Swimming with Allocators · Earnest Sweat, Alexa Binns

SWA’s Best of 2025 (Part 2)

·53 min·3 clips

Megan Reynolds says the front of the firm was treated as equal to deal teams, with compensation and stature.

1. Swimming with Allocators’ 2025 best-of Part 2 centers on Laura Thompson of Sapphire, Megan Reynolds, and Integra Global Advisors’ Evan and Charlotte. 2. Laura Thompson matters because she writes for Sapphire’s OpenLP initiative and talks directly about how LPs underwrite venture funds. 3. Megan Reynolds matters because she leads capital formation and explains how LP-client relationships shape private markets. 4. The episode asks what allocators should be doing differently as venture becomes more competitive and more institutional. 5. Laura says underwriting funds is harder now, especially for funds number two and three. 6. She tells allocators to look closely at program design, because the right strategy depends on what the portfolio is trying to achieve. 7. Laura says LPs should do reference work, call founders, and call follow-on investors before making commitments. 8. She argues that timing the venture cycle is too difficult, and that stepping out when the cycle looks scary may be the wrong move. 9. Laura says fintech is still attractive to Sapphire, even when others are moving away from it. 10. She also says AI will matter in most industries and that current valuations make AI an active underwriting question. 11. Laura says established generalists still need a point of view, because there is too much capital and too much competition to do everything. 12. She describes Sapphire’s emerging-manager work with CalSTRS as focused on institutional funds one, two, and three. 13. Laura says reserves have to be concentrated in the best companies or they hurt fund multiples. 14. She says co-investing and direct investing are difficult because LPs need different levels of recommendation and analysis. 15. Megan says the firms that trained her treated capital formation as equal to deal work, with compensation and stature attached to it. 16. She names Steve Schwarzman, David Bonderman, Jim Coulter, and David Rubenstein as examples of refined capital formation executives. 17. Megan says venture is entering a new phase with more transparency, clearer timelines, and more institutionalization of process. 18. She also predicts more creative solutions, including separate accounts, unique co-investment structures, and retail-LP access to private markets. 19. The episode feels like a practical, operator-heavy conversation with direct answers and little wasted time. 20. LPs, emerging managers, and fund-formation operators would get the most from it, while listeners wanting light banter probably would not.

As heard by us

A season three best of countdown that keeps capital formation front and center.

Swimming with Alligators ends 2025 with a season three best of countdown that keeps capital formation at the center of fund work, where it belongs.

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Why you'd press play

A holiday countdown for your allocator brain.

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