Edition #14: 37 New Funds, 1000 Fund Managers Mapped, DPI Benchmark
Hey folks,
This is Pavel and welcome to the 14th edition (June, 2026) of Murph Capital newsletter.
This is my monthly brain-dump of the most useful stuff I’ve come across as an operator in the emerging GP/LP world.
Follow me on X and LinkedIn for more frequent insights.
In Partnership With
Legion is a high-signal marketplace matching emerging GPs with relevant LPs, featuring seamless fund admin, built-in secondary liquidity, and over $300M in investor capital flows.
Harmonic aggregates real-time data on 30M+ companies and 190M+ people to surface the signals that actually matter – all through AI-powered workflow.
Rings AI is an intelligent CRM built for VCs and LPs with auto-enriched data on 100M+ contacts, and a visual map of who-knows-who across your network.
Cura is a VC portfolio intelligence on autopilot that connects your Granola notes, iMessage, LinkedIn data and more to automate support and intelligence.
Wonderstruck is the storytelling and design studio venture-backed companies call when they outgrow their brand. Trusted by 1517, Kindred, Sunflower & 200+ founders.
5 Best Tweets
“10 emerging VC conversations and what they reveal about herd behavior”
By Pavel Prata from Murph Capital
“Coatue's Power Law Paradox: centacorns are 4x more likely to 10x”
By Tren Griffin from Microsoft
“The case against emerging managers ever catching a break”
By Dan Gray from Odin
“Platform funds are the new ZIRP”
By Michael Kim from Cendana Capital
“The map of 1,000 emerging managers managing $97B”
By FIRM Capital
5 Best Linkedin Posts
“Benchmark's $2B raise and the end of stage-based investing”
By Pavel Prata from Murph Capital
“2019-2020 vintage LPs are still waiting for their first dollar back”
By Peter Walker from Carta
“Why the 53% small-check data is the wrong fundraising advice”
By Samir Kaji from Allocate
“The beeswarm chart that shows VC's power law better than any summary stat”
By Steve Kim from Verdis Investment Management
“104 companies out of 10,000 generated 44% of all venture value”
By David Clark from VenCap
5 Best Longreads
“Are mega funds taking over seed?”
By Pavel Prata from Murph Capital
By Lucas Vaz from Ravelin
By Dan Gray from Odin
“Taking stock of the seed stage”
By Nnamdi Iregbulem from Lightspeed
“The bifurcation of capital is inevitable”
By Kyle Harrison from Contrary
5 Key Market Reports
”VC fund performance: Q1 2026”
By Carta
”The transatlantic deep tech report 2026”
By Dealroom
”US Venture Capital Outlook: Midyear Update”
By Pitchbook
”Quarterly economic report - Q2 2026”
By Silicon Valley Bank
”The 2026 private access report”
By USVC
Iconic Fund Breakdown
Boost VC Fund Alpha-I (2013-2016)
Adam Draper and Brayton Williams delivered 2.15x and 4.35x DPI in back-to-back funds by backing crypto and sci-fi founders early.
Emerging Manager Q&A
Wall Street met Army Special Ops to build a $50M defense fund where hardware meets hard capital. We asked Jason Zins 10 questions about how they did it.
New VC Funds
Upcoming VC/LP Events
“Seed-to-Scale Signal” with Harmonic
Every month, we analyze all mid-market US and European startups that recently raised a Series A, B, or C round to uncover the hidden track records of the seed investors who backed them early.
Using a custom data model powered by Harmonic, we score funds based on the stage, round size, and whether they led the seed.
It’s not a static ranking, but a real-time signal showing which emerging managers possess genuine picking skill. Read the full breakdown of our methodology here.
Below is the ranking for June, 2026:
3 Best Podcast Episodes
Everett Randle sits at Benchmark's table (one of venture's smallest, highest-conviction funds) where every partner still underwrites deals by hand, no spreadsheet default. In this episode of Sourcery, Everett explains why AI has flipped SaaS's old scale-versus-risk tradeoff on its head, and walks through how he actually evaluates AI companies now that the model can't do the work for him.
Charles Hudson started Precursor Ventures in 2015 and effectively invented pre-seed as its own category, writing hundreds of Day 0 checks to first-time founders longer than almost anyone else in the business. On The Peel with Turner Novak, he makes the case for why pre-seed investing has never been harder, and lays out what's actually changed in the category he helped create.
David Senra has spent a decade reading the biographies of 400+ founders for his podcast Founders, and lately started interviewing the living ones face to face. On Long Strange Trip: CEO to CEO with Brian Halligan, he breaks down the one trait all 400 actually share, and why it isn't the one Silicon Valley keeps telling itself matters.
Personal Notes
Going full-time on Murph. After almost three years as LP Relations Manager at R136 Ventures, I've decided to make my next career move and finally focus on Murph full time (yes, it was a side project until now). I got to work with 100+ LPs ranging from small operators to large institutional firms, help build a team that crossed the $500M AUM mark, and spend a lot of time around some of the smartest people in the industry. More on what's next for Murph coming soon.
Emerging Manager Memos. Over the last year I've built relationships with hundreds of emerging managers through my work, research, and the Murph network, and every month I review dozens of funds that are actively raising, most of which never make it into public databases. So I'm launching an invitation-only Emerging Manager Memo, spotlighting one manager per issue with a concise look at their strategy, background, and fundraising status. No paid placements, no cost to receive it, but access stays selective for active LPs, family offices, and fund-of-funds. If you'd like in, apply here.
We signed with Wonderstruck. Being a huge fan of design and high-quality production, we finally found a partner to work with. Wonderstruck is the storytelling and design studio that venture-backed companies call when they outgrow their original brand and website. They are deeply fluent in VC and the technology underneath it – trusted by funds like 1517, Kindred, Sunflower, and over 200+ founders. If you need absolute taste, Murph followers get a discount.
We're hiring. We're looking for a terminally online person to join the team as a Content Manager/Analyst. This is someone who lives on X, understands internet culture at a deep level, and can turn that into a high-signal content system for a VCs and LPs – tweets, threads, newsletters, long-form, all of it. Real interest in venture and tech is a must, elite writing is a must, and being AI-native is a must. If that's you, or you know someone, check out the full role and apply here.
Previous Editions
Edition #13: 25 New Funds, Most Active Seed Mega Platforms, Top 100 US VC Firms
Edition #12: 23 New Funds, Consensus Capital Age, Best Seed Picking VCs
Edition #11: 31 New Funds, How Mega Funds Actually Work, Emerging VC Tech Stack
What would you like to see in the next episodes? I'd love to hear your ideas – just hit reply and let me know what would be most valuable to you.