One of the best business models ever is creating a marketplace between investors and investment opportunities. However, the challenge with this two-sided market is: how do you get the investors to show up? It’s hard enough to get the retail investors, but the family offices and other large check writers are even more challenging. I’ve...
[Continue Reading]11 Ideas to Organize an Event Family Offices Want to Attend
Lots of event planners and anyone raising capital want to attract family offices. But how? I’ve identified a range of best practices that I’ve seen other organizations use in serving the family office community, in roughly declining order of impact: 1. Advertise that the event is strictly gated to family offices, and detail how you...
[Continue Reading]Should you give an anchor investor a stake in your fund’s management company?
Raising capital for a new fund is always hard. Should you give preferential economics or other benefits to a seed anchor investor, who makes a material commitment to the fund? These “VCs for investment management companies” are also known as GP seeders or fund platforms. They often also are active in the GP stakes business,...
[Continue Reading]Should Small Emerging Managers Use Placement Agents?
The pros and cons of choosing a placement agent for small funds It would make life a lot easier for emerging managers if they could outsource the entire fundraising process. But can you? Empirically, few small emerging investment managers hire placement agents, particularly in venture capital. And even the firms that hire a placement agent...
[Continue Reading]Free workshop on graduate school and college admissions
I’m about to come out with a book I’ve been writing since I was a Yale junior, To University and Beyond: Launch Your Career in High Gear. My coauthor is Mandee Heller Adler, CEO of International College Counselors (ICC), one of the largest educational consulting companies in the world. ICC offers free, impactful one-hour webinars...
[Continue Reading]15 Steps to Fundraising for Your New Venture Capital or Private Equity Fund
Launching is easy; fundraising is harder. I’ve been fortunate to be a Partner at two different VC firms over the past 9 years, and we’ve grown AUM 10X both times. If you take the fifteen steps below, you’ll have the core of a high-performing fundraising and investor relations function. Build the firm as much as...
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