AGM Alts Weekly | 9.1.24
AGM Alts Weekly | 9.1.24
AGM Alts Weekly #67: 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.
Presented by
Leading private equity firms are using connected data and purpose-built technology to improve their deal sourcing and portfolio management.
Intapp DealCloud’s Vice President of Industry Solutions, Matthew Hardcastle, shared his thoughts in an article by The Drawdown.
Discover how your firm can boost performance and gain a competitive edge by building a strong data strategy.
Good morning from Washington, DC.
The good news for alternative asset managers? Young investors want to invest in alts.
The bad news for alternative asset managers? Young investors want to invest in alts.
A few months ago, Bank of America published the results of a study of wealthy Americans. The answers, particularly from the younger survey respondents, should pique the interest of alternative asset managers and wealth managers alike.
Risk on
The quantitative survey, which included 1,007 respondents who had at least $3 million in investable assets and were at least 21 years of age, found that younger investors have very different views about investing than their older counterparts.
The survey found that 72% of investors ages 21-43 believe it’s no longer possible to achieve above-average investment returns by investing solely in stocks and bonds.
So, whither the 60/40? It sure seems like that is the case, particularly for younger investors. Many younger investors favor alternatives, with real estate, crypto / digital assets, private equity, and direct company investments as the main types of investments by younger cohorts. Compare that to Gen X, Boomers, and the Silent Generation cohorts, who believe that investing in US stocks and international equities are the places to park capital.
Younger investors have far more alternatives in their portfolios than their older counterparts. Bank of America finds that 17% of investors ages 21-43 hold alternatives in their portfolio compared to 5% of investors ages 44+. That delta could very well increase going forward. 93% of investors ages 21-43 said they expect to allocate more to alts in the coming years compared to only 28% of investors ages 44+.
Why are younger investors so fixated on allocating to alternatives? A major driver of their interest in alternatives lies in their risk tolerance. Younger investors are much more open to seeking investments with higher levels of risk. It also lies in their perception of returns.
Anything but conservative
The portfolio construction of younger investors certainly seems to indicate a shift in preferences. Contrast the allocation of stocks and bonds of younger investors with their older counterparts. Even a self-identified “conservative” investor ages 21-43 has a 17% allocation to crypto! But a “conservative” investor age 44+? A sub-1% allocation to crypto — and only a 5% to alts.
It’s not just crypto that younger investors find appealing. Collectibles, particularly art, jewelry, watches, automobiles, antiques, sneakers, and sports cards, have captured the interest of younger investors. 94% of Gen Z and Millennials — and even 80% of Gen X — are interested in collectibles.
It very well seems to be part of a broader trend that includes a dangerous cocktail of social media and “finfluencers,” the meme-ification of financial services, the ease and accessibility of investing due to the rise of technology-enabled retail investment platforms, and the striking similarities between gambling / sports betting and investing, which I highlighted in the 8.18.24 AGM Alts Weekly.
8.18.24 AGM Alts Weekly: … this type of speculative behavior, whether it be in equities investing or in gambling, is indicative of a bigger problem: that the current generation may view investing as a speculative activity. The memeification and gamification of financial services is in full force. The retail trading activity into meme stocks like GameStop, Reddit, and others or into many speculative cryptoassets is, in my opinion, a wholly unhealthy activity for both investors and markets. Furthermore, it’s hard to see this type of activity abating since many individual investors appear to want to engage in speculative, risk-taking trading and investing activity. The retail trading platforms certainly don’t help. Their appealing user interface and ease of use to enable investors to buy and sell stocks and investment products almost instantaneously only make it easier for investors to speculate on stocks as easily as they buy a pair of shoes on Amazon.
Where can private markets play a role? To preach the power of patience. I’ll start with the disclaimer: not every private markets investment is suitable for everyone and nor are the fees or illiquidity features. But, at times, illiquidity can be a feature rather than a bug — and private markets investment products can play a role. The inability of investors to sell and enable their capital to compound over time can be a positive for their investment portfolio, even if it’s less engaging for the investor since they can’t trade in and out of a position as easily.
