The criteria for interested companies: startups can't have raised more than $1 million (or institutional venture capital), and are based in (or willing to move to) Los Angeles, where the program is based.
The principal differences across national boundaries, he argues, are more institutional – for example if bankruptcy laws allow you to start again easily, and whether access to venture capital means you have lost outsiders' money rather than that borrowed from friends and family.
Individual investors can follow this model by employing asset managers with a more institutional focus, who look for opportunities in more sophisticated areas including merger arbitrage, statistical arbitrage and venture capital.
Institutional venture capitalists are feeling the pinch, too.
"It's more institutional than personal," Vázquez said.
"People won't accept any more institutional limbo," Bustinduy said.
It's the startup's first institutional venture funding round since its inception in 2010.
Headquartered in Chicago, Mu Sigma raised its first institutional venture money from FTV Capital back in 2008.
This does of course mean they are unlikely to attract formal, institutional venture capital.
Additional institutional venture investors in the Vesper round include Hyperplane, ZZ Capital, and Accomplice.
