AGM Alts Weekly | 3.23.25: The upper crust
AGM Alts Weekly #95: Making private markets more public, every week.
👋 Hi, I’m Michael.
Welcome to AGM, the meeting place for private markets.
I’m excited to share my weekly newsletter, the AGM Alts Weekly. Every Sunday, I cover news, trends, and insights on the continuing evolution and innovation in private markets. I share relevant news articles, commentary, an Index of publicly traded alternative asset managers, job openings at private markets firms, and recent podcasts and thought pieces from Alt Goes Mainstream.
Join us to understand what’s going on in private markets so you and your firm can stay up to date on the latest trends and navigate this rapidly changing landscape.
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Good morning from Washington, DC where I’m about to head to Phoenix for iCapital’s Connect conference. I’ll be moderating a discussion with Vista Equity Partners’ Dan Parant and Juliet Zawedde on enterprise software investing and how AI is impacting value creation (from the Rule of 40 to the Rule of 60?) and recording a bunch of other podcasts and interviews. If you’re at the conference, drop me a line.
I arrived back in DC on Friday night and went to my favorite pizza place for dinner: 2AMYS Neapolitan pizzeria. For those who are familiar with the DC pizza scene, 2AMYS is somewhat of an institution.
2AMYS consistently churns out pizzas that make it one of DC’s top-ranked restaurants. And for good reason. The soft, pillowy, yet chewy crust that enshrines a base of flavorful tomato sauce and perfectly metered dots of mozzarella di bufala make it seem as if the pizza was made by someone with the hands that make the best pizzas to come out of Naples. And perhaps there is some credence to this claim. The founders of 2AMYS would often go to Naples to learn the art of pizza making from the very best.
2AMYS was packed. Not a surprise on a Friday night. The restaurant was abuzz with conversation. The pizzas were streaming out of the oven with the precision of an assembly line. The waitstaff was juking around tables as if they were running backs trying to evade tacklers on a tightly packed restaurant floor to deliver pizza hot out of the oven.
But, much to my chagrin, the pizza I ordered didn’t taste as good as it normally does. The crust was a little bit burnt. It wasn’t as soft and chewy.
As I was eating my pizza, my mind couldn’t help but wander (as I’m sure one’s does 😂) to the balance between alternative asset managers scaling to serve more clients in more places versus staying small and artisanal.
Does scale impact quality? Last night, it did. Try asking Londoners about Franco Manca and Pizza Express, both of which took on private equity capital to grow and scale beyond London and dot their restaurants around UK. And, Napoli on the Road, the wildly popular pizza place in Chiswick and Richmond, will face the same dilemma as the best pizza place in the UK if it decides to scale.
Or is scale necessary for firms with ambition to grow? And if scale is required, are there ways in which firms can scale and still maintain the same quality they did when they were small and artisanal?
Where does scale matter?
The topic of scale came up multiple times in my conversations this week.
At Future Proof Citywide, Blue Owl’s Co-President and Global Head of Real Assets Marc Zahr and I discussed in a live Alt Goes Mainstream podcast how and where scale makes sense.
Marc said to invest in data centers, scale is not just a nice-to-have but a need-to-have. He referenced the $1.1T of new build capacity investment that’s required over the coming years, as this slide from their 2025 Investor Day presentation illustrates.
Only a select few firms have the size and scale to provide both the certainty of funding and capital to meet the data center demand that hyperscalers require to continue to expand their data center capacity.
But, as Marc shared onstage, his story didn’t start with scale.
He co-founded Oak Street Real Estate Capital in 2009 with $17M in AUM. He had just left his job at American Realty Capital, where he had come across a lesser-known real estate investment strategy: the triple net lease.
At the time, the triple net lease sale leaseback strategy was not commonplace. Most real estate investment firms would use a gross lease strategy. The triple net lease strategy, unlike a gross lease, is one where the tenant is responsible for paying all property operating and capital expenditures. The landlord receives rent, net of all expenses.
Marc seemed to be skating to where the puck was going, as his colleague Blue Owl Co-CEO Marc Lipschultz discussed on a recent Alt Goes Mainstream podcast, noting that this mindset is one that cascades throughout their firm.
Large companies liked the certainty of being able to retain control over their properties with no disruption to operations. In a world where large companies in both technology and logistics were looking to build and maintain control over their operations, the triple net lease strategy would begin a rise to prominence. For a logistics company like Amazon, managing their real estate in this type of structure was an appealing proposition. Companies also benefitted from visibility into future rent payments, which aided corporate planning.
