Why are you the right person, or team, to do this for ten years?

LP question of the week: "Why are you the right person, or team, to do this for ten years?" 🤝

It rarely comes in those words.

For a team it sounds like: How did you meet? Who decides when you disagree? What happens if one of you leaves?

For a solo GP: Who challenges your decisions? What happens if you are out for three months? Who runs the fund if you can't?

And for both: How much of your own money is in?

For an emerging fund, these questions decide more than the return projections. A projected IRR without a track record behind it is a hypothesis. How decisions get made, and who keeps the fund running, is something an LP can actually underwrite.

What helps in the room:

1. Show how decisions get challenged: a real disagreement between partners, or for a solo GP, the IC and advisers who can say no.
2. Show the key person clause before they ask. For a solo GP, the whole fund is the key person.
3. Make the GP commitment meaningful for you, not a round number for the deck.
4. Have a continuity plan: succession for every partner, or a named back-up for a solo GP.

An anchor LP is underwriting a ten-year relationship. Answer that first, and the returns conversation gets easier. 🔑