Unpack private market valuations and gain clarity on methodologies, market cycles, and LP-GP dynamics for informed investment decisions.
Private Markets Valuations… do these quarterly marks properly represent fair value or are they make believe… contrived from the fictional world of GP machinations? Do these interim valuations, as one commentator put it, “not matter”; or as another proclaimed provocatively, are they simply a case of “volatility laundering”? Is the gap or “lag” with public market equivalents relevant… are we anchoring to the right bogey… or arbitrarily comparing objective value to an emotionally manic patient, to paraphrase Warren Buffett?
In today’s episode, our inaugural episode of Capital Decanted, we are going to lean into this divisive and complex topic with some help from Scott and Andrea.
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Managing Partner at Andreesen Horowitz
Scott Kupor is an investing partner and the first employee at Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Scott worked as vice president and general manager of software-as-a-service at Hewlett Packard. Scott joined HP in 2007 as part of HP’s acquisition of Opsware, where he was senior vice president of customer solutions. At Opsware, he held numerous executive management positions, including vice president, financial planning and vice president, corporate development. Prior to Opsware, Scott represented software companies in both financing and mergers and acquisitions transactions at Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers. Scott serves on the boards of the following Andreessen Horowitz portfolio companies: Cedar, Headway, Foursquare, Labster, Infinitus, Ultima and SnapLogic. In addition to serving on the SVCF board, Scott serves on the following outside boards: St. Jude Children’s Cancer Research Hospital and the Global Impact Investing Network. Scott is also on the investment committees for Stanford Medical Center and the Rhodes Trust and is a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is the author of the bestselling book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. Scott graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in public policy with honors and distinction. He also holds a law degree with distinction from Stanford University and is a member of the State Bar of California.
Global Head of Private Investments at Cambridge Associates
Andrea Auerbach is the Global Head of Private Investments and a Partner at Cambridge Associates. Andrea’s career with Cambridge Associates spans more than two decades. She leads a 50-person team sourcing and underwriting private equity, growth equity, distressed, and venture capital funds, as well as direct, co-investment, and secondary investment opportunities. She also heads the firm’s discretionary private investments practice. As a long-time leader in our private investment business, she founded the Co-Investment and Secondaries practices and is the Chair of the Co-Investment and Secondaries Investment Committees. She is also a member and former Chair of the firm’s Private Investment Ratings Committee. Andrea has co-authored a significant amount of in-depth private investment research and is also a faculty member at the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), where she has taught classes for 15 years. As a frequent keynote speaker at industry events worldwide, she has received many industry accolades over the course of her career, including recently being named to Private Equity International’s Women in Private Equity: Class of 2024. Andrea began her career at Prudential Insurance, where she worked in the private equity group and led early efforts to benchmark Prudential’s $5 billion buyout portfolio, as well as its domestic and European private equity and venture capital fund investment portfolios, among other investment responsibilities. Andrea serves as a Trustee of Smith College and is Vice Chair of its Investment Committee. She is also a Board Member of the UCLA Investment Company and recently joined the Board of the Global Private Capital Association. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA in Economics from Smith College.
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