Engagement is a key word in today’s world. With people’s ever-waning attention spans, the winning formula in today’s attention economy is engaging content.
The primary source for how younger investors consume financial content? Social media. This figure is significantly pronounced for younger generations relative to their older counterparts. Investors ages 21-43 say that social media is their primary source of financial content. Investors age 44+ rarely tap into social media to find financial content.
Financial services firms have internalized this data, understanding the importance of brand. I wrote about the power and importance of building a brand — and leveraging short-form social media content as firms like Blackstone have done so well — in last week’s 8.25.24 AGM Alts Weekly.
Firms must embrace these new investors and meet them where they are, which is often on social media.
$84T at stake
A lot is at stake to win over assets from new and younger investors interested in alternatives. Bank of America’s report highlights that $84 trillion is expected to pass from Seniors and Baby Boomers to Gen X, Millennials, and their heirs through 2045.
A good portion of those dollars could very well flow into alternatives, particularly with the way that younger investors think about investing.
Individual investors have a large role to play in the growth of private markets. A recent Bain & Company report illustrates just how important the wealth channel could be to AUM growth in alternatives. Bain projects a 12% CAGR within the retail channel as a percentage of global alternative assets under management, with 22% of the estimated $60T of global alternative asset AUM coming from the wealth channel in 2032. This would result in an increase from ~$4T of retail AUM in alternatives in 2022 to $13.2T of retail AUM in alternatives by 2032.
What could move the needle for increasing retail wealth flows into alternatives? Content and brand.
Content is the currency in a world where instant gratification is for sale. But patience is what should be preached.
How to become a millionaire
A chart from a recent tweet by $300B AUM Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk highlights the importance of patience.
The #1 way Americans became millionaires? By doing something very boring, but very effective. No, it’s not investing in crypto. It’s not investing in meme stocks. It’s investing part of every paycheck in their 401(k). The result? The highest number of 401(k) millionaires ever in America.
Make boring cool
At the beginning of this piece, I stated “the bad news for alternative asset managers is that young investors want to invest in alts.”
Why would that be the case?
While younger investors may very well be interested in investing in alternatives, it also appears that they are perhaps more focused on what they perceive to be higher returning, but more risky investment options outside of stocks and bonds. It also appears that they might be more interested in higher yielding investments irrespective of the risks or the portfolio effects.
But expectations might differ from reality. A 2023 Natixis Global Survey of Individual Investors found that individual investors, particularly US-based investors, have very unrealistic long-term real annual return expectations compared to financial professionals’ expectations. US investors surveyed have expectations they can achieve a 15.6% annual return. That’s over two times the annual return expectations of financial professionals.
It’s possible that private markets can help investors achieve some of the returns required to meet their expectations. But not all assets are created equal — whether it be in terms of liquidity, risk, return, or volatility.
Not all assets are created equal — whether that be in terms of liquidity, risk, return, or volatility.
A chart from JPMorgan’s Private Markets Fund presentation highlights different portfolio allocations and their respective annualized returns relative to volatility.
From 1989 to Q4 2023, portfolios that included private equity tended to outperform and have lower volatility compared to the traditional 60/40 portfolio. Furthermore, the more private equity was included, the higher returns and lower volatility in the portfolio.
Not only does adding private equity to a portfolio increase returns, but the way in which private equity is added to a portfolio can also impact on returns. A May 2024 whitepaper by KKR highlights the benefits of blending drawdown private equity (i.e., closed-end funds) and evergreen vehicles.
KKR finds that blending drawdown and evergreen vehicles may produce higher compounded returns and lower risk over time. Over a 10-year period, MOIC on a drawdown-only private equity allocation strategy generates 2.50x returns. On a 50% drawdown / 50% evergreen allocation strategy? 3.00x. That’s in large part because evergreen funds eliminate cash drag by enabling immediate investment (or re-investment), putting that capital to work right away so that investors can benefit from the compounding effects of private equity.
