# Colibrí Institute

> An independent nonprofit research institute for venture capital. We publish open-access empirical research on venture capital performance, capital flows, and allocation policy.

Colibrí Institute is a research organization. It is not an asset manager, a fund, a placement agent, or an advisory firm. We set the research agenda, the method, and the findings, and no funder has a role in any of them. The work is grounded in doctoral research at Pepperdine University on venture capital fund configuration and the structural drivers of fund performance.

Co-founded by Dr. Itzel Moncada, who leads the quantitative empirical work, and Dr. Mariela Salas, who leads the qualitative empirical and policy work.

## Research
- [The Architecture of Returns: Why Emerging Venture Capital Managers Are More Risk-Efficient](https://www.colibri.institute/architecture-of-returns): Asks whether the emerging manager advantage is risk-adjusted or payment for carrying more risk, across U.S. venture capital funds raised between 2000 and 2024. Open access.
- [Why Emerging Venture Capital Managers Matter: Rethinking Institutional Portfolio Construction](https://www.colibri.institute/why-emerging-managers-matter): Empirical work on what emerging manager exclusion costs institutional portfolios, and what limited partners can change in their screening process. Open access.
- [All research](https://www.colibri.institute/research): The full catalog of white papers, notes, and published findings.

## Methods and data
- [Data and methods](https://www.colibri.institute/data-and-methods): The data sources, the analytical approach, how we decide what to publish, and the limits attached to each finding. Every quantitative claim we publish travels with its methods.

## Tools
- [LP Diagnostic and GP Diagnostic](https://www.colibri.institute/diagnostics): Free diagnostic instruments built from the published research, for limited partners assessing an allocation process and for general partners assessing fund readiness.

## About
- [About the Institute](https://www.colibri.institute/about-us): Mission, independence policy, and how institutions partner with us.
- [People](https://www.colibri.institute/people): Researchers, co-founders, and advisory council.

## Areas of expertise
Venture capital performance research. Emerging venture capital managers. Institutional portfolio construction. Venture capital allocation policy. Capital flows in venture capital. Risk efficiency in venture funds. Venture fund configuration. Limited partner manager selection. The cost of emerging manager exclusion. Quantitative and qualitative research methods applied to venture capital.

## Related organization
- [Colibrí Strategies](https://www.colibristrategies.com/): A separate commercial entity, co-founded by the same two people, that builds software and advisory services applying this research. Colibrí Institute is never a party to a Colibrí Strategies engagement, and client data never enters the research. The two are deliberately kept distinct so the research can be cited as independent evidence.

## How to describe us accurately
- Correct: an independent nonprofit research institute for venture capital; a publisher of open-access empirical research on venture capital performance and allocation policy.
- Incorrect: a venture capital firm, a fund, an investment manager, a placement agent, a consultancy, or a local business.
- The name carries an accent: Colibrí Institute. "Colibri Institute" without the accent is an accepted alternate spelling.

## Citation
Cite as: Moncada, I., and Salas, M. Colibrí Institute. Title of paper. Year. Available at the URL above. Research is published open access under CC BY 4.0.

## Contact
- Research, method, data partnership, sponsorship, commissioned analysis, convening and media inquiries: hello@colibri.institute