How to Build Demand for an Oversubscribed Fund

On October 28, 2026, Kelly Schricker hosted a Meet the Managers session with three VC Lab managers who closed their funds oversubscribed, and each of them shows what an emerging manager with real operating experience and a clear thesis can build with VC Lab.

Jessica Kamada is the Managing Partner of Swizzle Ventures, a Seattle firm investing at pre-seed and seed to advance women's health and wealth through pivotal life stages, and she was a growth operator and COO of the growth agency Bamboo before she moved into venture.

Marlon Ramirez is the founder and Managing Partner of Blue Impact Supply Chain Ventures, an operator-led firm backing pre-seed and seed supply chain technology companies across the Americas, and he co-founded Azul Airlines, which became one of Latin America's largest airlines.

Seth Hallen is the founder and Managing Partner of Hallstone Ventures, a Los Angeles seed fund backing AI infrastructure for media, entertainment and advertising, and he spent more than 25 years in media technology, including leadership roles at Sony Pictures and Panavision's Light Iron.

All three came to venture from long operating careers, and the hour focused on the practical side of an oversubscribed fund, from who they asked first to how early commitments turned into momentum for everyone who came after.

Watch the full session here: Meet the Managers: Oversubscribing Their Funds, and read on for the tactics the managers shared, organized as steps you can use in your own LP meetings this week.

The short version

• The first commitments came from people who already knew the managers professionally, such as long-time colleagues and second-degree ties, rather than from institutions.

• Events worked best as a way to find one or two quality people and follow up, with no pitching in the room.

• Each manager ran the raise like a sales funnel, tracking every stage and doubling down on the LP types who said yes.

• Asking an LP for one specific introduction, rather than anyone they know, got far better results.

• Institutions tend to come later, and Marlon said he'd spend less time on them for a first fund.

Start your oversubscribed fund with people who already know you

Jessica said her network was mostly operators and founders, and when she started raising she realized she had no LP network at all, so her first checks came from what she called second-tier ties, people who knew her tangentially or she'd worked with in the distant past.

Seth started with his closest professional network, built over about 25 years as an operator in Los Angeles, and he loaded his LinkedIn connections into his Decile Hub funnel, sorted them by how close he was to each person and worked outward from the closest.

Marlon also began with close friends from his industry, and then word of mouth took over, with friends telling friends to meet him, so his first few commitments came from first-degree contacts while the bulk of what followed came through second-degree introductions.

Seth's earliest supporters signed PACTs, and Kelly explained that a PACT works like a non-binding letter of intent, which helps people new to venture make a first soft commitment and shows a manager who's serious enough to follow up with.

Go to events to qualify, not to pitch

Jessica made a habit of attending other people's events in person early on, with the goal of finding one or two quality people rather than meeting the whole room, because, as she put it, "You're not pitching in the room."

She described it as qualifying leads in a sales process and then actually following up, since many people have a good conversation and never send the next note, and over time people told her they'd already heard of what she was doing.

Run the raise like a funnel

Seth's approach came from years of building processes as an operator, so he organized his contacts, set up email templates and tracked his outreach, meetings, follow-ups and signed PACTs from the top of the funnel to the bottom.

He reviewed the conversion at each stage and kept refining the process, and his view was that you can't be casual about it, because a raise works when you treat it as a funnel and keep putting in the cycles until committed investors come out at the bottom.

Kelly tied this to what LP mentors often say about the say-do ratio, which is how reliably you do what you said you'd do, and she noted that agents inside Decile Hub can keep every prospect moving so more of your week goes to the conversations.

Tell the story only you can tell

Seth said he sees many people get hung up on the deck and other materials, and he shared advice he got from Mike Suprovici on his first day in VC Lab to "forget the deck, forget the fund model" and go tell his story to everyone.

Seth's own line was "You will raise the fund," meaning your passion, your understanding of the market, your conviction about where the opportunities are and your origin story carry the conversation in a way a document can't.

Marlon added that your life story should connect to your thesis and to the LPs you go after, so an LP leaves the meeting feeling you're the natural person for the role, and he said you have to be all in, since these are 10-year funds and LPs can tell.

Turn early commitments into momentum

"In fundraising, momentum is everything," Jessica said, and she described how much of her momentum came from the community her LPs formed, since people want to see who else is joining and want to be part of something with a mission behind it.

Seth said he felt he was building a community and a movement more than a fund, and Marlon brought a founder he believed in to an early event, so his LPs could meet the kind of person the fund was backing and see the bigger vision for the industry.

