Rethinking the Venture Co-Investment Playbook

Rethinking the Venture Co-Investment Playbook

From Swimming with Allocators by Earnest Sweat, Alexa Binns

April 22, 2026 · 40 min

About this episode

Juan Diego Briceno discusses the intricacies of venture co-investment and family office strategies in the current investment landscape.

This week on Swimming with Allocators, Juan Diego Briceno (JDB) shares his journey from New York private banking and Latin American wealth management to building and spinning out Pomifer Capital, an “extension of family office teams” focused on private equity and venture capital. He explains how sophisticated family offices think about alternatives, why many learn the hard way that they shouldn’t try to be full-time VCs, and how to avoid adverse selection in both direct deals and co-investments. The conversation covers hype cycles and climate investing, the dangers of over-concentrating in themes, what makes a family office truly institutional-ready, and how to design a durable venture program through vintage diversification, strategy mix, and manager selection. JDB also breaks down key differences between PE and VC (from GP backgrounds to data transparency), why traditional PE-style co-investing often fails in venture, and how creative structures like lower management fees with higher carry can better align GPs and LPs. Also, Michael Podolny of Sidley explains how current macro uncertainty and the AI boom are slowing some venture deals, concentrating capital into a few “prized”…

People in this episode

Hosts: Earnest Sweat, Alexa Binns

Guest: Juan Diego Briceno

Topics covered

  • venture capital
  • private equity
  • family offices
  • co-investments
  • climate investing
  • macro uncertainty
  • AI boom

Keywords

  • venture co-investment
  • family office
  • private equity
  • climate investing
  • macro uncertainty
  • AI
  • hype cycles
  • manager selection

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Pomifer Capital, Sidley

Places: New York, Latin America

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