Fee harvesting is one of the more annoying things about big funds.<p>Most funds take their full 2% (or whatever) a year for the entire committed fund size, hence the motivation to raise larger and larger funds. At that point, the fee is rather juicy especially when they're collecting fees from 2 or more active funds (assuming they raise a new fund every 3 years or so). Even if they don't get into carry, the partners can live pretty well, though their returns might not justify it.<p>There's a need for more lean VCs to complement the lean startups that are emerging now. Fee-driven funds that are too large to maneuver wind up making poor decisions.