Episode summary
The New Rules of Venture: What Next-Gen LPs Should Know First
Swimming With Allocators
· · Hosts: Alexa Binns, Earnest Sweat · Guests: Iliana Oris Valiente, Shane Goudey
Summary
Iliana Oris Valiente argues that venture capital is changing fast enough that allocators need a new learning model, especially next-gen family office members who are being asked to make decisions without much formal training. She frames venture as a niche asset class that is hard to understand from the outside and says many family offices still default to what feels familiar, even when they want exposure to innovation and higher growth.
A major theme is that the AI era rewards generalists more than narrow experts. Iliana lays out a three-layer AI framework: infrastructure, application, and the human-experience layer, and says most allocators should avoid infrastructure unless they have direct domain expertise. She also warns that SaaS assumptions are no longer enough, because AI tools and enterprise build-it-yourself options are changing product durability and investment theses.
The conversation also focuses on how LPs should assess emerging managers and venture funds. Iliana emphasizes fit between the GP and the strategy, a clearly documented thesis, and the ability to evaluate whether the manager can really access differentiated deal flow. She says her research across 950 emerging managers suggests capital has concentrated heavily in AI and the U.S., while places like the Gulf and other non-obvious regions may offer more attractive opportunities.
Key takeaways
- Iliana says AI is commoditizing deep expertise and rewarding generalists who can connect nonobvious ideas across domains.
- She advises allocators to map every AI opportunity to infrastructure, application, or the human-experience layer before investing.
- Iliana says next-gen family office members often back venture more readily than older principals because they are more digitally native.
- Her rule for LPs is to get clear on time, capital, expertise gaps, and whether direct investing or a VC fund best fits the allocator.
- She says 53% of VC funding in the past year flowed into AI, much of it concentrated in about 20 funds and 11 mega-round companies.
- Iliana says emerging managers and regions like the Gulf may offer overlooked opportunities as governments seed new ecosystems and tax regimes shift.
Notable quotes
“AI is commoditizing deep expertise. And what it's really rewarding are the generalists who can go sufficiently in depth in certain areas”
“layer one is infrastructure. This is where all of the hardware is built, the GPUs, the data centers that are the size of Manhattan”
“the third layer is what I'm calling the human experience layer. Because while the technical people would have you think that everything revolves around the zeros and ones”
“there's very little educational content geared towards the investor or geared towards the limited partner”
“53% of all VC funding in this past year has flown into AI and specifically into about 20 VC funds”
How the episode opens
Welcome to Swinging with Alligators, — The VC podcast from the LP perspective — With your hosts Alexa Bins — And Ernest S. You ready? Let's dive in.
On today's episode, we have Ilana Orus Valiente. She's a managing director at Asenture, but she's also a woman who wears many hats. Uh she's a very involved LP at Allocate 1.
She also started her own um series called Capital Decoded uh that informs uh NextGen of family offices about learning about venture capital. Um and she's just a global citizen who's trying to help other global citizens. We're going to get into all of it today.
Um she's going to share with us why allocators need a new learning model for venture capital. um and how her background involved in being a global citizen innovation lens um and AI um provide her perspective on the world. So with that we welcome Illiana.
Hello and thank you so much for having me on the show. I love the name. — It's that as um it's I guess I need to be uh taught how to just be happy for other people. Um, I like to think of myself as a creative person and Alexa came up with the name. So
Amazing. I love that you're giving credit where credit is due. Kudos. — I remember in our pray conversation I was so impressed uh with just like your background and something that stood out to me is that you were bouncing around. You grew up between Siberia and Cuba. Um, how has that shaped your perspective, let alone as an investor, but just as a person? You mean those two places, Siberia and Cuba, have just a couple of things that are different from one another? H
Just a little bit.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- venture capital fundraising
- next-gen lp education
- ai venture investing
- family offices in vc
- co-investment opportunities
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Sidley Austin LLP
Watch the episode
Watch “The New Rules of Venture: What Next-Gen LPs Should Know First” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from Swimming With Allocators
Swimming With Allocators, this episode and its artwork belong to Earnest Sweat, Alexa Binns. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
