What AustralianSuper Looks for in a Venture Manager, and How to Build an Outreach Email Around It

LPs rarely say in public how they pick managers. On 7 October 2026, AustralianSuper did, in an article about its Australian venture programme, which it says has passed A$1.5 billion in commitments. The numbers are covered in our LP Intelligence report on the fund. This piece is about the part that matters for outreach: the five tests the fund says it applies, and how a manager can answer each one in a first email. The article is about venture, but the tests apply to most strategies, so the same approach works for growth equity and buyout managers.

The five tests, in the fund's words

The fund said it looks at the quality and stability of the investment team, the manager's access to founders and deal flow, the discipline of the investment process, the ability to support companies after investment, and how a proposed commitment complements the rest of its portfolio. It also said it diversifies across several managers, adds selective co-investment alongside them, and spreads exposure across companies, sectors, stages and vintages instead of timing the market. Everything below that describes what to write is our advice, not something the fund said.

Turn each test into a line the LP can check

For team stability, state how long each partner has worked together, how many have left in the last five years, and who leads each investment. An LP reading about stability wants numbers, not adjectives. For access to founders and deal flow, give the share of your last ten investments that came through founder referrals or where you were the first institutional cheque, and say so plainly if the share is small. For process, describe the steps from first meeting to investment committee, and how many companies you reviewed for each one you backed. For post-investment support, name two or three specific things you did for a company, such as a senior hire or a follow-on round you helped arrange, with the outcome. For fit, say what your fund adds to a portfolio that already holds several managers at your stage. That last line is the one most pitches skip, and it is the one an LP with many managers needs most.

What the page tells you about tone and timing

The fund said it does not try to time cycles and that higher interest rates have not led it to cut venture exposure automatically, though its pace stays responsive to valuations, financing conditions and opportunity quality. So an email that argues now is the best vintage to invest will read as noise. A better line explains how your pace and cheque sizes respond to valuations. The fund also said secondary markets can provide some liquidity as holding periods lengthen, so add one sentence on how you handle long holds and any secondary sales.

What to leave out

The fund said its own venture portfolio has outperformed an Australian equity index over the long term, and in the same breath cautioned that the portfolio is young and short-term results should not be over-weighted. That is the standard an LP will apply to you. Do not lead with a quick internal rate of return on a young fund; lead with realised results and say how much of your track record is still unrealised. Do not claim stability you cannot document. And do not use a generic list of famous portfolio names to answer the fit question, because an LP that already holds several managers will have seen most of them.

How to send it

The interviewee for the article is the fund's Head of Private Equity for Asia Pacific, which tells you which team to check your relationships against. We do not recommend a cold approach to a named individual. Instead, ask an investor who already backs you, or a shared contact, for an introduction, and keep the email short: three or four lines, one attachment and one clear request. A workable structure is one line on who you are and your strategy, one line answering the fit question, one line with your strongest checkable number, and one line asking for a short call. Put the five-answer note behind the email, so the LP can read it if it wants more. Our guide to what goes in an LP diligence pack lists what to have ready, and our explainers on track record and the due diligence questionnaire cover the terms LPs will use when they reply. For a pension that runs an open search instead, see how to answer a pension's open manager search.

What to do this week

Write the five answers as a one-page note, with numbers, before you write the email. If you cannot fill in one of them, that is the gap an LP will find. Have a partner who did not write the note read it as a sceptical LP would, and ask which claims they would want evidence for. Then decide which two numbers go in the email itself and which stay in the attachment, so the first message stays short and every figure in it can be checked. FundLinx members can see which large pensions are adding managers in your strategy.

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