirit at mirit@laconiacapitalgroup.com. But fair warning: once you meet her, don't be surprised if you start seeing her everywhere too. That's just the Mirit effect.

Geri Kirilova

Giving Back: From Internships to our Co-op Program

This is part 7 of 10 of our 10 Years of Laconia Series.

When we launched Laconia, we knew education and mentorship would be central to our mission. Our first step in cultivating the next generation of venture talent was practical: As a small, growing firm, we needed help with everything from updating our CRM to conducting due diligence. We started an internship program, bringing on two to three paid interns throughout the year.

From the beginning, we approached our internship program differently than most firms. These bright, curious students and young professionals brought fresh perspectives, challenged our assumptions, and made us better investors. We found ourselves dedicating significant time to mentoring them, including them in investment meetings, bringing them along to board meetings, and teaching them how to write investment memos.

Our interns went on to join portfolio companies, become full-time investors, and build their own startups. (One of them even ended up a Partner at Laconia!) Word spread, and soon we were receiving hundreds of high-quality applications for just a handful of spots, and I started to tear my hair out—how could it be that there are so many talented people who want to learn about venture capital and leverage their skills to help startups, and we only have 2 spots?

I couldn’t get these questions out of my head: What if we could scale this impact? What if we could create a program that would expand access to venture capital education while maintaining the hands-on, transparent approach that made our internship program successful?

In 2021, we transformed our internship track into a fellowship program and launched the Venture Cooperative with a clear mission: to create the most accessible path into venture capital. We took everything we learned from our internship program—the importance of real-world exposure, the value of transparency, the power of hands-on learning and built it into a scalable format that could reach hundreds of participants globally.

The program's impact has been significant. In just a few years, we've trained over 1,300 fellows from diverse backgrounds across the globe. Our fellows include successful founders, operators transitioning to investing, angel investors seeking institutional experience, aspiring fund managers, and career transitioners. Most notably, 80% of our fellows come from underrepresented backgrounds in venture capital.

The Venture Cooperative's strength lies in its depth of engagement. Fellows don't just learn theory; they participate in live deal flow, investment meetings, and due diligence. They get direct mentorship from our investment team and network with industry leaders. They also have skin in the game: if a fellow sources an investment that we make, they share in the upside.

The program's benefits flow both ways. Fellows expand our market footprint and deal flow—they've identified over 300 startups, leading to multiple companies in due diligence and completed investments. They become informed potential LPs—six program participants invested in Fund III, without the burden of the typically exclusionary high investment minimums. And they strengthen our network—we even met Mirit Lugassi, now an Associate at Laconia, through an event invitation from a Venture Fellow.

Our fellows' successes validate the program's approach. They've launched their own funds, started venture studios, created angel syndicates, and spun off their own fellowship programs.

The evolution from our internship program to the Venture Cooperative mirrors Laconia’s broader journey: we started small, stayed curious, and weren’t afraid to think differently about how things “should” be done. identifying opportunities, testing solutions, and scaling what works. We saw an opportunity to create impact at scale while staying true to our values of transparency, collaboration, and community.

As we approach our 10th anniversary, the Venture Cooperative represents one of our proudest achievements. It's a testament to our belief that venture capital can—and should—be more accessible, more diverse, and more collaborative. By giving back and opening doors for others, we've not only helped shape the next generation of venture talent but also become better investors and builders along the way.

Here's to the next decade of learning, teaching, and growing together.

Geri Kirilova

Our Unique LP Base and Fund Structure: An Entrepreneurial Approach

This is part 6 of 10 of our 10 Years of Laconia Series.

We just don't fit in. Our personality has always been that of outsiders. This outsider identification is likely what drove us to become founders in the first place, both as operators and as venture capitalists. We are drawn to entrepreneurial niches that pique our curiosity, where there’s a unique fit, and then we build something meaningful around that opportunity. This is precisely how we built Laconia.

Laconia is the culmination of this approach, consisting of three core seed funds, a fund of funds, a number of later-stage SPVs (special purpose vehicles) allowing us to capitalize on our pro-rata rights, and GP interests in two blockchain infrastructure funds. We call this a horizontal approach to building assets under management (AUM). It enables us to achieve scale without losing our early-stage founder spirit. While we recognize the incentives and advantages of growing AUM, we’re committed to doing so without sacrificing our core strengths in seed-stage investing, upside potential, or alignment with our LPs. Our philosophy is simple: we make money when they make money.

A Unique LP Structure

Our LP structure sets us apart. Instead of relying on institutional investors, we’ve cultivated a base comprised primarily of family offices and high-net-worth individuals. This structure allows us to foster a more personal and collegial relationship with and among our LPs. By prioritizing engagement and open communication across all of Laconia’s activities, we’ve made education, collaboration, and community central to our operations. These principles not only enhance the value we provide to our portfolio companies but also make our partnerships deeply rewarding on a personal level.

Balancing Scale with Foundational Values

Over the past decade, we’ve grown Laconia from a start-up to a diversified investment platform. Yet, we’ve never lost sight of our identity as founders and entrepreneurs first. This identity drives our curiosity-driven, outsider approach to investing. We’ve consciously rejected the traditional founder/VC dichotomy, recognizing that such a divide can undermine the trust and collaboration essential to building successful companies. For us, bridging this gap isn’t just practical—it’s also more enjoyable.

Our horizontal approach to AUM growth allows us to remain nimble and aligned with the founders we back. By maintaining this balance, we’ve created a model that serves both our investors and our portfolio companies while staying true to our entrepreneurial roots. Laconia’s success is built on this foundation of trust, alignment, and curiosity—principles that guide us as we continue to navigate and shape the venture capital landscape.

David Arcara