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Sourcing Culture

Overview

How firms build and sustain a culture where sourcing is a shared priority — not just the BD team's job. Covers hiring, incentives, leadership behavior, and what makes sourcing feel like a team sport rather than a grind.

Key Perspectives

  • Dan Herr argues that comp structure is itself a culture tool. He recommends dedicating ~10% of the bonus pool to team-level success metrics, citing his experience at Serent Capital where sector specialists had no incentive to share leads. Without a team component, "I'm massively disincentivized from sharing" an opportunity even when a colleague is better positioned to win the deal. Matt Rooney agrees that team bonuses become necessary once you build multi-person BD teams. Dan also advocates tiered bonus multipliers that reward sustained high performance rather than letting top producers coast after hitting early targets. (Ep. 3)

  • Dan Herr expands on the accountability dimension of sourcing culture with a five-meeting cadence structured around four purposes: goal setting, accountability, course correction, and support in Ep. 6. Monthly firm-wide updates at investment committee include public naming-and-shaming of underperformers and praising of top performers, combined with best practice sharing — "Hey, it looks like the education team is crushing it right now. What are you doing?" Dan argues that most firms hold sourcing meetings but misuse them as passive readouts rather than active accountability and problem-solving sessions. He also introduces output-focused metrics — measuring top-prospect engagement rather than outreach volume — as a cultural tool: when the team knows they're measured on engagement quality rather than email count, behavior shifts from box-checking to creative, high-impact work. (Ep. 6)

  • Jake Colognesi argues that culture is built by doing, not by writing values on a wall. Senior partners must lead from the front: join cold calls, get on planes at a moment's notice, show up to meetings prepared and with intensity. He hires competitive people — often former athletes — who are genuinely curious about entrepreneur stories. (Ep. 20)

  • Jake emphasizes publicly celebrating non-obvious contributions: when a team member who isn't on a deal makes a great customer introduction, call it out internally and even relay it to LPs. This reinforces that sourcing is everyone's job. (Ep. 20)

  • Glenn Oken builds culture through IC inclusion, equity compensation, and modeling resilience. All 14 Mangrove team members attend IC. When deals fall apart, Glenn models the response: "That was a good at bat." He hires people who are analytically competent and "preternaturally human" — technical capability plus genuine curiosity and relationship skills. BD partners receive equity, not just bonuses. (Ep. 21)

  • Ryan Murphy describes Norwest's culture through the lens of his manager Mary Miller — "very much like people first," optimistic, remembering personal details about everyone she works with. Ryan internalizes this as: "it ultimately is a relationships business. If people like you more, they're gonna be more excited to get on the phone with you." The culture values sponge mindset from juniors and rewards consistency of personality over peaks. (Ep. 22)

Frameworks

Episode Coverage

Episode Guest Angle
Ep. 3 Dan Herr, Matt Rooney (hosts) Team bonuses and tiered multipliers as culture-building tools: preventing opportunity hoarding
Ep. 6 Dan Herr, Matt Rooney (hosts) Five-meeting accountability cadence, naming-and-shaming, output-focused metrics as culture tools
Ep. 20 Jake Colognesi Building sourcing culture at a new fund: hiring, leading from the front, celebrating wins
Ep. 21 Glenn Oken IC inclusion, equity comp, modeling resilience, hiring for analytical + human capability
Ep. 22 Ryan Murphy Junior view of relationships-first culture under Mary Miller at Norwest