Why Waiting to Apply for VC Lab Is Costing You Time

Watch the full session: Mastering Your Cohort 20 Application

"I think I'm 6 months early for this program. I'm still building LP targets, getting soft commits, rounding out the team."

Mike Suprovici, Head of Acceleration at Decile Group, hears versions of this constantly. And he respectfully disagrees with the logic every time.

"You could be spending 6 to 12 months getting your stuff together and most of that is just a waste of time. Because if you don't have limited partners that want to invest in your fund, none of this matters."

Here's the trap most aspiring fund managers fall into:

They spend months refining their thesis in isolation. They build decks. They talk to lawyers about structure. They research fund administrators. They perfect their materials.

Then they finally pitch LPs and discover their thesis doesn't resonate.

All that preparation? Wasted.

"This is why most VC funds take 12 to 24 months to close," Suprovici explains. "They basically take the process of 'let me get all my stuff together' and most of that is just wasted time."

The only thing that validates your fund is LP interest. Real conversations with real potential investors who tell you whether they'd commit.

Everything else is noise until you have that signal.

"If you don't have limited partners that want to invest in your fund, none of this matters," Suprovici emphasizes. "What matters most is that you get enough critical mass, and that's going to influence every decision you make."

Your thesis, your team composition, your fund size, your structure: all of these decisions should be informed by LP feedback, not guesswork.

Suprovici is direct about common time wasters:

"Nobody here should be forming anything or talking to any lawyer about anything structure related. That is the last thing you do in funds, unlike a startup."

Don't talk to lawyers yet. Don't talk to fund administrators yet. Don't finalize your structure yet.

"You need to ensure that you have enough critical mass of investors that are going to invest in the fund to justify all the decisions you're going to make with regards to setup. And remember, they're the ones paying your bills."

Still worried you're not ready? Here's the reality: the program itself will tell you.

VC Lab has built-in milestones. At the thesis review (four weeks in), you need $100K in signed letters of intent. If you can't hit that, the thesis needs work and you'll know immediately.

"The program doesn't want you launching a fund if you're not ready either," Suprovici says. "That's not good for anybody. You'll figure this out very quickly."

If it turns out you need more time, you can step back and reapply for a future cohort. But at least you'll know based on real market feedback, not assumptions.

"If you can't keep up, you just drop out and come back when you're ready. But I would just go for it."

Every month you spend "preparing" is a month you're not getting LP feedback. It's a month your thesis sits untested. It's a month closer to someone else launching a fund in your space.

The average person in VC Lab raises two to three times faster than people going it alone. That speed comes from structured feedback and focused execution, not endless preparation.

"We see so many people spending lots and lots of time and then just waste a lot of time and don't make it happen."

Stop preparing. Start testing.