AGM Alts Weekly | 2.1.26: Persistence in process
AGM Alts Weekly #140: Making private markets more public, every week.
“Alt Goes Mainstream is category of one.” Global Head of Marketing & Communications, $X00B AUM alternative asset manager.
“When it comes to the intersection of alternative investments and wealth management, Michael just gets it.” CIO, $18B AUM RIA.
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For too long, private equity funds have relied on manual processes — spreadsheets, scattered documents, disjointed data — to track complex investment and ownership structures. It’s slow, error-prone, and not scalable. And when regulators, investors, or auditors come knocking, it’s a fire drill every time.
At DealsPlus, we help private equity funds digitise investment and ownership structures, eliminating data silos. Our software helps power key workflows such as: quarterly reporting, audits, compliance, and exits.
Good afternoon from London.
A busy week of meetings and events in London was punctuated by a conversation at iCapital Engage | London 2026 with iCapital’s Head of Client Solutions EMEA and private markets veteran Daniel Imhof.
I also recorded a number of podcasts with senior leaders and executives at some of Europe’s enduring alternative asset management firms.
A recurring theme and topic that came up in conversations? Differentiation. What makes an investment firm different? What makes them unique? What enables them to generate outperformance?
Many of my conversations endeavored to unpack a topic core to how and why allocators turn a focus to private markets: performance.
Performance is the name of the game in private markets. It’s what allocators are placing under the microscope when deciding to partner with an investment firm.
Asset managers and allocators often view persistence in performance as part of the rationale for allocating to a firm’s newest fund.
Evaluating past performance can help put the pieces of the puzzle together for allocators. But there’s a challenge with persistence in performance in the diligence process: it’s a backward looking way of determining future success.
It’s persistence in process that allocators should be underwriting.
Consistency in an inconsistent world
The investing game on the field has changed dramatically in recent years. A new world order in investing has reshaped the past few years in investing, as Apollo CEO Marc Rowan shared at the Norges Bank Investment Management Investment Conference in 2024.
A white paper from Apollo, published this week, punctuates much of Rowan’s perspectives.
Apollo’s Partners David Sambur, Matt Nord, and Antoine Munfakh noted that “equity markets are in a structurally different era.”
Structural challenges are now a feature of public markets.
Concentration, correlation, and indexation now define public markets and dominate price action, as the below charts from Apollo highlight.
These features of public markets have had a cascading effect on private markets.
The era of easy money in private equity has ended, according to Apollo. They note that a “decade of ultra‑low rates allowed many managers to rely on expanding multiples, cheap leverage and buoyant exit markets.”
Managers that relied on beta rather than “operational value creation, along with shrewd asset sourcing and selection” could widen the gap in the future between managers that relied on market forces to generate outcomes versus those that have a repeatable playbook for value creation.
Sambur, Nord, and Munfakh argue that the private equity industry is due for a back to the future moment. A “return to the roots of the asset class: disciplined buying, hands-on operational improvement, and clear, repeatable pathways to liquidity” are required in this new era of investing for managers to perform.
Different eras, different drivers
Different eras of private equity have been defined by different drivers of returns.
A recent KPMG report on value creation in private equity highlights the levers that private equity firms have pulled to generate returns over different time periods.
Pre-2000, GP leverage drove the lion’s share of returns in buyout transactions. The returns bridge above illustrates just how much leverage played a role in creating outcomes for private equity returns.
2008-2019 witnessed a marked increase in market EBITDA multiple expansion. While beneficial to private equity firms that were able to exit in that timeframe (and, in certain cases, those firms that were price-disciplined and bought at reasonable EBITDA entry multiples exhibited investment skill by buying at the right price), the returns were driven by external market forces and broad-based multiple expansion rather than operational value creation.
Perhaps the most interesting datapoint from KPMG’s chart above resides in the bottom right corner. In the post-ZIRP investment world (or what Apollo would call “a structurally different era”), KPMG views EBITDA margin expansion as the major driver of returns going forward.
