Will You Return the Fund? What VCs and LPs Really Want | Sion Evans

Most founders don't understand how venture capital actually works. Sion Evans does. He sits at the top of the capital stack, picking the VCs who pick the founders. Sion is Managing Director at VenCap, a fund-of-funds that's been in the game for almost 40 years. $2 billion deployed. 500+ fund commitments. Exposure to Google, Airbnb, Stripe, SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic. In this episode, Sion breaks down the venture maths that most founders never see: why top funds lose money on 60% of their deals and still outperform, what a "fund returner" actually means for your startup, and why the top 1% of exits generate over half of all venture returns. If you're raising capital or thinking about it, this is the episode. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction 02:02 State of venture capital in 2025 04:43 The 2021 fallout 05:38 What is a fund-of-funds? 07:04 VenCap's 40-year longevity 08:28 Why VenCap backs generalists 09:29 How VenCap selects managers 11:40 The long-term nature of venture 14:01 The power law explained 16:26 What creates the floor on performance 18:45 How top managers stay consistent 19:48 VenCap's actual performance data 21:58 Advice for emerging managers 25:35 Going direct with storytelling 27:31 VenCap's best year of exits 29:25 The Private Mag 7 29:51 The rise of secondaries 34:15 Alternative strategies 34:38 Is AI a bubble? 38:47 UK venture and global ambition 41:00 Sion's path into venture 42:59 Ten years at VenCap 45:12 The Mark Zuckerberg meeting notes 47:06 From maths graduate to relationship builder 51:02 How AI is changing VenCap's work 53:32 Advice for young graduates 56:10 Would Sion ever start a company? 57:03 VC vs bootstrapping advice 58:08 Best career advice CONNECT WITH SION LinkedIn:   / sionevans1   VenCap: https://vencap.com SUBSCRIBE TO 23MILE Podcast Home: https://23mile.com/podcast #venturecapital #startups #vc #fundraising #founders #lp #investing