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@chamath claims most VCs are terrible practitioners, citing DPI data showing…

2026-08-04 · 22:41 UTC ·@chamath ·1 min read

Brief

Chamath (@chamath) argues that venture capital performance is poor, using DPI metrics to prove it: 2019 and 2020 vintages have median DPI barely above zero with under half returning capital, while 2017–2018 are the only recent vintages with material DPI yet still see under 20% of funds reach 1.0x DPI (posted 2026-08-04).

Why it matters

@chamath claims most VCs are terrible practitioners, citing DPI data showing median DPI for the 2019 and 2020 fund vintages is "barely over zero" and that less than 50% of funds from those vintages have returned any capital to LPs.

Key details

  • He says only the 2017–2018 cohorts show meaningful DPI, but across those two vintages fewer than 20% of funds have reached a 1.0x DPI (the threshold where LPs begin to earn profit rather than just get capital back).
Source evidence

Overwhelmingly most VCs are terrible practitioners of the craft.

“This is best demonstrated by the paucity of DPI that has been generated by most recent fund vintages. In each of the 2019 and 2020 vintages, for instance, median DPIs are still barely over zero, and less than half of all funds have begun to return any capital at all to their LPs. The 2017 and 2018 cohorts are the only recent vintages with much DPI to speak of, and even then, the return profiles remain relatively slight. Across those two vintages, less than 20% of funds have yet reached a 1x DPI, marking the point at which fund LPs start to earn a profit, rather than simply getting back the capital that they initially paid in.”