How do firms drive EBITDA margin expansion?
Value creation.
Let’s unpack what value creation really means.
“Creating our own luck”
KKR’s Josh Weisenbeck, a Partner, Head of Industrials on the Americas Private Equity team, and an Americas Private Equity Investment Committee member shared a perspective in 2024 that encapsulates what value creation means in private equity over the long-term.
In short? A “firm creating their own luck.” For KKR, which has been investing for 50 years, Weisenbeck highlights that they’ve “been creating [their] own luck since 1976.”
I think of value creation as something that is within our control and repeatable. When you create value, you must change the company over the investment period to make it more profitable, help it grow more quickly, or position the company strategically to do one of those two things later. Anyone can lever a company financially or buy something in hopes that the economy or the market moves in the right direction, the company continues to benefit from market momentum, or that they’re in the right place at the right time by accident. Anyone can get lucky once or twice, but KKR has been investing for almost 50 years. We’ve been creating our own luck since 1976.
Weisenbeck noted a few key features of what value creation actually means: “something that is within [their] control and repeatable.”
When a firm “creates [their] own luck” over multiple fund vintages, then they have very likely demonstrated repeatability in their value creation process.
Repeatable processes and playbooks are what the best private equity firms implement to drive returns. And, crucially, it’s a feature of investment firms that LPs can evaluate on a forward-looking basis, too, rather than solely through a backward-looking lens.
Apollo’s white paper shares a chart that highlights what a “repeatable playbook for value creation” looks like for how they invest and create value post-deal.
Hg provides a window into their operational expertise and the results they’ve delivered for portfolio companies in publicly available documents from the firm’s UK-listed investment trust, HgCapital Trust.
Hg’s value creation team, led by Partner Chris Kindt (you can listen to his podcast on Alt Goes Mainstream here), has helped to drive both revenue and cost-savings for some of their companies, as the below chart illustrates.
“Creat[ing] value that creates more value”
EQT’s Kristiaan Nieuwenburg, Partner and Head of Performance for Private Capital Europe & North America, shared how the firm has created an enduring and repeatable process to help “create value that creates more value.”
Nieuwenburg wrote in a 2024 article on the firm’s ThinQ platform that EQT’s process is “based on six key pillars: our proven governance model, industrial advisors, mobilization system, future-proofing, value creation toolbox, and full potential plan.”
The result?
Over the past three decades, about 50% of EQT’s returns were generated through sales growth, according to Nieuwenburg’s article. Around 17% were attributed to margin expansion, mainly through operating leverage and improvement rather than pure cost-cutting. And Nieuwenburg noted that “debt reduction represents just a small part; we prefer to reinvest the cash we generate into the business to support further growth rather than extract capital.”
Every firm has their own value creation playbook and process, as the three examples above highlight, and as this week’s white paper from CVC Managing Partner & Global Head of the CVC Operating Team John Kelleher illustrates with the below chart from the paper.
But whatever a firm’s secret sauce, it’s clear that the “status quo won’t do,” as KPMG notes in their 2025 report.
EBITDA uplift must replace lost leverage and multiples, KPMG wrote.
And KPMG is right. The investing world has become much more complex due to factors both inside the industry (increased capital flowing into private markets, large investment firms growing their platforms and investing more into value creation and technology) and outside the industry (geopolitics, new interest rate regime, higher levels of volatility and supply chain shocks, innovations and unknowns with AI and machine learning).
“Seeing through the fog”
This new world order of investing will largely favor firms with the size, scale, and capital to invest into their platform and develop the resources required to drive value creation processes.
Size and scale will often lead to more data. More proprietary data can provide investment firms with an edge in understanding where to find and create value both pre- and post-investment.
An article from the Wall Street Journal this week highlights the scale advantage that Blackstone possesses from its ability to glean insights that can be transformed into proprietary analysis from the 270 businesses and 13,000 real estate assets in its portfolio.