Finding the upper crust
Marc and his business partner Jim Hennessey pioneered the triple net lease strategy as they grew Oak Street over the years into a multi-billion dollar firm. But, as Marc noted, the opportunity to become part of Blue Owl’s platform in 2021 in a $950M acquisition meant they could achieve a different level of scale.
Harnessing Blue Owl’s platform meant that Oak Street could scale their fundraising capabilities. A larger platform also meant they could do bigger deals (Marc must have been going for the deep dish, staying true to his Chicago roots).
At the time of the acquisition, Oak Street was a $12.4B AUM firm with 24 investment professionals. Marc and team have since grown (with the help of a few notable acquisitions, like IPI and Prima) to almost $64B in AUM and over 100 investment professionals.
In this instance, scale has helped Blue Owl’s real estate business work with large companies and win big deals, as they did recently when they partnered with Crusoe Energy and Primary Digital on a $3.4B joint venture to fund a purpose-built data center campus in Abilene, Texas that has already found its Fortune 100 tenant, Oracle, for the 200MW campus.
There are areas of private markets where being small and niche can drive returns (like middle-market private equity, which I wrote about in AGM here on 8.11.24), and there are areas where having deep pockets can drive good investor outcomes, like with data center and infrastructure investing and with triple net lease real estate investing, where Marc noted in our conversation that the addressable market for investment grade tenants for the triple net lease product is over $23T in North America and Europe.
The key lies in a fund’s ability to continue to deliver on high-quality performance for LPs as they grow and scale.
Not so mid
Middle-market private equity is an example of a strategy where staying smaller can help drive outperformance.
A June 2024 report by Alt Goes Mainstream podcast guest Tyler Jayroe from JPMorgan finds data from MSCI that top-quartile US and European buyout funds that were sub-$3B meaningfully outperformed funds $3-10B and $10B+ during the 2010-2020 vintages. Return dispersions were not small — sub-$3B funds generated 25.8% IRR, 2.1% greater than funds $3-10B in size and 5.5% greater than funds $10B+ in size.
But there’s also an argument to be made for scale — even in private equity.
Scale can matter
Although a few years outdated by now, iCapital’s Nick Veronis and Kunal Shah wrote a report discussing why large buyout funds outperformed their smaller fund counterparts during the 2010-2019 vintages.
Veronis and Shah found that large buyouts bested their smaller counterparts since the GFC [note: these figures are from a 2022 PitchBook with data from vintages 2010-2019, so figures may have changed since].
Further, they found that the risk of allocating to larger buyouts was lower than with smaller funds. The floor in performance was higher for larger funds between 2010-2019.
More recent return figures have continued to favor megafunds over middle market firms, as PitchBook’s US 2024 middle market PE report highlights below.
Veronis and Shah noted that higher returns for larger, scaled funds could be due to a few factors, including: greater investment in firm infrastructure, such as data, technology, people, and the ability to build a bigger network.
Their observation brings up an interesting question: in the age of AI, will large firms that have a greater ability to invest in the resources to help their companies leverage AI to reduce costs and increase margins be at an advantage over their smaller counterparts?
Some of the larger firms, like Vista Equity Partners, have made it a priority for their portfolio companies to adopt AI. Bain’s 2025 Global Private Equity Report mentioned a profound viewpoint: over the next three to five years, Vista expects AI’s impact on a software company’s top and bottom line will reframe the famed “Rule of 40” (growth rate plus free cash flow rate should be 40% or greater) in SaaS to make the new standard for revenue growth plus margin to be 50-60%.
Certain industries and sectors have companies that are decidedly winners due to their scale. If AI can be applied to positively impact the top and bottom lines of the market leaders, then do these companies gather even more escape velocity?
If so, that would bode well for larger buyout firms, which are also investing in an era when companies are staying private longer, as the below chart from iCapital’s Alternatives Decoded chartbook illustrates.
But questions still remain for larger firms that continue to do bigger deals.
In certain asset classes, scale does matter. How many firms could have the capital to complete the $22.8B Panama Canal deal that BlackRock / GIP recently closed on?
So much capital is required for deals at the top that it puts larger firms in rarified air. And, that rarified air might mean a less competitive airspace because only a select number of funds can participate in certain size deals.
Will firms be able to pay reasonable entry multiples if there are fewer deals and companies for which to compete?
This is a point where proponents of the middle market might argue that middle market investors pay lower multiples at entry, giving middle market firms a better chance at generating returns by virtue of the price they paid for the asset.
Data from Hamilton Lane’s Cobalt illustrates this point. Median EV/EBITDA for middle-market companies has been markedly lower over the past 15 years relative to mega and large cap deals.