While evergreen structures aren’t the only answer, they can serve to alleviate some of the return drag from keeping money in cash, which apparently younger investors are keen to do. I’ll note that it can be important to have cash reserves, whether it be for a rainy day or to allocate to certain investments when the opportunity presents itself. I’m not suggesting that investors and allocators reduce their cash exposures to imprudent levels. But keeping cash on hand can eat into returns.
A chart from a Bloomberg Opinion article by Nir Kaissar highlights the effects of keeping a large part of a portfolio in cash (one-month Treasury bills). This chart shows that there’s a meaningful drag on returns by keeping 20% of a portfolio in cash.
What can investment firms learn from this data? They need to find a way to reach the younger investor to make them aware of the power of compounding and putting capital to work in more boring, but perhaps more effective investments that can help them come closer to achieving the higher desired returns they seek.
Master the marketing
If investment firms looking to work with younger individual investors want to appeal to them, they might need to rethink how they market to investors. Some firms are already beginning to invest in building their brand. That’s a smart move.
But I’d also implore firms marketing investments and private markets strategies to find a way to make boring cool, especially to the younger investor.
Last week, I wrote about the importance of creating effective short-form content as tactic to build brand with the wealth channel.
8.25.24 AGM Alts Weekly: Short-form content will become an even more important engagement tool in an era where many wealth managers and clients have “grown up social.” The “TikTok-ification” (for better or worse) of a younger generation that has grown up consuming content on social media has left an indelible imprint on how people consume, digest, and engage with content. With attention spans shorter, firms delivering content need to understand that they must create engaging content that creates a level of trust and affinity.
It won’t be long before younger Millennial advisors are the decision-makers. They are — and will continue to be — managing investments and running client books, so they will be an important client type for alternative asset managers to reach when marketing.
This continued evolution in the client type (the quasi-consumer channel of wealth managers and their end individual clients) and consumptive behavior of the “retail” channel should give alternative asset managers a lot to think about when it comes to hiring the right marketing talent and building a winning marketing and branding strategy. Note that I use “retail” in this context for a very specific reason. I usually avoid using the term “retail” when describing the wealth channel because I don’t like to label the wealth channel as “retail” because that can insinuate a lack of sophistication. I use “retail” here to hammer home the point that alternative asset managers need to think of their marketing strategies as consumer-oriented to succeed in today’s world of private markets.
There’s another tactic that investment firms can employ to reach individual investors. They can figure out how to partner with brokerage firms like Schwab, Fidelity, Revolut, Robinhood, and others to offer private markets investments to these investors. This might very well be the next frontier of alternatives distribution, particularly for evergreen, ELTIF, and interval fund structures.
This move could be a win-win-win outcome. Alternatives managers can find a new channel for distribution, brokerage firms can benefit from steadier, less volatile revenue streams from longer duration, locked-up capital, and investors can benefit from the inability to trade in and out of positions as they can with more speculative assets such as crypto, meme stocks, and other more volatile equity investments.
The challenge? Can Blackstone, KKR, Apollo, Ares, and its peers make more “boring” but likely much safer and lower volatility investments in private equity and private credit seem as cool as crypto?
There are obvious pitfalls with trying to “consumerize” and “mainstream” an industry in the same way that other industries have undergone “meme-ification,” but if private markets firms can continue to perform well and generate strong returns for investors amidst a growing market and more dollars flowing into the space, then perhaps it would be a good thing for younger investors to do the more boring option of allocating to things like evergreen funds that have more plain vanilla strategies like private equity, private credit, secondaries, infrastructure, and real estate investments as a way to put their cash to work and let the investments do the work for them over the long-term.
The dilemma for investment firms? How can they deal with the juxtaposition of private markets becoming more mainstream, yet also becoming more boring at the same time?
Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in between boring and cool.
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.
