TL;DR: Sentinel’s Managing Partner, Jeremy Kranz, Operating Partner, Rumi Morales, and Investment Partner, Sylvester Wee, have a conversation about Sentinel’s “unlimited” partner framework. They share the value that fund investors can directly bring to individual portfolio companies and the strategic benefits gained as a result.
Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. – Alexander Graham Bell
Rumi: For some who might not be as familiar with venture capital funds, the investors that support them are called “limited partners” or “LPs.” The other day in the context of fundraising and working with startups, you mentioned our “unlimited” partner model at Sentinel. I always perk up at that phrase, and want to make sure we articulate that clearly.
Jeremy: Unlimited partners are part of our extended network to connect builders and adopters. I love calling our investors unlimited partners rather than LPs. Why do venture funds call their investors limited partners anyway? It's a legal label that signifies that these investors can't make investment decisions in the fund and signifies their liability is limited to their investment. They are limited in how much sphere of influence they can have on the fund’s management and decision-making.
R: But obviously, LPs are bringing a lot to the table in terms of their own experience, know-how, and networks.
J: Correct. They can be co-investors, they can open doors to their relationships that benefit startups. As we look at our own limited partners, they're from all around the world, have exceptional networks, and great perspectives that we can tap into in order to support our portfolio companies.
Sylvester: I’m happy to jump in with some examples. Recently, we facilitated introductions between a digital assets infrastructure provider and a major financial institution that our LPs are very close to. We also connected a real-time threat detection company and a global banking firm to explore synergies. These connections create a dynamic feedback loop among LPs, builders and adopters to commercialize our portfolio companies and produce new investment opportunities.
R: I will also add that we work with our LPs for our adopters survey work. This is something we do at Sentinel where we reach regularly and directly out to executives in large institutions and enterprises. We ask them about their problems, what technologies they’re interested in working with, and startups we can connect them to.
J: Yes, a lot of our reach-outs are facilitated by unlimited partners who have access to a wide range of operating businesses across geographies.
S: They also lay out their own friction points that inform our work. For example, one of our LPs is a North American family office with businesses in the retail and banking sectors. They had some concerns around operational efficiency and transactional security, so we've introduced solutions in no-code automation and data encryption. This engagement has connected our startups with potential design partners and customers within our network of family-owned businesses.
R:. At Sentinel, most of our LPs - rather, our unlimited partners! - have built large, diversified investment portfolios across asset classes. This includes real estate and infrastructure around the world in industries like healthcare, media, manufacturing, and energy. That makes the potential of their value-add as unlimited partners seem almost infinite in terms of all the different commercial touchpoints.
J: And that is something we feel is really valuable that we can bring to our portfolio companies. When a startup takes money from Sentinel, of course they're taking it from legally limited partners, but non-legally, unlimited partners who could end up being very important to them.
R: Many times when I talk with startups who are fundraising and they ask about which investors to bring in, I tell them they have the chance to assemble their own Avengers. Think about the different powers and skills each VC brings to the table that supplements their own capabilities. I guess what you’re sharing is that it’s important for startups to dig deeper and look at who is supporting the VCs on their cap table. Some VCs have purely financial backers but in Sentinel’s case, we want to build strategic connectivity too.
J: It is the model that we are popularizing – and it's not necessarily a new concept for us. When I was at GIC, I formed the Bridge Forum, recognizing that the Singapore ecosystem has a huge amount of connectivity to partners around the world. That was the unlimited partner network, this relationship with the Singapore government to work together and unlock that network for the benefit of startups. At Sentinel, we intend to take this to the next level.
S: I’m happy to provide more color on the Bridge Forum. It was really inspiring to witness the convergence of startups, institutions and policy makers across the world. Tech giants in our portfolio engaged in one-on-one discussions with important local and regional entities across banking, telecom and government. We want to leverage Sentinel as a platform to further facilitate such profound connections.
R: My own venture investing expertise has primarily been in corporate VC. In that case, it’s similar to the unlimited partner model because there is strategic connectivity beyond purely a financial partnership. But here are two things about corporate VCs. One, they don’t have to raise external capital, but they have to raise internal political capital. So a startup can get a huge dose of bureaucracy with a corporate VC that doesn’t come through with an unlimited partner model. And of course with a corporate VC, there’s just one corporation. You don’t get the benefit of a broader network.
J: Yeah, at Sentinel Global, this bigger network helps us tap into commercial opportunities for our portfolio, and assists us in our mission to be a bridge for builders and adopters. So we celebrate our unlimited partners. We're thankful to have them, and are excited to curate and connect them with our portfolio companies.
If you are a startup interested in working with us and tapping into our unlimited partner network, or you’re seeking to be an unlimited partner yourself, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us at hello@sentinelglobal.xyz
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