Those arguing on behalf of larger firms might argue that bigger firms are paying up for quality (which is simultaneously a subjective debate and one steeped in math, where the pure fact of paying a higher price renders it, in many cases, more difficult to have higher returns).
The question that large firms face going forward? As funds become larger and bigger funds have to do larger deals, where will the exits come from?
Bain’s Global Private Equity Report noted that sponsor-to-sponsor deals drove increased exit volume last year.
Only so many firms can achieve such size and scale to be able to do bigger and bigger deals. So, who will do the deals when companies get so big?
Perhaps IPO markets will once again become a more common exit avenue. But that would be going against a 20+ year secular trend.
Perhaps evergreen funds provide the right structure to hold large assets that can continue to grow and compound over time.
Perhaps innovations in secondary markets and continuation vehicle structures will offer another way for firms to achieve liquidity.
This question is one that looms large as the industry continues to grow.
The relationship matters
But, circling back to the pizza question: can firms that scale manage to maintain the artisanal approach and boutique craftsmanship that made them so successful in their early days?
A quote from a Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 profile of Zahr and Hennessey in 2018 when they were still building Oak Street stood out:
Oak Street’s boutique size—the company has 19 employees at its Loop offices—affords clients a personal touch that separates them from other fund managers, says Angela Miller-May, chief investment officer at the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund. “There’s a trust factor,” she says. “They’ve met with us and developed the relationship over time, with no promise that we’d ever invest with them.”
The quote above from Miller-May highlights something that should resonate with asset managers, particularly as they look to work more closely with the wealth channel: the relationship matters.
Even as firms scale the number of investors they work with, it’s critical that they provide investors with a personal touch, no matter how large or small that investors’ allocation might be.
After all, a $5M net worth client investing $50,000 or $100,000 into an evergreen fund would be allocating a meaningful portion of their assets to that fund. That investment matters to them.
A next frontier for customization and personalization while also scaling client relationships and scale? UMAs, as iCapital, BlackRock, and GeoWealth have partnered on to provide investors with more customized models and solutions across public and private markets.
We are only in the early days of balancing customization and scale as the wealth channel begins to adopt private markets and asset managers look to figure out how to best productize and serve clients within different channels and of differing needs (more on this topic from Cerity’s Tom Cohn and Amita Schultes in a recent Alt Goes Mainstream podcast).
But one thing is for sure: the quality of the crust, I mean product (i.e. investment returns) needs to be good whether it’s a boutique or scaled platform.
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.
Post of the Week
At PEI Nexus 2025, Blackstone’s Global Head of Private Wealth Solutions Joan Solotar discusses why it could be critical for wealth management practices to offer private investments to their clients [You can hear more on Joan’s views in this recent Alt Goes Mainstream podcast].
AGM News of the Week
Articles we are reading
📝 BlackRock outspends rivals in race to build private markets arms | Selin Bucak, Citywire
💡 Citywire’s Selin Bucak dives into BlackRock’s intensified efforts to build a private markets powerhouse. Bucak notes that BlackRock has spent $27B on its three most recent private markets acquisitions, far outstripping its traditional asset manager peers. Last year, BlackRock bought infrastructure specialist Global Infrastructure Partners, credit firm HPS, and private markets data company Preqin. BlackRock also acquired Kreos Capital in 2023. BlackRock’s competitors have also spent money to acquire private markets capabilities. T. Rowe Price spent $4.2B to add Oak Hill Advisors, and Franklin Templeton paid a combined $3.5B to buy Lexington Partners and Alcentra. These firms aren’t the only asset managers that have joined the private markets arms race. 11 of the top 25 asset managers have acquired private markets firms since 2021, and some firms, such as Schroders, Nuveen, Franklin Templeton, and BlackRock, have bought more than one firm. Often, the acquisitions have been made to add specific capabilities to a broader platform. Specialist managers have come into focus as a result. PGIM’s purchase of direct lender Deerpath Capital and Schroders’ acquisition of renewable energy infrastructure manager Greencoat are examples of firms looking to bring in expertise in certain categories.
Some firms, like Invesco and Morgan Stanley, have decided to pursue organic growth or partnerships rather than acquire another firm. Invesco, whose private markets assets currently comprise 10% of its $1.9T AUM, is aiming to double its private markets footprint. CEO Andrew Schlossberg said that the focus is on organic growth and partnerships. Morgan Stanley Investment Management is also betting on organic growth. “I don’t think we need to do any acquisitions,’ Ben Huneke, head of MSIM, told Citywire. ‘We have a broad array of capabilities across credit, private equity and real assets, both infrastructure and real estate. So, we don’t need to do anything. We can be opportunistic, but the bar is going to be really high to try and find a good cultural fit with Morgan Stanley and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.” Huneke believes that it’s important to be mindful of size constraints with certain investment strategies and grow AUM in areas where capacity is appropriate.
