Inside Goldman’s $22B Bet on Venture Capital | Hans Swildens, Industry Ventures

<p>Hans Swildens started Industry Ventures in 2000, and this is his first podcast since selling it to Goldman Sachs in 2026.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hans has been buying venture secondaries longer than almost anyone, and the combined business is one of the largest VC portfolios in the world: 525 firms, 1,600 funds, and over $22B in capital commitments.</p><p><br /></p><p>We get into why he sold to Goldman, the barbell market quietly killing middle-stage venture, how VC's are manufacturing their own exits, why most seed funds without a real angle have 5 years left, the LP base that's a completely different species every fund cycle, how he started Industry by acquiring funds at 99% discounts during the Dot Com Collapse, the day he passed on a multi-billion-dollar data center, and why the secondary market may eventually be multiples the size of the primary market.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you to Zach Coelius, Will Quist, Emily Zheng, and Andrea McGee for help brainstorming topics for the conversation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you to Numeral, Flex, Amplitude, and Merge for supporting this episode.</p><p><br /></p><p>Numeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance https://www.numeral.com</p><p><br /></p><p>Flex: Get premium banking and a net 60 day credit card at 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital</p><p><br /></p><p>Amplitude: AI analytics, all you have to do is ask https://www.amplitude.com</p><p><br /></p><p>Merge: Every model. One API. Total control. Check out Merge’s Agent Handler. merge.dev/turner</p><p><br /></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p>(0:00) Inside Goldman’s $22B venture bet</p><p>(7:57) 1,600 funds over 525 firms</p><p>(11:11) Why scale lets you “see the cube”</p><p>(14:17) Most humbling lesson in 26 years</p><p>(16:19) Three types of Seed funds</p><p>(18:47) LP's evolve every fund cycle</p><p>(22:00) VC is a sales game</p><p>(24:38) A strong CRM is non-negotiable</p><p>(29:06) Buying secondaries during the Dot Com Collapse</p><p>(31:33) Triangulating opinions across GP’s, founders, and LP’s</p><p>(37:22) Seed without differentiation doesn’t work</p><p>(42:16) Biggest mistakes by first-time GP’s</p><p>(44:31) Buying Enron’s VC portfolio at a 99% discount</p><p>(50:15) Entrepreneurial finance is underappreciated</p><p>(52:15) Why asset managers are acquiring venture firms</p><p>(58:47) Why it’s hard to start venture programs</p><p>(1:03:20) Secondaries: $250M to $150B market in 25 years</p><p>(1:08:06) Continuation funds &amp; debt structured secondaries</p><p>(1:12:02) “Secondaries might be multiples bigger than primaries”</p><p>(1:19:52) How to structure secondary transactions</p><p>(1:26:00) What happens after SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic IPO’s</p><p>(1:30:35) How Seed survives the asset manager era</p><p>(1:35:16) How to manufacture liquidity</p><p>(1:41:41) How AI is impacting secondary markets</p><p><br /></p><p>Referenced</p><p>Industry Ventures: https://www.industryventures.com/</p><p>How Big Is The Secondary Market for Venture Capital?: https://www.industryventures.com/insight/2023-2025e-how-big-is-the-secondary-market-for-venture-capital/</p><p>Exploring the Growth of Venture Secondaries: https://www.chronograph.pe/exploring-the-growth-of-venture-secondaries/</p><p>Pitchbook’s US Secondaries Market Watch: https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/2025-annual-us-vc-secondary-market-watch</p><p><br /></p><p>Follow Hans</p><p>Twitter: https://x.com/HansSwildens</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hansswildens</p><p><br /></p><p>Follow Turner</p><p>Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak</p><p><br /></p><p>Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/</p>