This year we will pass 2.000 participants in the Fund Manager! Masterclass. Since launch, participants from 50+ countries have mastered new elements of the venture capital fund journey with the Masterclass. But who are they, and who joins the Fund Manager! Masterclass?
70+ Masterclasses. 5 Continents. 33 Participant Groups
In most parts of the world, venture capital has historically been a ‘black box’, hidden, secret, unavailable to most. This insight led to the development of the Fund Manager! simulation. Today, across emerging and established markets alike, a new generation of fund managers, fund investors, and ecosystem developers is rising. They are structuring new investment funds, deploying capital into underserved markets, and redefining what it means to build the venture capital ecosystem from the ground up.
Based on 70+ Masterclasses, in places like UK, North America, Germany, Fiji, Singapore, Dubai, Western Balkans, Switzerland, Nordics, Mauritius, Egypt, South Africa, Belgium and numerous online cohorts, we’ve seen firsthand how diverse, and how powerful, the participants in a Fund Manager Masterclass can be.
Five Categories. 33 Groups. We’ve Seen Them All
Over these 70+ Masterclasses, we have observed a consistent, fascinating truth: the room is never just one type of person. Based on experience across every program we’ve run, we categorize participants into five main categories — spanning 33 distinct types of participants.
Each group brings different questions, different urgencies, and different assets to the room. Together, they create something extraordinary: a living simulation of the full venture capital ecosystem.
We’ve structured these five categories, 33 groups into the “Who attends a Fund Manager Masterclass” canvas, a handy overview for any ST partners, clients, Masterclass partners and business schools. Download it here.
1. Aspiring and Future Fund Managers — Building Tomorrow’s Funds (8%)
These are the people that show up to learn, to soak in and translate the new knowledge into new, actual venture funds. Participants in this this category come from many different backgrounds. Consulting, finance, corporate; many are MBA candidates,.
They share one thing; a desire to learn ‘all things venture capital’, with the goal of either starting their own fund in the future or seeking a job in the venture capital industry.
Out of this group, we see 5% – 8% following through and launching their own funds, going from masterclass to market in just a few years.
“Wow, there is a lot to take in, and a lot to manage. Extremely challenging and extremely helpful” is a common phrase heard amongst the Aspiring and Future Fund Managers
2. Emerging Fund Managers — The Builders of New Funds (40%)
Emerging fund managers, and their new team members, are the true pioneers in the VC space. Many join a masterclass with a fund strategy forming in their minds. Some are deep into legal setup, regulatory requirements and LP pitches.
Emerging fund managers are raising their fund I, II or III. For many, this can be a 10-year journey, maybe more. Some emerging fund managers build out teams, bring in new team members and recruit young talent; suddenly realizing they also need to be training their teams, while also navigating the learning journey themselves too.
“Even with years of experience, there are plenty of concepts we don’t fully utilize or grasp. This program clarified them significantly and gave me new insights.“
-Enrique Alvarado-Hablützel, Co-Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Chi Impact Capital
“This is so realistic. These are just the challenges we are facing right now”, is a common theme heard amongst emerging managers.
3. General Partners and Current VC Team Members — The Operators of Today’s Funds (30%)
At the core of every Masterclass are the active GPs and their teams — the fund architects already in the field, deploying capital, managing portfolios, and navigating the full complexity of fund lifecycle management.
These participants don’t come to learn what venture capital is. They come to sharpen what they’re already doing — and to solve the hard problems that don’t come up in LP reports. When they join, they understand the basics of thesis, strategy, deployment pace and LP reporting. But, two challenges stand out. Number one, how to ‘get better at exits and liquidity’, second, how to better embrace the 15-year life span of a fund, and using that insight to manage multiple funds on the same platform.
Senior GPs and Founding Partners
These participants are operating funds — often regional or sector-focused — and arrive to explore advanced themes: portfolio construction at scale, follow-on strategy, exit & liquidity strategy and LP alignment ahead of a new raise.
In one recent European cohort, several founding GPs used the Strategy Tools canvases to redesign their LP stack and stress-test their fund economics in real time — with peers who had done it before.
Managing Partners and Investment Partners
Driving investment decision-making, managing the portfolio, and building LP relationships — these participants often use the Masterclass to pressure-test their fund model and build a shared language with their team before entering a critical fundraising window.
Venture Partners and Operating Partners
Part-time, sector-specific partners who need a full-system view of how a fund works — and how their role fits into the larger GP machine.
Investment Team: Principals, Associates, Analysts
From deal flow analysts to senior associates, junior team members join to build a holistic view of how funds operate — from fund mechanics and portfolio modeling to LP relationship management and exit dynamics.
The result? They walk out able to contribute at a level far beyond their job title.
“It’s one thing to read about VC in books, but you only ‘get it’ under pressure.”
— IMD VAM Participant, Lausanne, Switzerland
4. Limited Partners — The Capital Behind the Funds (15%)
Every great fund manager needs a counterpart: the Limited Partners who provide the capital, mandate, and long-term stability that allow funds to be born, grow, and ultimately deliver returns.
In the Masterclass, LPs join for two critical reasons: to understand how to identify and back the right GPs — and to co-design new investment structures that align with their own mandates and constraints.
The LP participants we see span the full spectrum of capital:
- High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs) and Angel Networks evolving from direct startup investing into fund-level participation — moving from writing cheques to committing to fund structures
- Family Offices seeking diversification, access to innovation, and long-term exposure to early-stage growth
- Corporate Ventures (CVCs) and Fund-of-Funds, participating to identify sector-focused or geography-specific GP partners
- Foundations and Endowments exploring catalytic capital models and impact-first fund structures
- Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) playing a foundational role in developing VC ecosystems
- Pension Funds and Insurance Capital beginning to explore venture as an asset class — a shift accelerating across Europe and emerging markets alike
In Egypt, institutional LPs and national agencies explored how to design new LP frameworks that would enable more first-time fund managers to launch — sitting in the same room as the GPs they would later consider backing.