“I think there’s certain areas where you have to be very disciplined around fund sizing, in particular around private equity,” said Huneke. “We look at each franchise separately and try to make a decision around which ones can continue to scale while continuing to deliver results for clients.”
Bucak mentions one deal in Europe that could lead to more acquisition activity: the combination of Natixis Investment Managers with Generali Investments (note: Broadhaven Capital Partners advised Generali on the merger with Natixis). The combined asset manager will be the largest asset manager in Europe and the 9th largest asset manager globally, with total assets of €1.9T, with the private markets portion seeing a significant boost as well.
💸 AGM’s 2/20: Bucak’s analysis of asset manager activity hammers home the notion that asset managers are looking to get in the game. To some extent, this move is out of necessity. Bain’s report highlights the secular decline in fees for traditional asset managers.
But only a select few asset managers have the size, scale, and market capitalization to have the currency to buy alternative asset managers in the way that BlackRock has done. BlackRock is certainly playing to win (or, perhaps, going for blackjack, as I wrote in the last two years here, here, and here). How many firms have the ability to compete with BlackRock and spend their way into building a few hundred billion AUM private markets franchise?
Likely not many. That’s one reason why the Generali / Natixis tie-up is so interesting. Not only does it create one of the world’s largest asset managers by AUM, but it also creates the firm that is ranked #1 in insurance asset management AUM. Given the increasing importance of insurance capital in private markets, this feature could drive growth for firms like Generali / Natixis and other asset managers that have deep insurance relationships (or, for firms that are insurance companies and have affiliated asset management arms).
A chart from Blue Owl’s Investor Day presentation highlights just how big an opportunity it is to gather insurance capital. Blue Owl projects insurance capital to grow by almost $9T in the coming years to 2028.
Many other firms appear to be choosing build or partner in the build, buy, partner decision matrix. For firms that have strong brands, effective marketing and education tactics, large distribution footprints, and the ability to build and maintain strong investment cultures, perhaps this path will lead to AUM growth.
📝 Fundraising 2024 and 2025 themes and trends: LP appetite for ‘creative liquidity solutions’ could help recycle capital | David Dawkins, Preqin
💡 Preqin’s David Dawkins discusses how GPs can navigate the current fundraising environment in the second part of Preqin’s Fundraising Primer series. Dawkins notes that buyout deal value was up 8.1% year over year in 2024, but the number of deals decreased by 13.1%. LPs continued to focus on market-leading GPs as the trend of relationship consolidation continued to persist.
In 2024, 50.6% of committed capital went to the 100 biggest funds by aggregate capital raised at first close. This figure marked a sharp departure from 2021 when 33.9% of commitments went to the biggest 100 funds.
The largest funds have also gathered a meaningful portion of commitments over the past ten years — and have done so at a much greater scale than the next 50 largest funds.
Fundraising challenges have hit the smaller funds the hardest. The number of first-time funds has fallen precipitously, down 71% from a 2017 high.
GPs solution to find paths to liquidity? Secondaries, particularly continuation vehicles. CVs hit a record high in 2024 as GPs looked for avenues to return capital to LPs seeking liquidity.
According to a US-based placement agent, 2025 could be better. “I think [2025] is going to be a lot better for a number of reasons, one being the amount of secondary activity that’s freed up some capacity for recycling capital. There's also clearly a lot of private credit funds looking to deploy capital. That market has gotten very competitive, so that should help the buyout debt packages get more attractive and break up the logjam of deal activity.”
💸 AGM’s 2/20: Fundraising is down, particularly for first-time funds. That’s in part because liquidity needs to go up. The punchline of Preqin’s primer on fundraising is that investors are looking for liquidity to redeploy capital. Creative solutions in the secondary market, such as continuation vehicles, should persist as GPs are fully aware that LPs are searching for distributions.
Secondary funds are the beneficiaries of the current market structure. A chart from Bain’s report would suggest that secondaries strategies are charting a growth path.
To unlock the logjam of capital, secondaries funds can be solutions providers. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that secondaries funds are raising capital in record size. Ardian’s record-breaking $30B fundraise is a case in point. Could secondaries funds continue to get bigger? I wouldn’t bet against it.
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) - Private Wealth Solutions - Investor Services Onboarding, Vice President. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Apollo (Alternative asset manager) - Investor Relations Professional. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Ares (Alternative asset manager) - Vice President, Product Management & Client Services, Wealth Management Solutions, APAC. Click here to learn more.
