Why Did Aydin Senkut Start Felicis With Only His Own Money?

Aydin Senkut started the first Felicis fund with his own $4 million because nobody wanted to give him money. He does not blame them. A friend or an LP would ask why he was raising a fund at all. He had not run a company, he was not an engineer, and he had not done venture capital. What he had done was be the first product manager at Google and the first international sales manager. His plan was to copy no other firm: back underestimated founders globally, invest across sectors, and break the rules LPs expected to hear. Almost every LP told him to get out.

He used his own money anyway. Four years later he had made 100 investments and had 12 exits, including a company exit of about $100 million, and he wanted to raise about $40 million. He compares the volume of work to athletic training. Put in far more hours than anyone else and the results get decent before talent is the whole story. Other new funds were showing paper markups. He wanted real exits.