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The Fellow Office Fellowship: Elevating LA Venture
The Fellow Office Fellowship is an invite-only initiative designed to foster collaboration between family office principals, family office executives, and emerging venture managers in the Los Angeles investment ecosystem.
Program Overview
The Fellow Office Fellowship is a 9-week program that brings together experienced family office principals, family office executives, and emerging venture managers. Through biweekly sessions, participants engage in meaningful dialogue, share insights, and develop strategies to enhance their respective roles in the investment world. Each family office principal and executive is paired with three emerging managers, dedicating three weeks to each manager. This personalized approach ensures deep engagement and mutual understanding.
Key Objectives
Bridge the Gap: The fellowship seeks to close the knowledge and relationship gap between family offices and emerging venture managers.
Foster Collaboration: By facilitating direct interaction, the program encourages participants to build lasting partnerships.
Strengthen the Ecosystem: The initiative enhances Los Angeles's venture capital ecosystem by empowering both family offices and emerging managers to contribute more effectively.
How It Works
The fellowship is carefully structured to maximize value for family office principals, executives, and venture managers. Here's how the program unfolds:
Pairing Process Each family office principal and executive is matched with three venture managers based on shared interests, investment strategies, or complementary goals. This ensures alignment and creates a foundation for productive discussions.
Biweekly Sessions Participants meet twice a wee for in-depth discussions on topics such as:
Investment strategies
Risk management
Fund operations
Market trends These sessions allow all participants to gain a deeper understanding of each other's challenges and opportunities.
Rotational Focus Family office principals dedicate three weeks to each emerging manager and family office executive, enabling focused mentorship and tailored guidance. This rotational model ensures that all participants receive individualized attention.
Benefits for Participants
The Fellow Office Fellowship provides unique advantages for family office principals, executives, and emerging venture managers:
For Family Office Principals
Family office principals gain direct exposure to promising emerging managers, allowing them to assess investment talent early and build strategic relationships. By engaging with these rising investors, principals can diversify their portfolios with innovative strategies and gain fresh insights into evolving market trends. The fellowship also offers a peer network of like-minded investors, fostering collaboration and shared learning.
For Family Office Executives
Executives within family offices benefit from a deeper understanding of fund operations, governance models, and due diligence best practices. The program provides a hands-on perspective on manager selection and portfolio construction, equipping executives with the knowledge to refine their family office’s investment framework. Additionally, they gain access to a network of both seasoned professionals and emerging talent, enhancing their ability to source and evaluate new opportunities.
For Emerging Venture Managers
New venture managers receive mentorship from experienced family office principals and executives, helping them navigate the complexities of working with high-net-worth investors. Tailored feedback sessions refine their approach to structuring funds, communicating investment theses, and aligning with family office priorities. The fellowship also facilitates meaningful networking opportunities, granting emerging managers access to key players in the Los Angeles investment ecosystem.
Program Goals
The overarching mission of the Fellow Office Fellowship is to create a collaborative environment where participants can thrive together. Specific goals include:
Improving Investment Outcomes: By sharing experiences and strategies, participants can develop innovative approaches that enhance returns for both family offices and venture funds.
Building Long-Term Connections: The fellowship emphasizes relationship-building as a cornerstone of success in the investment world.
Empowering Regional Growth: Strengthening ties between family offices and venture managers contributes to Los Angeles's broader economic development by fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.
Why Los Angeles?
Los Angeles has emerged as a vibrant hub for venture capital activity, particularly in early-stage investments across sectors like technology, entertainment, healthcare, and sustainability. However, despite its growth, challenges persist in bridging the gap between capital sources (family offices) and fund operators (emerging managers).
The Fellow Office Fellowship addresses this gap by creating a platform for collaboration tailored specifically to the Los Angeles ecosystem. Its focus on mentorship, relationship-building, and mutual understanding positions it as a key driver of regional innovation.
Challenges Addressed by the Fellowship
The fellowship tackles several key challenges faced by family offices, their executives, and emerging venture managers:
Misaligned Expectations
Family offices often struggle to find fund managers who understand their unique needs, such as multigenerational wealth preservation or impact investing goals. Conversely, emerging managers may lack insight into how family offices evaluate opportunities.
Solution: Through structured interactions, the fellowship fosters mutual understanding, enabling all parties to align their objectives effectively.
Limited Access
Emerging managers frequently face barriers when trying to connect with family offices due to their exclusive nature or reliance on referrals.
Solution: The invite-only structure of the fellowship ensures that participants are pre-vetted, creating a trusted environment for meaningful engagement.
