Wilshire Lane Capital

In September 2021, Adam Demuyakor (MBA 2017) was faced with decisions about how to launch his venture capital (VC) investment firm. His previous investment activities were a series of angel investments and special purpose vehicles alongside two part-time general partners (GPs). After hearing investor feedback that the firm was not institutional enough, Demuyakor created a successor firm on his own, Wilshire Lane Capital (WLC), and sold a GP stake to private equity firm Nile Capital to help with operational expenses, infrastructure support, and fundraising. Under WLC, Demuyakor sought to raise a $75 million fund mainly focused on Series A PropTech deals. However, he received conflicting advice on three strategic decision vectors—fund size, stage of deals, and subsector area of focus. Some potential investors were also concerned about Demuyakor running the fund as a solo GP instead of with a full-time partner. While the characteristics of the new fund were based on Demuyakor’s background, preferences, and goals, he knew he had to align his strategy with the approach that would earn the confidence of investors. Thus, he had some decisions to make.