AGM News of the Week
Articles we are reading
📝 Carta’s ill-fated secondaries business finally found a buyer | Julie Bort, TechCrunch
💡TechCrunch’s Julie Bort reports that retail brokerage firm Public has acquired the brokerage accounts of Carta’s secondaries business. Carta, best known for its fund administration, cap table management software, and 409A valuations businesses, had aimed to create a secondary market, CartaX, to enable investors to buy and sell shares of private companies. The concept made a lot of sense. Carta sits on reams of private company data through its fund administration and cap table management businesses. However, Carta had a number of well-publicized difficulties in getting CartaX to succeed. Carta decided to exit its capital markets business, Carta Capital Markets, by selling the brokerage accounts to Public. In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, Public said customers of Carta Capital markets have the right to opt out of transferring their brokerage accounts over to Public. Carta, for its part, won’t be entirely exiting the secondaries business. Bort reports that it will continue to handle “company-led secondary offerings, such as tender offers,” through its SEC-registered transfer agent.
💸 AGM’s 2/20: Carta selling the brokerage accounts from its secondary markets business to Public is an interesting development for private markets. We discussed above the opportunity for retail brokerage firms to begin to offer alternative investments to individual investors. Public is no stranger to this thought process, having acquired Otis, a fractional ownership investment platform for collectibles and other alternative assets, in 2022. Even Public’s marketing — “Build your multi-asset portfolio” — illustrates an orientation towards providing a holistic investment solution to individual investors. Despite acquiring Otis, it doesn’t look like they’ve built out an expansive offering of private markets investment options for their clients. They do offer bonds, treasuries, crypto, and royalties, but private markets offerings don’t yet appear to be featured. I expect this to change as investment structures like evergreen and interval funds become more commonplace with individual investors. Alternatives firms oriented towards the individual consumer, such as Moonfare, recently rolled out the ability for European individual investors to access ELTIFs in Germany on a mobile app from the App Store no less. Moonfare’s rollout of a product oriented for the individual investor is one example of investment platforms looking to reach the end consumer directly. Digital family office platforms, such as Arta Finance, have built out private markets offerings geared to serve individual (HNW) investors. I anticipate that we’ll see the retail brokerage firms, such as SoFi (which already has alternatives offerings), Robinhood, Revolut, Trade Republic, and others, begin to roll out alternatives offerings to their users as evergreen and interval funds become more commonplace in private markets. These neobrokers (and neobanks) want to continue to find ways to own the customer’s entire financial life. Private markets products not only offer a further foray into a customer’s financial life, but they can also provide these neobrokers and neobanks with steam streams of revenue due to the relative permanence or long-dated nature of this capital.
It’s not just the neobrokers that can have a big impact on individual investor flows into private markets. When industry behemoths like Schwab and Fidelity begin to roll out private markets investment options to their brokerage clients in a big way, then the space will really start to see an uptick in asset flows into private markets from the retail channel. Investment firms and platforms will have a role to play here, too. The easier they can make it for brokerage firms to offer private markets products to their clients, the faster we’ll likely see this uptake. The continued focus on creating ticker-based private markets investment products, such as interval funds and RICs, will only serve to speed up this transition.
📝 Why the NFL Let Private Equity Get Into the Game | Randall Williams, Bloomberg and NFL approves new private equity ownership rules | Tim Baysinger and Dan Primack, Axios
💡Bloomberg’s Randall Williams discusses the why behind the big news this week from the sports world: the NFL has finally approved minority investments from private equity firms. A recent vote has changed the league’s rules on ownership. Approved private equity firms will now be able to buy up to 10% stakes in NFL teams. This arrangement is something that other sports leagues, namely the MLB and NBA, already allow. But it’s new ground for the NFL. Axios’ Tim Baysinger and Dan Primack report that teams can only sell minority stakes to a list of pre-approved investment firms, which include Arctos Partners, Ares Management, Sixth Street, and a consortium comprised of Blackstone, Carlyle, CVC, Dynasty Equity, and Ludis, an investment platform founded by former NFL star Curtis Martin. These firms will have the ability to buy stakes in up to six teams, with the minimum invested dollars to hold a stake being $2B (3% stake). These firms will have restrictive terms on their investments, which include no governance rights or preferred equity investments and a requirement that investors hold their positions for at least six years.
Why did the NFL and its owners decide to allow private equity to begin investing in teams? Liquidity appears to be top of the list.
