Reflections of a rookie private market investor

Committing capital to younger companies is full of promise, but there are a few factors investors need to watch out for

At my firm, we started looking at private investments about 15 months ago. After extensive debate, we decided to test the waters. We were unsure about whether we had any right to win in this space, or whether we would suffer from adverse selections in deal flow and access. The approach to valuation seemed vastly different, and we asked ourselves whether we would have the mental flexibility to understand and commit capital to much younger companies, most of which had never made a profit. The space also seemed to be in the middle of a hype cycle. Were we too