Blackstone’s CEO Steve Schwarzman referenced the firm’s data advantage in this week’s earnings call: “This data provides deep insight into what’s happening in the global economy, helping us see through the fog and chart the path forward. Our data gave us the confidence to lean into key thematic areas such as digital infrastructure — including data centers, power and electrification — private credit, life sciences and, from a regional perspective, India and Japan.”
More capital and large balance sheets will enable investment firms to enhance their value creation playbooks and processes. More capital means that firms can invest into building out their operating partner networks, value creation teams and playbooks. Firms can also lean into competitive advantages with GenAI and building technology capabilities and cost-savings efforts for portfolio companies through initiatives like the creation of AI agent factories, as Vista and Hg are doing.
Persistence in process
Large, scaled firms with built-out platforms will very likely be the beneficiaries of this current time in private equity on an absolute basis, but hope isn’t lost for smaller firms on a relative basis.
Firms that are smaller but have a repeatable process can also win the hearts and minds of LPs with a repeatable process and a history of delivering on that process.
Whether large or small, I’d expect private equity firms to continue to share more about their value creation processes and plans with LPs and in their marketing efforts. After all, it’s persistence in process that allocators can evaluate when trying to determine persistence in performance.
AGM Index
AGM has created an Index to track the leading publicly traded alternative asset managers.
Some of the industry’s largest alternative asset managers are publicly traded — and their net inflows can serve as a window into how private markets are being perceived by investors and allocators who are allocating capital into alternative investments.
Note: AUM figures are based on fee-paying AUM where applicable.
Who is hiring?
In order for alts to continue to go mainstream, we need the best talent to go into the space. Here are some openings at private markets firms. If you’d like to connect with any of these teams, let me know, and I’m happy to facilitate an introduction if appropriate. If you’re a company or fund in private markets, feel free to reach out to share a job description you’d like to be listed here to highlight for the Alt Goes Mainstream community.
🔍 Blackstone (Alternative asset manager) - Blackstone Private Wealth - Product Specialist, Vice President (Real Assets). Click here to learn more.
🔍 KKR (Alternative asset manager) - Head of Americas Wealth IR Servicing. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Apollo Global Management (Alternative asset manager) - Registered Funds Compliance Officer - Global Wealth. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Ares (Alternative asset manager) - Vice President, Product Management & Client Services, Wealth Management Solutions, APAC. Click here to learn more.
🔍 EQT Group (Alternative asset manager) - Head of Social Media. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Blue Owl (Alternative asset manager) - Private Wealth, RIA Strategic Accounts, Vice President / Principal. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Franklin Templeton (Asset manager) - Portfolio Manager, Private Markets. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Fortress (Asset manager) - VP / Director, Channel Marketing, Private Wealth Solutions. Click here to learn more.
🔍 iCapital (Private markets infrastructure investment platform) - Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Canada - Senior Vice President. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Goldman Sachs Alternatives (Alternative asset manager) - Asset & Wealth Management, Wealth Product Design, Designer, Vice President - New York. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Partners Group (Alternative asset manager) - Product Specialist (Private Wealth). Click here to learn more.
🔍 Ultimus Fund Solutions (Fund administrator) - SVP, Business Development. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Krilogy (Wealth manager) - Senior Wealth Advisor. Click here to learn more.
🔍 MSCI (Data services) - Content Writer - Private Assets. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Upper 90 (Alternative asset manager) - Investor Relations Analyst. Click here to learn more.
🤝 Interested in learning more about AGM RIA Field Trips? 🤝
Read about the expansion of Alt Goes Mainstream, with the launch of the AGM Community and AGM Events.
We’ve also built out the AGM Community RIA Advisory Board, an experienced, thoughtful, and intellectually curious group of private wealth management and private markets executives and operators, to help shape the direction of AGM Community.
The latest on Alt Goes Mainstream
Recent podcast or video episodes and blog posts on Alt Goes Mainstream:
📝 Read The AGM Q&A with Blue Owl Senior MD and CEO of Global Private Wealth Sean Connor on how they are serving the wealth channel in 2026 and beyond. Read here.