New England Patriots owner Robert Craft told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “[they] thought it’s an opportunity for us to really change how some of the ownership groups have real problems with the illiquidity, they have big families and have to solve a lot of problems that are not usual. And so we thought this was a great source of capital and could be done in a way that was very functional and wouldn’t affect the operation.”
Estate taxes — and some of the impending tax changes — might have also ushered in outside capital. Many NFL owners want to be able to pass ownership of their teams to their next generation. This ownership transfer would be subject to taxes. Selling a stake in the team could reduce that bill, likely by hundreds of millions of dollars, given the valuations of NFL teams today.
Another reason is the capital required to renovate old stadiums or build new ones, which will require billions of dollars in investment.
Private equity likely sees the NFL as an attractive area for investment. Forbes reports that all 32 NFL teams are now worth at least $4B. That’s in large part due to the $100B media deal the league has signed. Growth shows little signs of abating, as the NFL is really just starting to expand internationally. The NFL also just saw its first team cross the $10B valuation threshold. According to Forbes’ annual list of the NFL’s most valuable teams, the Dallas Cowboys are now worth $10.1B, extending their lead to over $2.5B in value over the NFL’s second-most-valuable team, the Los Angeles Rams. This $10.1B valuation figure represents a 77% increase since 2020 and an annualized return of 15%, which beat the S&P 500’s 13% annualized return in the same four-year period.
While the Cowboys seem to have trouble winning Super Bowls on the field, they are certainly winning off the field. In 2023, they generated over two times the revenue and operating income that second-place LA Rams did, achieving $800 million in local revenue through ticket sales, sponsorships, merchandise, and other revenue streams.
Even though no NFL team can hit the Cowboys’ revenue figures, each NFL team benefits tremendously from the new media rights package from last season. Each team is paid out roughly $380M in revenue as part of a $125.5B media deal that extends through 2033.
💸 AGM’s 2/20: This past week’s news that allows private equity firms to invest into NFL teams is a major development for the NFL and for the continued intersection of sports and investing. It’s easy to see why private equity firms would find NFL teams to be an attractive investment. The guaranteed revenues that go to each teams from the media rights package are almost “SaaS-like” with their long-term, recurring characteristics. The NFL’s media rights deal is far and away the most lucrative amongst the major sports leagues, so private equity must salivating at the prospect of being able to invest in an asset that generates significant revenues just by virtue of being part of the league.
These types of revenue and operating income characteristics also afford NFL teams healthy valuation multiples. NFL teams cash in at almost 9x revenue multiples, significantly higher than their Premier League peers, which have a 4.4x revenue multiple. This delta is in large part because there’s no relegation in the NFL like there is in the Premier League, so owners will stand to benefit from the media rights (and other associated revenues) just by virtue of stepping on the field.
It should therefore be no surprise that the majority of the world’s most profitable sports teams based on operating income generated over the past few years reside in the NFL, not the NBA or the Premier League.
These teams are effectively entertainment businesses, as I’ve written in the past. The only difference? Now private equity gets to own a piece of them.
Reports we are reading
📝 Go Private, Not Public Credit | Stephen Nesbitt, Cliffwater
💡Cliffwater CIO Stephen Nesbitt breaks down returns from different credit investments. His research finds that private credit adds meaningful returns to performance. Compared to public credit (bank loans and high-yield bonds), private credit offers 3-4% higher returns after adjusting for fees. Nesbitt argues that this return spread itself justifies the trade-off of liquidity with private credit.
Cliffwater’s Unlevered, Net-of-Fee Direct Lending Index (CDLI-U-NOF) was created to provide a comparison between private and public credit comparison. Some observations from the comparison, according to Nesbitt:
The cost of unlevered private credit, the difference between the CDLI and CDLI-U-NOF return, is around 2% per year.
Investors add around 4% in added net-of-fee return (7.23% minus 3.31%) by paying 1% in additional costs (2% minus 1%) compared to public credit.
Risk, measured by standard deviation of return, is lower for private credit compared to public credit.
Active management appears to be no better than passive management in public credit, with actively managed SRLN generating returns similar to those of BKLN.
