"Turpentine VC" | Venture Capital and Investing · Erik Torenberg

E82: Fundraising in Bear Markets: How Nichole Wischoff Closed $50M [How I Invest]

·29 min·2 clips

Nicole says she ran 108 first calls, got 28 commitments, and closed 50% of the fund in about three weeks after May 1.

1. Turpentine VC presents David Weisberg's How I Invest conversation with Nicole Wischoff about fundraising in bear markets. 2. David Weisberg hosts the interview, and Nicole Wischoff is the emerging-manager GP explaining how she raised a $50 million fund. 3. The episode asks how Wischoff closed a $50 million fund in summer 2024 while LP markets were still difficult. 4. Wischoff says she went out in March, aimed for a May first close, and targeted a final close in August. 5. Zendana anchored the fund, and Wischoff says the fund was off to the races within five months end to end. 6. She says Fund 1 and Fund 2 had data showing top-decile results on 2021 and 2022 vintages. 7. She also points to early markups in Fund 2 as part of the product case. 8. Wischoff says her distribution advantage comes from brand-building, operating experience, and a large social footprint. 9. She says she had deep operating experience with CEO co-founders and had built products, hired, and fired before venture. 10. She says Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and the podcast helped people know who she was and pick up her calls. 11. Wischoff says that, after about two years, cold LinkedIn messages started getting responses from founders almost every time. 12. She says references from portfolio founders also helped her win new deals. 13. She gives Fund 1 averages of about 0.7% ownership and $150K checks, versus Fund 2 averages of 4.7% ownership and about $650K checks. 14. She says the $50 million fund is meant to lead and co-lead more often and possibly write up to $2 million checks. 15. On LP objections, she says the biggest pass reason was that the fund size was too small for some institutional check sizes. 16. She says Zendana used an exercise that tested whether Fund 3-style capital could have been deployed into her existing portfolio companies. 17. Wischoff says she ran 108 first calls, got 28 commitments, and converted about 26% of the funnel. 18. She says 38.5 million of the 50 million came from six LPs, including one $15 million check. 19. The interview sounds practical and tactical, with a lot of direct back-and-forth about timelines, funnel management, and relationship-building. 20. Investors raising emerging-manager funds and founders studying LP process would likely listen; people avoiding VC fundraising details might skip it.

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