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I last visited SuperVenture in 2020. Covid was well on its way and the one side event I remember was a cosy dinner hosted by Seedcamp and Tiny VC which I weaselled my way into.
This week, the conference — where the tables famously turn and VCs spend all week pitching to their investors, the LPs — has been a much bigger affair.
Around 50 side events have been organised across the week. They range from invite-only dinners for LPs and a handful of select GPs, a HIIT class, a padel tournament (more on that later), novel food tastings (including coffee cupping) and a party at the zoo. One entrepreneurial soul has started a Google spreadsheet listing most of the events for attendees to keep track of; there's also a WhatsApp group with 200+ members sharing which ones they're off to.
Many VCs I’ve spoken to don’t even have a ticket to the actual event, they’re just in town for the side event networking. It’s an economical move; a three-day pass for VCs is £2,999. Pension funds, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, foundations, endowments and corporate investors — aka those VCs’ limited partners (LPs) — go free.
The problem for VCs who have coughed up for a ticket (or, if they were clever, got a speaking slot so they could get a free one) is that there don't seem to be all that many LPs at the event. The European Investment Fund (EIF) is here en masse. Several members of its team have been being mobbed in the lobby all week. KfW, the German state bank, is here too. Various other LPs — like Adams Street Partners, one of the world’s largest fund of funds — popped in for their stage appearance and then, as far as I could tell, scooted off.
SuperVenture’s website says 40% of attendees are LPs, but many of the VCs I've spoken to think lots of them are actually on the other side of town at SuperReturn, the much bigger private equity-focused conference that SuperVenture spun out from. (And they are not happy about the distance between the two venues.)
That might be why side events are taking centre stage this year. VCs told me they're a much more relaxed way to get to know LPs — and a good way to bring together co-investors. They're also a chance to get out of a suit and, I've found, have a whole lot more women attending them than the main event.
The most memorable one for me? Love Ventures’ rooftop padel tournament. I can confirm that spending an hour whacking a tennis ball around a court under threatening rain clouds with a bunch of VCs in shorts is a good way to make new pals and mix up the networking marathon.
But all these side events are quite a chunky line in a VC’s marketing budget. Several of the event organisers told me prices can range from £2,000 for a drinks gathering, up to £30k for a dinner and £50k or more for a party. It's not always the VC organisers who cough up the cash though. If you spot a law firm, big service provider or bank named as a partner, you can assume they’re paying for it.
I’m going to guess the budget for Hedosophia founder Ian Osborne’s party last night — an invite-only event which rumours suggested might have Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Flo Rida or Fatboy Slim headlining— was even higher. (Half of the rumours were true: Flo Rida and Fatboy Slim took to the stage.)
Despite the almost complete lack of startups (and sunny-ish weather), SuperVenture is starting to feel more like Slush than any other conference I’ve attended for a while. It’s a networking onslaught — with plenty of dinners and parties going on well past midnight — and kind of… fun.
But, is it actually helping VCs fundraise? I polled a few GPs — and most agreed that it's a useful way to catch up with existing LPs or those who they have ongoing conversations with, bump into people who might have missed your last few emails and have a few initial conversations with individuals who might invest way down the line. It's not, however, a sure fire way to get a fund closed.
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Correction: An earlier version of this piece said it was Ian Osborne's 50th birthday party. He's not 50 — and it wasn't his birthday.