🎥 Watch Ultimus Fund Solutions’ CEO Gary Tenkman discuss how Ultimus is helping to build core fund administration infrastructure that powering the evergreen evolution and is helping to make private markets go mainstream. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Goldman Sachs’ Partner and Global Head of Private Wealth Management Capital Markets and Global Head of Goldman Sachs Apex Family Office Coverage Sara Naison-Tarajano discuss how Goldman Sachs has built its Apex Family Office Coverage group to serve UHNW families and family offices. Watch here.
📝 Read about the expansion of Alt Goes Mainstream, with the announcement of AGM Community, the creation of the AGM Community RIA Advisory Board, and why we believe that the industry should have small, curated events and community-building efforts. Read here.
🎥 Watch Stonepeak’s MD and CEO of SP+ INFRA Cyrus Gentry discuss the why and the how of bringing infrastructure investing to the wealth channel. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Blue Owl’s Senior MD and President & CEO of Global Private Wealth Sean Connor discuss the firm’s focus on the wealth channel and how the firm is a growth company in a growth industry that is investing in megatrends. Watch here.
🎥 Watch the latest Alts Pulse with iCapital Chairman & CEO Lawrence Calcano where we go global and discuss Lawrence’s recent trip to Asia to peer into the nuances of the different wealth management markets around the globe. Watch here.
🎥 Listen and watch EQT’s Chairperson EQT Asia and Head of Private Capital Asia Jean Eric Salata share reflections on leadership, culture, and values from one of the world’s largest investment firms. Listen here and Watch here.
🎥 Listen and watch EQT’s Founder and Chairperson Conni Jonsson discuss how EQT has built a global private equity firm the Nordic way. Listen here and Watch here.
🎥 Watch Vista Equity Partners’ President and COO David Breach discuss how Vista has built a software investing powerhouse in the age of AI. Watch here.
🎥 Watch ING’s Anneka Treon, Global Head of Private Banking, Wealth Management & Investments, and Johan Kloeze, Head of Private Banking & Wealth Management NL, ING, share lessons learned from building a private markets platform for private wealth clients. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Oaktree Capital Management’s Co-CEO and Head of Performing Credit Armen Panossian share why investors shouldn’t “have to reach for risk to generate the right return.” Watch here.
🎥 Watch Franklin Templeton’s COO - Global Wealth Management Alternatives George Stephan discuss the evolution of Franklin Templeton’s Alternatives business and how the firm has brought public and private together. Watch here.
🎥 Watch iAlta Holdings’ Founding Partner Bill Crager discuss the evolution of wealthtech from building Envestnet as Co-Founder and CEO to why today is a “transformational moment” in wealth management. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Vista Equity Partners’ Founder, Chairman, and CEO Robert F. Smith discuss who will benefit from AI and how he built a $100B enterprise software scaled specialist firm. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Nomura Capital Management’s CEO Robert Stark discuss how they have built a private credit firm within a global bank. Watch here.
📝 Read The AGM Op-Ed with Blue Owl Senior MD and Head of Digital Infrastructure Matt A’Hearn on building the backbone of the digital economy. Read here.
🎥 Watch PGIM’s Global Head of Alternative Investments Dominick Carlino discuss the evolution of distributing alternative investments to the wealth channel. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Blue Owl’s Senior MD and Head of Digital Infrastructure Matt A’Hearn share why he believes there’s a generational opportunity in financing digital infrastructure. Watch here.
🎬 Watch AGM Originals The DNA - Season 1 with conversations with EQT’s Conni Jonsson, Jean Salata, Lennart Blecher, Geraldine O’Keeffe, Peter Beske Nielsen, Peter Aliprantis, Hari Gopalakrishnan, William Vettorato, and Ken Wong about the firm’s DNA and its different investing capabilities. Watch here.
🎥 Watch PGIM’s Head of Multi-Asset and Quantitative Solutions Phil Waldeck discuss the intersection of insurance and asset management. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Stonepeak Chairman, Co-Founder, CEO Mike Dorrell share his story as a pioneer in infrastructure investing. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Hg Partner and Head of Value Creation Chris Kindt discuss AI’s transformative role in value creation for private equity. Watch here.
