Menlo caps single-company exposure at about 20% of a fund, reached that level once with Anthropic, and builds such positions by laddering up on new data. Listen
Ganesan said Menlo would not put more than 20% of a fund into one company and has done so only with Anthropic. He distinguished making a 20% bet at the start of a fund, which takes far more risk, from laddering up to 20% as new data arrives. He said that with ownership falling ('even 10% is hard') investors should size up in proportion to the outlier opportunity.
“did you put 20% of the fund of a company in one check at the beginning of the fund? Or did you ladder up to 20% on the base of new data? Obviously much better to ladder up”
Listen to the episode Episode Fundraising & investors Link to this