The VCPE Conference 2022

Mishaal Nathani, Contributor

We are back to in-person conferences!

What are the key trends impacting the current venture capital and private equity markets? Are we in a valuation bubble? What does the future of consumer investing look like in the midst of a pandemic? These, along with several others, were among the questions discussed at the 28th annual VCPE Conference at the Omni Seaport Hotel in Boston held on February 5th 2022 by The Venture Capital and Private Equity Club. 

Being the first in-person conference of this scale since the pandemic started, there was loads of excitement—and the turnout reflected that! Over 750 investors, professionals, and students came together for a full day of panels to understand the future of the Private Equity and Venture Capital industries—in its entirety and within specific niches.

On the agenda were 19 panels, including consumer, healthcare, technology, the state of PE, the state of VC, as well as panel discussions focused on India and Latin America. 

Keynotes were from Meg Whitman, President Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Kenya and former CEO of Quibi, Hewlett Packard and eBay; Yup S. Kim, Head of Investments, Private Equity at CalPERS; and David Roux, founder of Silver Lake Partners and BayPine LP. All the keynotes highlighted the opportunities as well as the current risks of the market. 

Prior to the conference, Ms. Whitman said “The HBS Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference continues to be one of the most reputable and well attended alternative asset conferences in the U.S. I am excited about the opportunity to speak at the event, which attracts some of the most respected alternative investment professionals. I look forward to exchanging views on the key trends affecting the private equity and venture capital industries today and in the future.”

One of the most popular panels focused on “launching your first fund,” further highlighting the interest in early-stage venture capital and angel investing. The panel discussed the technicalities of launching your own fund. It also dug deep into answering whether these new funds that relied more on personal brand than track record were a fad or whether they were here to stay. The consensus was pretty clear—traditional ways of investing are being disrupted. The panel had a stellar line up including Tony Lee (One Rock Capital Partners), Raphael Mukomilow (Picus Capital), Teddy Seem (Outsiders Fund), Eric Taylor (Trident), Jay Po (Stage 2) and was moderated by Nori Gerardo Lietz, a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at HBS. 

The day closed with an impactful keynote from Yup Kim who runs CalPERS,  the largest pension fund in the US. People often think that running a large VC or PE fund is directly at odds with making a social impact—Mr. Kim’s keynote helped to dispel a lot of those myths. 

All in all, it was an extremely fulfilling day and it was extremely exciting to get back to in-person conferences! 

---

Mishaal Nathani is currently a first-year MBA candidate at Harvard Business School. Prior to HBS, Nathani co-founded a creative agency while in law school, was Chief of Staff at Dr. Vaidya’s, a D2C company, and worked in early-stage venture capital.