Master of micro VC, Chris Douvos of Ahoy Capital, on why there's always room for a Bugatti in a market full of Fords and Toyotas

Alt Goes Mainstream: The Latest on Alternative Investments, WealthTech, & Private Markets

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

On today’s show, we welcome a veteran of venture, a champion of portfolio concentration, a master of micro VC.

Chris Douvos has taken a mosaic of experiences as an allocator at both endowments and funds that worked on behalf of institutional investors to found Ahoy Capital in 2018, an intentionally right-sized firm focused on working with smaller, emerging VC managers. A pioneering investor in the micro VC movement, Chris has been a mainstay in venture capital for decades. At Ahoy, he discovers and partners with smaller VC funds to help drive returns for his LPs, being seen as a “bird dog in the Valley” for many institutional investors who lack the access, network, and knowledge of the early-stage venture landscape to Chris’s degree.

Chris has been embedded in the venture world for years, dating back to the early 2000s. Prior to Ahoy Capital, Chris spearheaded investment efforts at Venture Investment Associates and The Investment Fund for Foundations. He initially learned the craft of private markets investing at Princeton’s University endowment, although he earned his BA and MBA from Yale.

Chris and I had such a fun discussion about venture and the emerging VC landscape. We discussed:

• How the business of venture has changed.
• Why there’s always room for a Bugatti when the market has a lot of Fords and Toyotas.
• What he learned from Doug Leone at Sequoia in his early days as an allocator at Princeton and how it’s informed how he invests today.
• Why it’s tough to be a midsized fund in today’s venture market.
• Why he believes that concentration is key as a LP – and that diversification can lead to “diworseification.”
• Why he believes smaller fund sizes can lead to outperformance.

Thanks Chris for coming on the podcast to share your wisdom and lessons learned from decades in venture.