How the Next General Partners Are Winning Deals

This morning we published a list of 15 venture capital partners our sources tell us could be slated to become general partners, or the top decision makers at their firms. One thing that’s clear from the dozens of conversations I had to report on the list: Investors need to be more creative—and move faster—than ever to win deals. Take Yazan El-Baba, a partner at San Francisco-based VC firm Emergence Capital. In 2024, while trying to win a stake for Emergence in a startup looking to raise its Series A, he discovered a shared love of martial arts. “His eyes lit up,” El-Baba recalled. He eventually sealed the deal by practicing Jiu-Jitsu with the founder, whom he declined to name. “Speed matters,” he said. (Read the full story and what happened to last year’s Next General Partners here.)

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