The Congruence Gap

Why so many GPs sound the same when the work they do is anything but

This week I had a long conversation with my friend Olga, who provides capital formation advisory services for a wide range of experienced and emerging venture and private equity managers. She has the same vantage point LPs do. She sees across strategies, fund sizes, personalities, and performance curves. Her job is to translate a manager’s story into something LPs can evaluate.

And she told me something that keeps replaying in my head.

“Track record matters less than people think.”

It reminded me of what Jay Rongie Wang told me on Swimming with Allocators: LPs really want congruence, but most GPs never show it.

What Olga shared was subtle but powerful. Most managers do their most important work by leaning all the way into what they are best at. Yet the moment they start pitching LPs (and founders), they abandon that center. They widen their story. They generalize their strategy. They contort themselves into something safer. And in the process, they lose their edge.

Olga sees the disconnect every day.
A GP will describe a sourcing loop that is genuinely unique. Or a diligence question set they developed over ten years. Or a post-investment ritual that founders consistently rank as best in class. But when it comes time to pitch, all of that disappears into the same four slides everyone else has. Market. Sourcing. Selection. Portfolio construction. Branding built by committee.

It is the same phenomenon I saw when applying to business school. Stanford GSB had the (in)famous essay: “What matters most to you and why.” Every year, someone would tell you, “Admissions really wants X this cycle.” And people would contort themselves into that shape. But the admissions team did not actually want X. They wanted the most honest and differentiated version of you.