In the IMD classroom, some of the largest LP organizations in the Middle East, used the experience to sharpen their LP skills for future fund allocations in ultra-competitive markets.
In 2X Ignite, South Africa Masterclass, DFIs worked on new fund structures to channel growth capital into underserved markets, learning alongside the very fund builders they intended to support.
This cross-pollination — between capital providers and fund builders, in the same room, on the same simulation — is one of the defining features of the Fund Manager Masterclass.
5. The System Builders — Designing the Venture Ecosystem Itself (7%)
Then there’s the fifth group — and perhaps the most fascinating.
These are not the fund managers. Not the LPs. These are the architects of the broader venture capital system — the people designing national strategies, regulatory frameworks, accelerator programs, and the policy environments that either enable or constrain everything else.
System builders arrive at the Masterclass because they seek to understand the full machine — not from a textbook, but from the inside. They include:
- VC ecosystem builders and program funders creating national accelerators, sector programs, and capital formation strategies
- Government agencies, innovation authorities, and regulators exploring how fund structures, incentives, and public-private co-investment can drive growth
- Economic development organizations and capital market institutions looking to mobilise private capital into strategic sectors
- Universities and faculty members designing or evolving courses, research programs, and academic ventures into fund strategy and ecosystem design
- Service providers — lawyers, fund administrators, accountants, and advisors building practices around the VC ecosystem
- Journalists and analysts gaining first-person insight into how venture capital truly operates behind the scenes
- MBA students and research fellows exploring fund management as a career path or research domain
In Fiji, Egypt, and Singapore, government innovation agencies and DFIs attended side by side — using the Masterclass to co-design a more dynamic national VC landscape. In the DFDF VC program, national ecosystem builders used the immersive experience to strengthen the collaborative tissue between various GPs in the ecosystem.
In Mauritius, service providers, fund administrators and fund-of-fund allocators came together to gain a deeper appreciation of the complexities of managing a full 15-year fund journey.
This system-level participation is what makes each cohort genuinely unique — connecting micro (fund-level) thinking and macro (ecosystem-level) design in a single, intense learning environment.
Inside the Fund Manager Masterclass
Each Masterclass blends strategic learning, competitive simulation, and hands-on fund design. The core simulation — Fund Manager! — compresses 10–15 years of fund lifecycle into just a few intensive days. Participants don’t just learn about venture capital. They live it.
Across the Masterclass, participants work through the full fund journey:
- Early team formation – owning the key roles on a GP team
- Fund design and investment thesis — scoping strategy, sector focus, geographic mandate, and fund size
- LP engagement and capital stack design — sourcing, pitching, and closing Limited Partners on Fund I, II and maybe III
- Portfolio construction and follow-on decisions — deploying capital, managing dilution, and defending the portfolio
- Exit execution and DPI optimization — navigating acquisitions, secondary sales, and IPOs
- Outcomes and performance — tracking record performance, managing LP distributions and outperforming peer fund managers
The numbers from recent cohorts speak for themselves. At the IMD Venture Capital Asset Management Programme in Lausanne, six teams collectively deployed $2.2 billion across 153 investments, executing over 100 exit transactions — with fund returns ranging from a respectable 3.0x to an extraordinary 672x net DPI.
In Belgrade, eight competing funds from across the Western Balkans deployed $1.8 billion in simulated capital across 84 investments and 55 exits — in three days.
“I honestly didn’t believe it is possible to transmit that much information in such a short timeframe. Your unwavering support, energy and patience made sure everyone was at their highest learning potential!”
— Nastja Preradovic Visic, Western Balkans Masterclass
A Global Community of Fund Builders
From Cairo to Copenhagen, Toronto to Lausanne, Brussels to Mauritius, the Fund Manager Masterclass attracts a truly global cohort — connected by a shared ambition: to design, learn, build, and scale the next generation of venture capital funds.
The alumni network spans:
- GPs raising their first or second fund, now with a global peer group to call on
- LPs exploring new emerging markets— with the GP relationships to match
- DFI’s with a newfound respect for the complexities of managing investment funds
- Policy shapers designing capital market reforms and national VC infrastructure
- Innovation agencies building the scaffolding for entirely new ecosystems
- Corporate leaders engaging with emerging GPs for strategic collaborations
Together, these participants represent the full system of venture capital — from the first dollar raised to the last exit realised.
Designing the Future of Venture Capital
The Fund Manager Masterclass is more than an executive program. It’s a catalyst for VC ecosystem transformation. Each session becomes a micro-lab for fund design, VC innovation, and cross-border collaboration — the kind of convergence that doesn’t happen at conferences.
Whether delivered by European Women in Venture, Invest Europe, IMD, Newton Venture Program, Dubai Future District Fund, or in partnership with national development agencies, the experience is built around one fundamental belief:
Anyone can learn to navigate the full 15-year fund journey, ultimately unlocking a new generation of GPs, LPs and VC ecosystem developers globally.
Download the canvas
Get the “Who attends a Fund Manager Masterclass” canvas. Download it here.
About the Fund Manager Masterclass
The Fund Manager Masterclass is a Strategy Tools program delivered globally in partnership with governments, DFIs, business schools, and ecosystem programs. It has been run in 20+ countries across 5 continents. For information on hosting or partnering for a Masterclass, contact Chris Rangen ([email protected]) or visit Strategytools.io
