Dave McClure

Who they are

Dave McClure is Managing Partner at Practical Venture Capital — co-founded 500 Startups in 2010 and earlier built Aslan Computing from scratch before selling it in 1998.

Person

Dave graduated from Johns Hopkins with a BS in Engineering and Applied Mathematics in 1988, then spent the 1990s in software — founding Aslan Computing in 1994 and selling it in 1998, then becoming CEO of Simply Hired before moving into a Director of Marketing role there. PayPal was the inflection point: he joined as Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships, picking up a front-row seat to the PayPal mafia's rise, then served as Acting Investment Director at Founders Fund before co-founding 500 Startups in 2010. For seven years he ran 500 as a high-volume, data-driven seed accelerator that backed 30+ companies that went on to become unicorns or IPOs — including Credit Karma, Twilio, and The RealReal. He departed in 2017, and in 2019 he launched Practical Venture Capital, a VC secondary firm focused on buying fund interests in microVC funds and making direct secondary investments for LPs and GPs seeking liquidity. He also started 42Geeks as a side project and is associated with Criticality, described as a $65M fund for founders solving complex, urgent problems. Possibly — the through-line across thirty years is a preference for high-volume, systematic approaches to early-stage risk: from tech consultancy to seed acceleration to secondaries, he's always building a machine rather than picking individual bets.

Company

Practical Venture Capital, which McClure founded in 2019, operates as a VC secondary firm buying fund interests in microVC funds and making direct secondary investments — a niche that has gained attention as LP liquidity needs have grown. He appeared on the Trading Places VC Secondary Podcast discussing venture secondaries and liquidity solutions, signaling active deal-making in the space. He also lectures on venture capital at Stanford, keeping one foot in the ecosystem's educational layer. Possibly — the firm remains small and founder-led, consistent with how it was set up from inception with no prior headcount or funding base. The VC secondary market itself is becoming more structured and institutionalized, which could expand or commoditize Practical VC's niche depending on how large players move.

Market

The broader VC market in 2025 is contending with geopolitical fragmentation — cross-border scaling is harder, hardware-dependent startups are being de-risked, and emerging hubs like Saudi Arabia are launching large funds to compete as AI centers. Regulatory pressure around AML/KYC compliance is also rising for VC firms, requiring more rigorous due diligence. For secondary-focused vehicles like Practical Venture Capital, these dynamics create both supply (LPs seeking exits from locked-up microVC positions) and complexity (geopolitical risk embedded in underlying portfolios).

How they likely show up

Co-founded and ran 500 Startups on a high-volume, data-driven model → likely thinks in systems and portfolios, not single bets; will optimize for process over individual conviction.
Moved from operator (Aslan Computing, Simply Hired, PayPal) to fund builder (500 Startups) to secondary specialist (Practical VC) → career shows willingness to reinvent the role entirely rather than iterate incrementally.
Active on Substack, Medium, and podcast circuits covering VC secondaries and fund structures → comfortable with public thinking-out-loud; probably responds well to direct engagement on ideas rather than small talk.
Visiting lecturer at Stanford on venture capital → likely enjoys teaching and framing mental models; may default to explaining structure when asked about a topic.
Possibly — long tenure running 500 Startups (2010–2017) before pivoting to a new firm suggests he can sustain multi-year institutional builds, but also knows when to exit and start fresh.

Conversation tips

→ Lead with something specific about VC secondaries or LP liquidity dynamics — he's actively podcasting on it and will engage substantively.
→ Reference his Stanford lecturing if you want to get him into 'teaching mode' — he'll lay out his mental model clearly when given the opening.
→ Don't treat 500 Startups as the main event; he's clearly moved on, and Practical VC is where his current thinking lives.
→ He writes on Medium and Substack — mention a specific post if you've read one; it signals you did more than a Google search.
→ Ask about the secondaries market mechanics rather than generic VC trends — that's his edge and he'll have sharper opinions there.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on his Trading Places VC Secondary Podcast appearance — he's publicly working through the mechanics of LP liquidity solutions, which signals where his current intellectual energy is focused.
Reference the Aslan Computing founding in 1994 and sale in 1998 — it's an easy entry into how his operator experience shapes how he evaluates founders today, and most people skip past it.
Mention Criticality, the $65M fund focused on founders solving complex, urgent problems — it sits alongside Practical VC and raises an interesting question about how he thinks about the two vehicles differently.

Discovery questions

How does the secondary market for microVC fund interests actually work in practice — who are the sellers, and what's driving LP willingness to take a discount for liquidity right now?
Running 500 Startups on a high-volume model meant investing in hundreds of companies — how does that portfolio-wide experience shape how you evaluate individual positions in a secondary context?
Geopolitical fragmentation is complicating cross-border scaling for startups — does that change the risk profile of the underlying microVC funds you're buying into, and how do you price that?

Avoid

Don't lead with questions about 500 Startups' legacy or his 2017 departure — he's been running a separate firm for six-plus years and the secondary market is clearly where he wants the conversation to go.

Make it yours