🎥 In Permira Part 2, watch Permira Co-Chairmen & Co-CEOs Brian Ruder and Dipan Patel discuss how the collaborative leadership model in action has helped the firm scale to an €80B alternative asset manager. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Evercore ISI’s Senior MD & Senior Research Analyst Glenn Schorr and me unpack the past few months in private markets on the latest episode of Going Public. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Permira Co-Chairman & Co-CEO Dipan Patel discuss how to scale an €80B alternative asset manager. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor cover the most pressing topics in private markets today, including the convergence of public and private, liquidity vs illiquidity, investor education, the importance of transparency, and the why, what, and how behind evergreen funds. Watch here.
🎥 Watch The Compound and Friends (TCAF) Co-Hosts and Ritholtz Wealth Management Partners Downtown Josh Brown and Michael Batnick and I go back and forth about private markets on TCAF Episode 207. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Stonepeak Co-President Luke Taylor discuss what it takes to be a great infrastructure investor. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Arcesium MD and Head of Client and Partner Development David Nable discuss how to architect private markets technology infrastructure for the future. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Juniper Square CEO and Co-Founder Alex Robinson on balancing AI with the human element in fund administration. Watch here.
📝 Read the latest AGM Op-Ed — “Retail and the City #2” with former Pantheon Partner Susan Long McAndrews on five takeaways from the Executive Order that could see private assets in 401(k) plans. Read here.
🎥 Watch Hg Senior Partner and Executive Chairman Nic Humphries discuss how Hg has grown into a $100B scaled specialist and how one of the industry’s leading private equity technology and services investors is “navigating investing at an inflection point in history.” Watch here.
🎥 Watch EQT Partner, Head of Private Wealth Americas Peter Aliprantis live from Miami on how EQT is bringing global local. Watch here.
📝 Read The AGM Op-Ed with Arcesium SVP, Business Development - Private Markets Jean Robert on why asset managers need to rethink reporting as a strategic advantage. Read here.
🎥 Watch SageSpring Private Wealth CEO Winston Justice share how he went from protecting star quarterbacks as an NFL tackle to protecting families’ wealth. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Blue Owl Co-President and Global Head of Real Assets Marc Zahr share the story of how he built Oak Street from $17M in AUM in 2009 to what is now Blue Owl’s $67.1B AUM Real Assets business in a live Alt Goes Mainstream podcast at Future Proof Citywide. Watch here.
📝 Read The AGM Op-Ed with former Pantheon Partner Susan Long McAndrews on why everything we need to know might be in Sacramento (where CalPERS is located). Read here.
🎥 Watch Hg’s Partner and Head of Hg Wealth Martina Sanow discuss how Hg has unlocked opportunities for the wealth channel to invest in Europe’s largest portfolio of software and services businesses. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Goldman Sachs’ Partner and Global Co-Head of the Petershill Group at Goldman Sachs Robert Hamilton Kelly discuss the evolution of the GP stakes industry and how Goldman has become a market leading GP stakes investor. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Blue Owl’s MD, Head of Alternative Credit Ivan Zinn unpack private credit and why ABF has become a prominent part of the private credit ecosystem. Watch here.
📝 Read The AGM Op-Ed with Blue Owl Head of Alternative Credit Ivan Zinn on why “asset-based finance today mirrors the evolution of corporate direct lending from over a decade ago.” Read here.
🎥 Watch Lincoln Financial’s EVP and CIO Jayson Bronchetti discuss the role of insurance companies in private markets as he discusses how he manages a portfolio of $300B in assets. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Krilogy’s Partner and CIO John McArthur discuss how an RIA can chart a growth path by building out its private markets capabilities. Watch here.
🎥 Watch New Mountain Capital’s Founder & Chief Executive Officer Steve Klinsky discuss how $55B AUM New Mountain has built a business that builds businesses. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Arcesium’s Private Markets Head Cesar Estrada discuss data silos and technology integrations in private markets. Watch here.
