E318: The Biggest Mistake Investors Make When Building a Venture Portfolio

What separates elite venture LPs from everyone else… and why do most family offices underestimate the governance required to win? In this episode, I sit down with Michael P. Larsen, a longtime Partner at Cambridge Associates, to unpack nearly two decades of building venture and private equity portfolios for leading institutions and family offices. Michael shares why longevity may be the ultimate competitive advantage in asset management, how governance quietly determines venture outcomes, and why portfolio size can matter just as much as manager selection. We dive into power laws, spiky returns, growth equity’s overlooked role, co-invest best practices, and how benchmarking can help LPs stay disciplined during optically challenging cycles.