Founders Fund

For Sean Parker, a managing partner at Founders Fund (FF), a San Francisco-based venture capital (VC) firm, November 2007 was a critical moment in the process of raising the firm’s second fund. As he prepared to describe FF’s nontraditional strategy to a potential limited partner (LP) in San Francisco’s Financial District, he decided to focus on what distinguished Founders Fund from the sea of VC firms in Silicon Valley, how it was innovating within a mature industry, and why it would be the most successful fund in history. Since its inception in 2005, Founders Fund had attracted substantial publicity. Though most had been positive, Parker nevertheless wanted to address a few of the critiques that had surfaced within the industry press. He hoped to be persuasive—FF wanted to close the $150-million round before the end of the month.