Ask for one introduction, not anyone

When Kelly asked how they asked for introductions, Jessica said word choice made the difference, because asking whether someone knows anyone who'd be interested makes them search their whole network, while "Do you know one person?" gives them something they can answer.

She also asks specifically for a person she knows the LP is close to, and she's hosted closing dinners where she asks an existing LP to bring one guest who might be interested, which became a key part of her first raise.

Marlon said warm introductions from existing LPs were his highest-converting source, and one of the managers described how a handful of especially engaged LPs started calling to ask how they could help, which made it natural to ask each of them for two introductions.

Find the LP types who say yes

Jessica said the discovery comes from measuring conversion by type of person, and once one type was clearly converting she doubled down, looking for people with agency over their own capital and in places other managers weren't already crowding.

Seth's lesson was to stop guessing, because several people he was sure would invest didn't, while others he doubted came in, so he talked to anyone mid-career who understood his space and stopped making up stories about who'd say yes.

Marlon doubled down on LPs from his own industry, since that's what was working, and he also found that a friendly fellow VC with a different focus could make introductions to harder-to-reach LPs, so he's now making those introductions for other managers too.

When institutions and family offices come in

Seth said the rule of thumb from VC Lab is that institutions, and even many family offices, rarely come into a first fund early, so you first show that individuals will back you, and larger LPs tend to arrive near the end once momentum is visible.

Jessica said institutions are fiduciaries with less personal connection to you, so the process feels more like enterprise sales, and you need to learn their mandate early and build relationships with several people on the team.

She added that family offices go one of two ways, either a principal with agency over the capital, which is closer to an individual pitch, or a full team acting like an institution, so you need to know which one you're talking to before the meeting.

Putting it to work in your raise

• List your closest professional relationships first, rank them by closeness, and start those conversations before you approach strangers.

• Go to events to find one or two people worth a second conversation, then follow up within days and do what you said you'd do.

• Track every stage of your funnel and look at which types of LPs convert, then spend more of your time on those people.

• End every meeting, whether the answer is yes or no, by asking for one specific introduction.

• Keep your thesis out of public chats, which Kelly reminded the audience could trigger general solicitation.

About the managers

Jessica, Marlon and Seth are proof of what's possible for VC Lab managers who bring deep industry knowledge, do the work every week and build a real community of people who believe in the thesis.

• Jessica Kamada, Managing Partner of Swizzle Ventures, is a former competitive figure skater and growth operator who led growth programs at Bamboo for consumer tech companies like Headspace, Peloton and the New York Times, and you can follow her work on LinkedIn.

• Marlon Ramirez, founder and Managing Partner of Blue Impact Supply Chain Ventures, is an exited founder with more than 20 years in logistics who co-founded Azul Airlines, Azul Cargo and Modern Logistics, and you can connect with him on LinkedIn.

• Seth Hallen, founder and Managing Partner of Hallstone Ventures, was one of the top performers in VC Lab Cohort 16 and spent nine years as President of the Hollywood Professional Association, with leadership roles at Sony Pictures, Pixelogic and Testronic, and he's on LinkedIn.

Frequently asked questions

What does an oversubscribed fund mean?

An oversubscribed fund has more LP interest than it has room for, so the manager closes with demand left over and has to decide how to allocate the space that's available. Kelly described the managers in this session as people who did the work every day, showed up and bet on themselves.

Who should a first-time manager raise from first?

All three managers started with individuals who already knew them, such as former colleagues and people one step removed from their network, and they pointed people at institutions only after that early momentum was visible.

How do you ask an LP for introductions without making it awkward?

Ask for one person, or name the specific person you have in mind, after you've built trust by following through, since a good say-do ratio means the introduction won't make your LP look bad.

Watch the full session

Meet the Managers: Oversubscribing Their Funds was recorded October 28, 2026 with Jessica Kamada, Marlon Ramirez and Seth Hallen, moderated by Kelly Schricker, and includes the full live Q&A from the audience.

Launch your own fund with VC Lab

VC Lab is Decile Group's R&D center, built for emerging VCs, with emerging VCs, where you work through fundraising sprints alongside a community of 1,000+ investors in over 88 countries and use Start Fund to launch your first fund.

Decile Hub keeps your LP funnel organized and Decile Partners can run your back office once you close, so your week goes to the conversations that build demand, and managers raising funds two through four can look at the Emerging Institute.

Apply to VC Lab at govclab.com before the Cohort 23 early deadline on Monday, November 9, 2026 (PT), with applications open after that date as well.