Why Does Oren Zeev Skip a Limited Partner Advisory Council?

Oren Zeev skips a limited partner advisory council because he wants no extra rules and no friction around cross-fund deals. Most funds have a limited partner advisory council. Firms that do a cross-fund investment bring it for approval, and they receive approval, but the process already reduces the motivation to do the deal. He has no council.

Limited partners who back him trust him. He will not betray limited partners or founders, because betrayal is self-destructive. A person can betray other people's trust only once, and afterward they never receive trust again. He treats each fund as his own money because in many ways the capital is his. He is typically close to 15 percent of the fund as a limited partner. He is always the biggest limited partner, and he does not have a single fund where he was not. He has 30 percent carry. Between the limited-partner stake and the carry, he holds over 40 percent of the economics of the fund.

Most venture investors, or all of them, sit on a spectrum between substance and appearance. He set aside the word perception and used appearance. A decision made to avoid appearing one way, or to appear another way, is one he calls maybe suboptimal. He operates 100 percent on substance, and the approach has costs.