Brandon Sedloff and Aaron Gershenberg sit down in California's wine country to explore three decades of venture capital evolution. Aaron, CEO and managing partner at Pinegrove Venture Partners, shares his unconventional path from economic development work and real estate consulting to building SVB Capital into a $10 billion platform, then relaunching after the bank's collapse as Pinegrove, backed by Sequoia Heritage and Brookfield.

They discuss:

• How Aaron used Monte Carlo analysis to project fund performance and justify additional capital during the dot-com crash
• Why he structured distribution-only fee models for anchor LPs instead of traditional management fees and carry
• The mechanics of becoming a FOIA blocker to attract pension fund capital
• How Pinegrove positions across seed, Series A, Series B, credit, and secondaries to capture alpha at different stages
• Why the 2024–2026 vintage may deliver the fastest value creation Aaron has seen in his career

This episode offers a roadmap for institutional investors navigating venture exposure, LP sentiment shifts, and the structural innovations that have reshaped fund economics over the past 25 years.