Martyn Eeles

Had a great time speaking at Equity Thursday last week! I really enjoyed sharing my outsider’s perspective on the Hungarian VC ecosystem—there’s so much untapped potential here, and It's just waiting to boom. The energy in the room, from founders to investors to ecosystem leaders, was electric. One key takeaway? VC fundraising isn’t all that different from startup fundraising—just zoomed out over a 10-year lens. But for the ecosystem to truly thrive, Hungary needs more LPs backing venture funds. That’s the fuel for long-term growth and innovation.

Most fund managers think they have a strategy. Many only have a description. Fund size. Sector. Stage. Geography. Deck. LPs are asking a harder question: Why should this fund exist? This week’s HealthVC newsletter: Why Your Fund Is Not a Strategy Yet.

LPs are not just underwriting your fund strategy. They are underwriting your firm. Who makes decisions? What happens if a partner leaves? Is carry aligned? Is there a key person risk? Can the firm survive Fund I? This week’s HealthVC is about the manager risk LPs see before you do.

A thesis gets the meeting. Portfolio construction gets the commitment. LPs are not just asking whether the market is attractive. They are asking whether the fund can actually return capital. That is where many strategies break.

A good investor is not always a backable fund manager. LPs are not just asking whether you can pick companies. They are asking whether you can build a fund. Portfolio construction. Ownership. Reserves. Risk. Reporting. LP trust. DPI. That is the hidden test.

One of the biggest mistakes emerging managers make is thinking company judgment is enough. It is not. A fund is not just a collection of good deals. It is a portfolio construction exercise, a reserve strategy, a communication product, a risk management system, and a ten year relationship with LPs.

Europe does not lack health innovation. It lacks distribution. A European healthtech company can have strong science, clinical credibility, respected hospitals, and real patient need. But scale is different. The next country may require a different reimbursement path, procurement process, buyer map, language, workflow, and timeline. That fragmentation slows momentum at the exact stage venture backed companies need acceleration. Market size slides are not enough. The real question is whether the company has the distribution architecture to move across fragmented systems and build repeatable commercial expansion. The best European healthtech companies will not only prove that the product works. They will prove the company can move. New HealthVC newsletter: Europe’s Healthtech Distribution Problem A European healthtech company can have strong science, clinical credibility, respected hospitals, and real patient needs.

Clinical value is not commercial value. A healthtech company can have strong data, respected clinicians, a credible pilot, and a product that improves care. And still fail commercially. Why? Because hospitals, payers, pharma, and providers do not adopt because something is interesting. They adopt when the internal cost of not changing becomes higher than the risk of change. A pilot is not an adoption. A champion is not a buyer. Clinical enthusiasm is not procurement. The next healthtech winners will be the companies that understand budget ownership, workflow fit, implementation burden, reimbursement logic, and stakeholder politics. That is the adoption gap. New HealthVC newsletter: Clinical Value Is Not Commercial Value

Most fund managers misunderstand “interesting.” An LP can like the strategy, respect the manager, request the deck, and still never commit. Because “interesting” is not conviction. It is often a holding pattern. This week’s HealthVC essay breaks down why polite LP interest rarely gets the check.

Most fund managers think they are being evaluated on their story. They are not. They are being evaluated on consistency. Does the thesis match the portfolio? Does the track record match the claimed edge? Does the behavior in diligence match the way the manager says they invest? When those signals align, conviction becomes easier.

Most LPs learn fund manager evaluation the expensive way. A great story. A strong track record. A credible team. A check gets written. Then time reveals the truth. Was it skill, timing, access, or luck? This week’s HealthVC essay is about what LPs wish they knew before backing a fund manager.

Raising from LPs is not about having the best story. It is about fitting into a portfolio that already exists. You are not competing against other funds. You are competing against: • Existing managers • Allocation constraints • The option of doing nothing New HealthVC newsletter breaks this down 👇

Strategic interest feels like progress. Pharma partner Pilot Licensing deal But here’s the problem: Exits aren’t driven by interest. They’re driven by competition. And early alignment can kill that.

Most funds say they “reserve 50%.” That tells you almost nothing. The real question is what they do when: • 2 companies break out at once • Capital gets tight • They have to choose That’s where outcomes are decided.

Most healthtech funds aren’t wrong on returns. They’re wrong on timing. DPI isn’t being overestimated because of bad companies. It’s being overestimated because models assume liquidity follows progress. It doesn’t. LPs are now underwriting time, not just multiples.

Most people think sovereign LPs care about returns. They do. But that is not what drives decisions. They care about: • Strategic relevance • Access you cannot replicate • Long-term positioning • Institutional behaviour They are not underwriting your fund. They are underwriting your role in their system. If you are raising capital and not thinking this way, you are already behind.

HealthVC Summit 2026 is live. Zurich. Sept 2 to 3. Europe. China. Saudi Arabia. Two days focused on how cross-border health capital actually moves. Day 1: closed investor summit LPs, GPs, sovereign allocators, institutional strategists Day 2: curated founders across stages Pre-scheduled investor meetings Panels. Keynotes. Real conversations. Small room. High signal. If you are building or deploying capital across borders, this is the room. Apply: healthvcsummit.com

Most founders think exits are built over time. Investors know they are largely decided at entry. Fund size + ownership + dilution = your outcome range. This is why companies pass on €100M exits and regret it later. The math never worked. Full breakdown 👇

Most founders think diligence starts after the partner meeting. It doesn’t. Investors are running backchannel references before you even realise. A quick call. A trusted contact. Someone who has worked with you before. Your pitch is controlled. Your reputation isn’t. And that often decides the outcome.

Most founders think they have a pipeline. They don’t. They have a list. If your investor set isn’t shrinking over time, you don’t have momentum. You have noise. Progression > activity.

Series A isn’t just about valuation. It’s about structural alignment. Funds are optimising for: – Portfolio resilience – Reserve discipline – LP scrutiny – Vintage stress Ownership determines long-term defence. Capital density changes appetite. The capital structure advantage most founders miss ↓ New HealthVC is live.