🔍 iCapital (Private markets infrastructure investment platform) - Private Markets, Due Diligence Manager – Senior Vice President. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Blue Owl (Alternative asset manager) - Private Wealth, Head of Global Product Marketing Management. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Blue Owl (Alternative asset manager) - Credit Executive Office, Senior Associate / Associate. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Brookfield (Alternative asset manager) - VP, Private Markets Products. Click hear to learn more.
🔍 Goldman Sachs Alternatives (Alternative asset manager) - Private Markets for Wealth - Executive Director - Frankfurt. Click hear to learn more.
🔍 Hamilton Lane (Alternative asset manager) - Vice President, Data Intelligence. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Dynasty Financial Partners (Wealth management platform) - Alternative Investment Specialist. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Nuveen (Asset manager) - VP, Alternatives Marketing Manager - Global Wealth. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Edward Jones (Wealth manager) - Director, Alternative Investment Strategy. Click here to learn more.
🔍 PitchBook (Media) - Sr. Editor - Private Equity. Click here to learn more.
🤝 Interested in partnering with Alt Goes Mainstream? 🤝
Alt Goes Mainstream is a community of engaged experts and executives in private markets.
Fill out this form using the link below to explore partnership opportunities.
The latest on Alt Goes Mainstream
Recent podcast or video episodes and blog posts on Alt Goes Mainstream:
🎥 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.
🎥 Watch 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. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Eric Satz, Founder & CEO of Alto share thoughts on why retirement assets could be the next frontier for private markets. Watch 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 Keith Jones, Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Alternative Investments Product at Nuveen live from Nuveen’s nPowered conference on structuring products for success for the wealth channel. Watch here.
🎥 Watch Jeff Carlin, Senior Managing Director, Head of Global Wealth Advisory Services at Nuveen live from Nuveen’s nPowered conference on why “it’s all about the end client.” 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 Lawrence Calcano, Chairman & CEO of iCapital on episode 14 of the latest Monthly Alts Pulse as we discuss whether or not private markets has moved from access as table stakes to customization and differentiation. 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.
🎥 Watch the second episode of Going Public on Alt Goes Mainstream with Evercore ISI Senior MD and Senior Research Analyst Glenn Schorr as we discuss trends and business models for the publicly traded alternative asset managers. Watch 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.
🎙 Hear Churchill Asset Management by Nuveen’s MD, Senior Investment Strategist & Co-Head of the Chicago Office Alona Gornick discuss the evolution of private credit, the power of permanent capital, and the importance of the product specialist. 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.
🎙 Hear $5B AUM Ritholtz Wealth Management’s Director of Institutional Asset Management Ben Carlson bring a wealth of common sense to asset allocation and private markets. Listen here.
🎙 Hear Blue Owl, Inc. Board Member and Blue Owl GP Strategic Capital Senior Managing Director Sean Ward on how $57.8B AUM Blue Owl GP Strategic Capital has pioneered GP staking and transformed GP stakes into an industry. Listen 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 Intapp’s President, Industries, and Co-Founder of DealCloud by Intapp Ben Harrison discuss how data and automation are transforming private markets. Listen here.
🎙 Hear how a $1.59T AUM asset manager is approaching private markets with T. Rowe Price’s Global Head of Product Cheri Belski in a special live episode of the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast at a Pangea x AGM Breakfast in London. Listen here.
🎙 Hear Bernstein Private Wealth Management’s CIO Alex Chaloff discuss how a $125B wealth manager navigates private markets. Listen 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 Mercer Investments’ US Financial Intermediaries Leader Gregg Sommer and CAIS’ MD and Head of Investments Neil Blundell on following the fast river of alts. 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.
🎙 Hear Partners Group’s Co-Head of Private Wealth, Head of the New York Office, Member of the Global Executive Board Rob Collins share the how and why of one of the most exciting trends in private markets: evergreen funds. 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.
🎙 Hear Ritholtz Wealth Management’s Managing Partner Michael Batnick share views on how wealth managers are navigating private markets. 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.
🎥 Watch internet pioneer Steve Case, Chairman & CEO of Revolution and Co-Founder of America Online, share lessons learned from building the first internet company to go public and an investment firm built for the Third Wave of the internet. Watch & listen 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.
📝 Read how 73 Strings CEO & Co-Founder Yann Magnan and team are leveraging AI to build a modern and holistic monitoring and valuation platform for private markets in The AGM Q&A. Read 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 Michael Rutter and Nick Owens for their contributions to the newsletter.