Knowledge Gaps
Family offices may lack exposure to innovative strategies pursued by new fund managers, while emerging managers may be unfamiliar with operational intricacies specific to family offices.
Solution: The program’s emphasis on knowledge exchange bridges these gaps, equipping all groups with valuable insights.
Impact on Los Angeles’s Venture Ecosystem
By nurturing collaboration between family office principals, executives, and emerging venture managers, the Fellow Office Fellowship has a transformative impact on Los Angeles’s investment landscape:
Increased Capital Flow: Stronger relationships lead to more investments in early-stage ventures, driving innovation across key industries.
Enhanced Diversity in Leadership: Emerging managers often bring fresh perspectives or focus on underrepresented founders or sectors, diversifying the region’s investment portfolio.
Strengthened Community Ties: The fellowship creates a network of committed professionals who contribute not only financially but also strategically to Los Angeles’s growth.
This Fellow Office Fellowship is designed to be an innovative solution to bridging the gap between family office principals, family office executives, and emerging venture managers in Los Angeles. By fostering mentorship, collaboration, and mutual understanding through its structured 9-week program, it not only strengthens individual participants but also contributes significantly to the region’s broader economic growth.
Through initiatives like this fellowship, Los Angeles continues to position itself as a leader in venture capital innovation—where experienced investors and executives meet rising talent to shape the future of entrepreneurship and investment success together.
Curriculum
Here's a 9-week curriculum designed to provide valuable insights for family office principals, executives, and emerging venture managers. The fellowship meets twice a week, with one session focused on instruction and expert panels and the other on case studies, peer discussions, and hands-on applications.
Week 1: Foundations of Family Office & Venture Capital
Session 1 (Lecture & Panel):
Overview of family offices: structures, investment mandates, and capital allocation
The venture capital landscape: fund structures, economics, and LP-GP relationships
Perspectives from family office principals and emerging managers
Session 2 (Workshop):
Case studies on family office investment strategies
Peer introductions and goal-setting
Week 2: Fund Structuring & Governance
Session 3 (Lecture & Panel):
Mechanics of venture funds: structure, fees, and waterfall models
Family office considerations: governance, due diligence, and manager selection
Panel with experienced fund managers and family office executives
Session 4 (Workshop):
Analyzing real-world fund term sheets and LPAs
Role-playing negotiations between emerging managers and family offices
Week 3: Investment Thesis Development & Deal Sourcing
Session 5 (Lecture & Panel):
Crafting a compelling investment thesis
Sourcing high-quality deals: networks, platforms, and differentiation
Insights from experienced investors and emerging managers
Session 6 (Workshop):
Participants refine and present their investment theses for feedback
Week 4: Due Diligence & Risk Management
Session 7 (Lecture & Panel):
Family office approach to due diligence: evaluating managers and deals
Venture capital risk management strategies
Perspectives from LPs and fund managers on diligence best practices
Session 8 (Workshop):
Conducting mock due diligence on real or simulated investment opportunities
Week 5: Portfolio Construction & Capital Allocation
Session 9 (Lecture & Panel):
Family office portfolio construction: balancing venture capital with other assets
Venture fund portfolio management: reserves, follow-ons, and pacing
Case studies from top-performing funds and family offices
Session 10 (Workshop):
Participants design and present a sample portfolio allocation strategy
Week 6: Fundraising & Investor Relations
Session 11 (Lecture & Panel):
How emerging managers can attract family office capital
Investor communication strategies and LP expectations
Fireside chat with family office investors and fund managers
Session 12 (Workshop):
Pitch simulations: emerging managers pitch to family offices and receive feedback
Week 7: Market Trends & Sector Focus Areas
Session 13 (Lecture & Panel):
Current and future investment trends in venture capital
How family offices are positioning themselves in key sectors
Insights from sector specialists and thematic investors
Session 14 (Workshop):
Participants analyze investment opportunities in different sectors
Week 8: Operations, Exits, and Liquidity Planning
Session 15 (Lecture & Panel):
Managing a venture firm: operations, reporting, and compliance
Family office exit strategies: secondaries, co-investments, and liquidity planning
Fireside chat with fund managers and secondary market experts
Session 16 (Workshop):
Structuring an exit strategy and planning liquidity scenarios
Week 9: Capstone Project & Networking
Session 17 (Capstone Presentations):
Each participant presents a capstone project: either an investment thesis, fund strategy, or allocation framework
Feedback from expert panelists
Session 18 (Closing Reception & Networking):
Reflections and key takeaways
Networking with LPs, fund managers, and peers
This curriculum provides actionable insights for all three groups, offering a mix of expert instruction, hands-on workshops, and networking to ensure they leave with valuable knowledge and connections.