On September 15, 2026, Kelly Schricker, who runs Decile Labs, and Max Harris, who leads the LP Institute, hosted the info session for Cohort 7. It ran mostly as Q&A, which suits a program built around a smaller group than Decile's flagship cohorts.
Watch the full session here: LP Institute Cohort 7 Info Session
This covers how the program runs and who it's for. If you're newer to the LP side, start with How to Invest in Venture Capital Funds as a Limited Partner.
Neither Kelly nor Max is a financial adviser, and they say so repeatedly on the session. Allocation decisions belong with your own.
The short version
- It's for people investing, or about to invest, in venture funds as an LP. Not founders, and not angels staying angels.
- You should be an accredited investor. Decile doesn't verify it, and there's no requirement to write a check during the program.
- It's free, and Max explained the reasoning rather than treating it as a given.
- Sessions split between education with Adeo Ressi and Mike Suprovici, and matchmaking with GPs from the Decile network.
- Access continues after the cohort ends, through sessions and in-person events.
Who it's actually for
A few people asked whether this was for founders raising money or angels looking for startups. Neither.
Kelly laid the chain out again, because it's the thing people new to the LP side get tangled in. A GP raises a fund. The LPs supply the capital. The GP picks the startups and deploys into them. The LP Institute sits at the top of that chain, teaching people how to choose the managers rather than how to choose the companies.
So if you're building a company, Founder Institute is the sister program. If you're writing angel checks and want to keep doing that, fine, but this teaches a different skill.
The people who fit are those thinking about a first fund commitment, or one or two in and wanting to sharpen how they diligence managers and where they source them. Decile also gets fund managers joining to see the LP side of the table, which Kelly said is welcome.
On accreditation, the answer is generally yes, though Decile doesn't ask you to prove it. There's no minimum you're required to deploy during or after, though the program assumes you intend to invest at some point rather than just watch.
Why it's free
Max gave the reasoning without dressing it up.
Decile runs all its programs free, and the logic is that enriching the LP layer flows downward. Better-informed LPs make better fund managers possible, which makes the ecosystem stronger. There's an obvious self-interest in LPs eventually backing Decile funds, and Max named it, while saying they deliberately don't push it. His view is that pushing would make the experience worse and the trust is worth more.
He also made the point that it runs both ways. If a member comes back and says a set of managers were difficult to work with, that's useful intelligence for how VC Lab and Emerging Institute teach.
As with every Decile program, there's no equity and no obligation to use Decile's fund administration afterwards.
Venture is a social asset class
This is the premise the whole program is built on, and it shapes the format.
Compared with public markets or private equity, a smaller share of the diligence is numerical. You have to go and meet managers. If it works, you're in a relationship for a decade or more, and Max repeated the line LP mentors use about those relationships outlasting most others in your life.
So the program weights social practice alongside education. Sessions with Adeo and Mike cover how to diligence a manager, how to approach the conversation with a GP, and how the relationship runs through closing and deployment. Alongside that, Decile runs demo days curated to the group's interests, so if there's appetite for AI funds they'll assemble AI funds, plus speed matching sessions.
Max was clear about the intent. The matchmaking exists to get your reps in rather than to push a commitment, because judging a manager's character is a skill you build by doing it repeatedly.
The format
Smaller than Decile's flagship programs, and kept that way deliberately so people can come off mute and ask real questions rather than sitting in a Zoom room with hundreds of others.
It's also shorter than VC Lab, which Kelly framed as a benefit for people who can't commit to a long program.
When a session runs out of road on a topic, they follow up with small group office hours or one-to-one time with Mike, Adeo or another team member. Max contrasted this with the kind of broad overview session where people send a notetaker and feed the transcript to an AI afterwards. The program is built to be worth attending live.
Everything runs on Zoom and everything is recorded, and the cohorts are genuinely global on both the LP and GP side.
The frameworks
Kelly's favorite session comes from Marco O'Hara, who runs Decile's fund of funds and has invested in hundreds of funds from several seats, including institutionally and on his own account.
His framework is three questions. Why you, meaning why will this manager outperform, where does their access come from. Why me, meaning why am I the right investor for this fund and what do I want back beyond returns. Why now, because the investment case shifts with the world around it, and nobody was framing AI funds five years ago the way they do today.
That's one of several taught in the program. Kelly's framing is that you take what fits and leave the rest.
Two things worth reading before your first manager meeting: our recap of the LP Archetypes session, which is the same material from the manager's side of the table, and our explainer on the J curve in venture capital, which is the single most common surprise for a first-time LP.
Funds, angel checks and SPVs can coexist
Several attendees came in with angel or SPV experience, and the answer was that nothing stops you continuing.
The case for funds is diversification. An angel check needs that one company to work. A fund manager runs a strategy across somewhere between ten and a hundred companies depending on size and stage, which is what makes the power law work in your favor rather than against you. Plenty of LPs do both, a few angel checks and a few fund commitments each year.
On SPVs, both speakers flagged the same caution. Check the documents, because an SPV sitting on an SPV on an SPV is common enough to watch for, and cases keep surfacing where the vehicle didn't hold the exposure it claimed. Max's point was that the flexibility SPVs offer on liquidity is less reliable than it looks, and a strong relationship with a GP can be worth more. He's seen an LP need to exit a position and have it handled well precisely because the relationship was good.
He also noted the upside that comes with being an LP in the right fund. Some managers give their LPs access to SPVs on favorable terms, or introductions to portfolio founders for direct investment.
What happens after
The cohort ends, the access doesn't. Members stay invited to Decile's educational sessions, some inside cohorts and some standalone, and to in-person events. Kelly mentioned a casino night and a day of networking with founders, GPs and LPs.
Watch the full session
LP Institute Cohort 7 Info Session, recorded September 15, 2026 with Kelly Schricker and Max Harris. More sessions on the VC Lab YouTube channel.
For the asset class itself rather than the program, watch Investing in Venture Capital as a Limited Partner.
Apply to the LP Institute
Apply to the LP Institute to join the next cohort. It's free, and Cohort 7 is open.
Decile Group runs four free programs covering every stage of a venture career, on the conviction that venture capital done right is a force for good and that the industry needs far more people inside it than the old route allowed. VC Lab has helped launch 1,003 venture firms across more than 90 countries, with no fees and no equity. If you'd rather run a fund than back one, Apply to VC Lab at govclab.com. If you want to understand how venture works before doing either, start with Venture Institute.