Thierry Heles, founder and editor of "The Next Leap", joins Károly Szántó and Thijmen Meijer for a conversation on the state of university venture capital globally.

Thierry Heles has spent 12 years tracking spinouts, university funds, and the professionals who move between them. In this episode, he shares what that research produces: around 108 university-backed funds active in Europe, around 250 globally, a talent pipeline constrained by compensation structures that cannot compete with the corporate sector, European LP capital that remains nationally siloed, and why multi-university fund models are structurally necessary for any fund that needs a viable pipeline.

Topics covered in this episode:

• How Thierry entered the field and what has kept him in it for 12 years

• University fund coverage across Europe, Japan, Australia, and the US

• The talent pipeline into TTOs and UVC funds

• TTO compensation and why experienced candidates do not enter the field

• Fund sizes and LP composition across geographies

• Why European pension funds allocate a fraction of one percent to venture capital

• The structural case for multi-university fund models

• Why university funds require external management and legal separation from the institution

The Next Leap: http://thenextleap.is

UniVCC: univccoalition.org

Timecode:

00:00 Welcome and setup

01:04 Origin of the podcast

02:31 Entering university VC

05:24 What makes it fascinating

07:48 Talent and career paths

11:12 Who leads university funds

15:49 Geography and mobility

17:38 Europe fund landscape

21:14 Global count and Japan

24:22 Cross-border ecosystems

28:47 Late-stage funding gap

29:52 Funding Scale Reality

30:15 Investor Geography Bias

31:36 Multi-University Fund Models

33:11 Building a Pipeline

34:25 Audience and Coverage

36:38 Policy Voices on Air

38:03 LPs and Investability

40:40 Pension Funds Risk Gap

41:37 Europe vs US Allocation

44:35 Incentives and Fee Support

46:25 Talent Paths and Pay

51:57 Fund Turnarounds Lessons

54:13 External Management Best Practice

55:34 No One Size Fits All