# Does Your VC Fund Size Still Make Sense Today

Author:  
Peter Walker  
Published date:  
May 25, 2026

Rising lead check sizes, follow-on expectations, and evolving ownership targets are forcing fund managers to reconsider whether their current fund size still...

Major question for VCs today: does your fund size still make sense?

### Three inter-related decisions

- **Do I lead rounds?**  
  If I do, the median lead check is 25%-50% larger today than it was only 3 years back. Am I willing to invest into fewer companies (building a more concentrated portfolio) in order to maintain ownership?

- **Do I follow-on?**  
  If I lead, I'm sort of expected to (side note as Peter - kinda think this is an expectation that should fade but I get it). Well, great, the follow-on check is ALSO much larger than it used to be and if my portco gets marked up by a major Tier 1 fund, forget it there goes millions.

- **Do I bridge companies?**  
  A bridge here, another there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money that could have been spent on another net new bet. But I need to maintain good relationships with my founders in this business.

Tricky all the way down. But the incentives clearly point in one direction - try and raise a bigger fund next time.

Which LPs always love 😅

Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.