How 2023 Has Reshaped the Landscape for VC Firms with Winter Mead of Coolwater Capital

This week on Swimming with Allocators, Earnest and Alexa welcome Winter Mead, Founder of Coolwater Capital. During this conversation, Winter shares his journey from working in tech startups to becoming a venture capitalist. He discusses the challenges faced by emerging managers and the importance of training for aspiring fund managers, the changing landscape of venture capital investments, and the difficulties faced by limited partners (LPs) in assessing talent. Winter also emphasizes the importance of transparency, accountability, and accurate pricing in building a successful venture capital firm, the need for better management and increased specialization, and more.
Highlights from this week’s conversation include:
The journey in institutional investments (2:04)
Perspectives on Venture Captial (3:50)
Becoming a coach for emerging managers (5:50)
The Manager Accelerator Program (9:18)
Functions of a VC Firm (12:42)
Insider Insight: Tim Flannery on the need for Electronic Subscription Documents (13:27)
Finding investors (16:45)
The Evolution of Venture Capital (19:37)
Supporting Emerging Managers (22:24)
The rise of fund formation (24:38)
Shift in market dynamics (26:36)
The selection process for managers (33:00)
Trends and shifts in the industry (35:19)
The mismanagement of portfolio construction and reserves (40:43)
The need for increased specialization in fund formation (41:35)
The potential rise of specialized venture funds (42:36)
Final thoughts and takeaways (45:45)
Coolwater Capital focuses on emerging managers and technology investments. The firm has worked with over 240 emerging managers in the last four years by focusing on a model to build, launch and scale emerging fund managers.
Passthrough turns investor onboarding into a solved problem - it seamlessly manages subscription document distribution, execution, and compliance in minutes. As a leader in fund workflow automation for investors, fund managers, and other fintechs, Passthrough provides an integrated platform solution that makes the subscription document process turnkey for investors with replicable and verifiable identity information built in for future use. In addition to subscription documents, Passthrough also offers a full service KYC/AML product that streamlines collecting information from investors and screening them against sanctions lists so fund managers can remain compliant.
Swimming with Allocators is a podcast that dives into the intriguing world of Venture Capital from an LP (Limited Partner) perspective. Hosts Alexa Binns and Earnest Sweat are seasoned professionals who have donned various hats in the VC ecosystem. Each episode, we explore where the future opportunities lie in the VC landscape with insights from top LPs on their investment strategies and industry experts shedding light on emerging trends and technologies. Follow along and subscribe at swimmingwithallocators.com.

[@rbtrage]

Winter has terrific perspective from his place in the VC ecosystem!