🎥 Watch GeoWealth President & COO Jack Hannah and iCapital SVP, Partnerships Michael Doniger discuss the ground-breaking BlackRock, iCapital, and GeoWealth unified managed account partnership live from iCapital Connect. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Goldman Sachs’ Managing Director, Global Head of Alternatives, Third Party Wealth Kyle Kniffen discuss how they are “standing on the shoulders of Goldman Sachs to be a complete partner” for the wealth channel. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Fortress Investment Group Managing Director & Co-Head of Private Wealth Solutions Adam Bobker discuss how Fortress has built a wealth solutions business from a whiteboard, leaning on the firm’s pioneering history of innovation. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Constellation Wealth Capital President & Managing Partner Karl Heckenberg on why there will be a $1T independent wealth management firm. Watch here.
🎥 Watch BlackRock Managing Director, Co-Head of US Wealth Business, Senior Sponsor for Retirement Business Jaime Magyera and iCapital Chairman & CEO Lawrence Calcano discuss the ground-breaking BlackRock, iCapital, and GeoWealth unified managed account partnership live from iCapital Connect. Watch here.
🎥 Watch EQT Partner & Head of Private Wealth Americas Peter Aliprantis discuss how the firm is bringing EQT’s success to the US wealth market. Watch here.
🎥 Watch KKR Partner & Co-CEO of KKR Private Equity Conglomerate LLC (K-PEC) Alisa Wood discuss how the firm has innovated in private markets, why KKR came up with the Conglomerate structure, and how evergreens can play a role in investors’ portfolios. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Cantilever Group’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner Todd Owens in a live podcast from BTG Pactual’s NYC office share why GP stakes can be the best of all worlds. Watch here.
📝 Read The AGM Op-Ed with Arcesium Private Markets Head Cesar Estrada on the rise of asset-based finance and why it’s the next growth engine for private credit. Read here.
🎥 Watch BlackRock’s Head of the Americas Client Business Joe DeVico, Head of Product for US Wealth & Head of Alts to Wealth Jon Diorio, and Partners Group's Co-Head of Private Wealth Rob Collins discuss their landmark private markets model portfolio partnership that could be the industry’s “iPhone Moment.” Watch here.
🎥 Watch Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions CEO John Sweeney discuss how to build a high-performing wealth solutions team and why the word “solutions” matters when working with the wealth channel. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Cerity Partners’ Partner & Chief Client Officer Tom Cohn and Partner Amita Schultes talk about how and why they have combined a leading OCIO with a $100B AUM wealth management practice. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Marc Lipschultz, Co-CEO of Blue Owl, talk about how they have aimed to skate where the puck is going as Blue Owl has grown its AUM to $265B in nine years. Watch here.
📝 Read The AGM Q&A with Blue Owl Co-CEO Marc Lipschultz, where he highlights some of the trends that have propelled alternative asset management into the mainstream: scale, a focus on private credit, and a focus on private wealth. Read here.
🎙 Listen to Stephanie Drescher, Partner & Chief Client & Product Development Officer of Apollo, discuss what is safe and what is risky as she dives into both the convergence between public and private and the nuances of asset allocation. Listen here.
🎥 Watch Mike Tiedemann, CEO of $72B AUM AlTi Global share why being a global wealth manager can be a differentiator. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Joan Solotar, Global Head of Private Wealth Solutions at Blackstone share why it’s not even early innings, but that it’s “spring training” for private markets adoption by the wealth channel. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Venkat Subramaniam, Co-Founder of DealsPlus on building a single source of truth for private markets. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Yann Magnan, Co-Founder & CEO of 73 Strings discuss the opportunity for AI to automate private markets. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Hamilton Lane Managing Director, Co-Head US Private Wealth Solutions Stephanie Davis and iCapital Co-Founder & Managing Partner Nick Veronis discuss the evolution of evergreen funds on the third episode of the Investing with an Evergreen Lens Series. Watch here.
