Q: When exactly do VCs see their first carry check?
Rough-and-tough, 10 years for an “average” successful fund, 7 years for a strong fund.
It can be faster for late stage, and longer for super early stage.
The fund itself takes 2-3 years to deploy. So even if you have one Unicorn 5 years after funding … rare for early-stage … that could be 2 years from fund formation + 5 years to exit = 7 years to 1x.
And that would be fast.