Why Senior Partners Are Leaving Legacy VC Firms in the U.S. and Asia

1. Upheaval in the VC Industry

The venture capital industry has been under serious pressure in recent years, with senior partners leaving legacy VCs at an unprecedented rate.
This is happening across both Silicon Valley and Asia.
"The venture capital industry has been under pressure for the last few years, and that's probably an understatement."

Recent departures include Matt Miller (Sequoia) and Bal Zuburi (Lux Capital), among other prominent figures.
"These senior partners had been at their respective firms for over a decade."
While junior turnover is common, senior partner departures are rare — these are typically the most coveted, lucrative, and hard-to-obtain positions in the industry.

The biggest reason: "Funds have gotten too large."
"Investors say that venture capital has morphed into asset management."
Rick Zulo (Equal Ventures): "Over the past decade, there's been a major shift, and as a result, the VC industry has transformed into a broader form of asset management. That's the core of the problem."
Senior partners say: "Look, I don't want to be an asset manager. I wanted to be a venture capitalist. This isn't what I signed up for."
The frustration stems from the role shifting away from working closely with founders and supporting innovation toward simply managing assets.

Many senior partners are going independent to start their own early-stage funds.
They want to work more closely with founders and pursue greater financial upside from early-stage investments.

Tariffs, interest rates, inflation, and recession fears have intensified anxiety across the VC landscape.
"Before Trump's reelection, there was hope that rates would come down and good times would return for VCs. But then tariff wars erupted, inflation surged, and recession fears mounted."
The overall mood: "Everyone is in 'wait and see' mode. The sentiment in this region is not great, though the impact hasn't been fully felt yet."

"Has fundraising become more difficult in this environment?" "Yes, absolutely. That's the worse news."

The VC industry is undergoing a major structural shift with senior partners departing en masse.
Root causes: Fund bloat eroding VC's original role; transformation into asset management.
Senior partners are going independent seeking closer work with founders and better early-stage returns.
Macroeconomic uncertainty (tariffs, rates, inflation, recession fears) has made the VC landscape more anxious and fundraising more challenging.