🎥 Watch KKR Managing Director, Head of Americas, Global Wealth Solutions (GWS) Doug Krupa and iCapital Co-Founder & Managing Partner Nick Veronis discuss the evolution of evergreen funds on the second episode of the Investing with an Evergreen Lens Series. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Vista Equity Partners Managing Director, Global Head of Private Wealth Solutions Dan Parant and iCapital Co-Founder & Managing Partner Nick Veronis discuss the evolution of evergreen funds on the first episode of the Investing with an Evergreen Lens Series. Watch here.
📝 Read about a year in the book of alts — a compilation of the 1,000+ pages written in weekly newsletters on Alt Goes Mainstream in 2024. Read here.
📝 Read about the launch of the AGM Studio, a collaboration between Alt Goes Mainstream and Broadhaven Ventures to incubate, invest in, and help scale companies and funds in private markets. Read here.
🎙 Hear Balderton Capital General Partner and former Goldman Sachs Partner Rana Yared discuss why Europe can build global companies out of the region. Listen here.
🎥 Watch Stepstone Private Wealth CEO Bob Long discuss StepStone Private Wealth’s edge and nuances with their evergreen structures in the first episode of “What’s Your Edge.” Watch here.
🎥 Watch Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Cantilever Group and former Goldman Sachs and Broadhaven Capital Partners Partner Todd Owens discuss the middle market opportunity in GP stakes investing. Watch here.
🎙 Hear me discuss why and how alts are going mainstream on The Compound’s Animal Spirits podcast with Ritholtz Wealth’s Michael Batnick and Ben Carlson. Listen here.
🎙 Hear Manulife’s Global Head of Private Markets Anne Valentine Andrews share how to approach building a private markets investment platform at an industry behemoth and the merits of infrastructure investing. Listen here.
🎥 Watch Lawrence Calcano, Chairman & CEO at iCapital, on the AGM podcast discuss driving efficiency across the entire value chain to transform private markets. Watch here.
🎙 Hear VC legend New Enterprise Associates’ Chairman Emeritus and Former Managing General Partner Peter Barris discuss how he transitioned from operator to VC and transformed NEA into a venture juggernaut in the process. Listen here.
🎙 Hear Blue Owl’s Global Private Wealth President & CEO Sean Connor share insights and lessons learned from working with the wealth channel. Listen here.
📝 Read about the evolution of GP stakes, why alternative asset management business models are better than SaaS, and our partnership with Todd Owens and David Ballard at Cantilever, a mid-market GP stakes firm anchored by BTG Pactual. Read here.
🎙 Hear how Chris Long, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Palmer Square Capital Management has built a $29B credit investment firm and a winning NWSL soccer franchise, the KC Current. Listen here.
🎙 Hear stories from building market-defining companies Blackstone, Airbnb, and private markets from Laurence Tosi, former CFO of Blackstone and Airbnb and Managing Partner & Founder of $7.6B investment firm WestCap. Listen here.
🎙 Hear Chris Ailman, the CIO of $307B CalSTRS, discuss how he manages a portfolio with ~40% exposure to private markets. Listen here.
🎙 Hear Blackstone CTO John Stecher discuss how technology is transforming private markets. Listen here.
🎙 Hear investing legends John Burbank and Ken Wallace of Nimble Partners provide a masterclass on investing with both a macro and VC lens. Listen here.
🎙 Hear Robert Picard, Head of Alternatives at $117B AUM Hightower, discusses how they approach alternative investments. Listen here.
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Special thanks to Izzy Morin, Ryan McCormack, Nick Owens, Michael Rutter for their contributions to the AGM Index section of the newsletter.
Great breakdown on PE returning to fundamentals. The idea that persistence in process matters more thanperformance really clicks. When KKR talks about "creating their own luck" for 50 years, thats the kind of repeatability LPs should underwrite. I've seen operational expertise trump financial engineering at my firm. The shift to EBITDA expansion makes sense given the end of easy leverage.