What Makes a VC Inevitable | Sam Huleatt

About this episode

Sam Huleatt discusses the traits and considerations for venture capitalists and capital allocators.

“Lower barriers to entry doesn’t mean higher probabilities of success.” — Sam Huleatt Sam Huleatt is the co-founder of The Side Letter, a platform driving network-based research for capital allocators. Prior to The Side Letter, he created and ran the The LP Institute at VC Lab, as well as let On Deck Angels at On Deck. Moreover, he's a serial founder, active angel investor in over 35 companies, and an active allocator in emerging fund managers, including the likes of Notation Capital, Orange Fund, Inuka Capital, Asylum Capital, and more. You can find Sam on his socials here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samhuleatt/ X / Twitter: https://x.com/samhuleatt OUTLINE: (00:00) Intro (01:34) Sam's childhood (03:24) The most persistent myth about Sam he never bothered to correct (05:47) Bottom-up vs top-down investor (13:37) Can career VCs develop empathy for the founder (18:43) Traits of someone who should definitely start a fund (26:45) Traits of someone who should NEVER start a fund (28:09) Air of inevitability (33:44) Why was Outlander VC inevitable? (36:11) Where should 60% of your Fund I capital come from? (41:47) Starting a VC fund is hard (44:46) Do LPs like GP…

People in this episode

Host: David Zhou

Guest: Sam Huleatt

Topics covered

• venture capital
• fund management
• investor traits
• capital allocation
• LP considerations

Keywords

• venture capital
• LP Institute
• angel investor
• fund management
• capital allocators
• emerging fund managers
• investment traits

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Side Letter, VC Lab, On Deck Angels, Notation Capital, Orange Fund, Inuka Capital, Asylum Capital

More episodes of Superclusters - The Emerging LP Podcast

• "You don't have enough dopamine in your pitch!" | El Pack w/ Asher Siddiqui · June 8, 2026 · 1h 18m
• The Hardest Fund I to Underwrite | Zach Ruchman · June 1, 2026 · 1h 32m
• What Your Lawyer Isn't Telling You About LPA Terms | Apurva Mehta & JD Montgomery · May 25, 2026 · 1h 12m
• How Value Add Differs in PE vs VC | Julia Rees Toader · May 18, 2026 · 1h 19m
• Does a VC's Value-Add Even Matter? | Stacey Kline & Ben Gallacher · May 11, 2026 · 1h 14m
• The 3 Big Family Office Transitions That No One Talks About | JD Montgomery Part 2 · May 4, 2026 · 1h 9m