Nesbitt’s conclusion? That the data “strongly points to investors allocating most, if not all their credit allocation to private solutions.”
💸 AGM’s 2/20: The question with many alternatives is not a question of returns as much as it is liquidity. Returns in private markets can be higher, but investors have to bear more illiquidity to access those returns. Cliffwater’s paper on private credit returns highlights that private credit generates meaningfully higher returns than public credit. The question then becomes are investors willing to trade off illiquidity in private credit for higher returns? Perhaps the next question is higher returns by how much? Nesbitt claims that investors can generate 4% net-of-fee returns in private credit, even by paying 1% higher in additional costs. These data points would seem to suggest that the trade-off of less liquidity (and higher fees) in exchange for higher returns is worth it. Liquidity is a nuanced topic. Yes, liquidity matters. And liquidity matters for people in different ways. The need for liquidity often strikes when allocators can least afford to sell their more illiquid positions.
So, if data illustrates that investors would be better off being in more illiquid investments in strategies like private credit, what can the industry do to enable investors, particularly individuals, to allocate to more illiquid strategies while also creating proper guardrails when it comes to liquidity?
Structures like evergreen and interval funds can help to create some level of liquidity for investors. It’s important to note that these structures are far from liquid. “Semi-liquid” probably overstates the level of liquidity these structures offer to investors. But there are mechanisms to enable investors to achieve some level of liquidity if necessary.
The creation of a growing and robust secondary market. Continued maturation of secondary markets, particularly in private credit, which is very much in its infancy compared to private equity, should also serve investors well when they are in need of liquidity. The advantage will very likely go to the secondary buyers, as they can often drive price and terms, but nevertheless, it can provide another liquidity solution for investors.
Borrowing solutions for investors can help investors stay in illiquid products while enabling them to access liquidity in other ways. Yes, this could create a set of investors who are now more levered in illiquid assets. I recognize that can be dangerous, so I’m not suggesting that this is done in a way where investors irresponsibly allocate to alternatives just because they have access to liquidity by borrowing. But individuals shouldn’t become forced sellers of their longer duration, illiquid positions when they need to tap into liquidity because they might miss out on the compounding effects of those illiquid investments. Borrowing solutions can help alleviate this need if done in a responsible way by both borrower and lender.
The right structures can go a long way in helping investors access alternatives in a way that makes sense for both their short- and long-term planning needs. Enabling 401(k) accounts to have access to alternatives makes sense. This tax-advantaged structure is capital that investors won’t touch for a long period of time. That’s the right type of structure to invest into alternatives, which are often more illiquid and longer-duration investments. Helping investors mentally bucket longer-duration investments with longer-duration investment structures could go a long way in making it easier for investors to think about the where and the how of private markets allocations, not just the what.
Educating investors about the merits of private markets investments and the nuances of liquidity and illiquidity are critical to helping them understand the why and the how of private markets. This process will continue to take time, but it is imperative that investment firms, advisors, and industry bodies continue to educate individual investors on the why, where, and how of illiquidity.
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 - Educational Content Strategist, Vice President. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Apollo (Alternative asset manager) - Distribution & Wealth Services Associate. Click here to learn more.
🔍 iCapital (Private markets infrastructure investment platform) - RIA Marketing Manager - VP / SVP. Click here to learn more.
🔍 KKR (Alternative asset manager) - Infrastructure Team - Portfolio Implementation Associate. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Hamilton Lane (Alternative asset manager) - Associate/Senior Associate - Fund Investment Team. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Blue Owl (Alternative asset manager) - VP / Principal, Private Wealth Market Leader. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Ultimus Fund Solutions (Fund administrator) - Vice President Corporate Finance. Click hear to learn more.
🔍 bunch (Private markets infrastructure investment platform) - Head of Product. Click hear to learn more.
🔍 73 Strings (Private markets data and valuation software) - Project Manager. Click hear to learn more.
🔍 Hightower Advisors (Wealth management) - Executive Director, Data Management. Click here to learn more.
🔍 Goldman Sachs (Asset management) - Alternative Investing & Portfolio Management - Chief Financial Officer, Infrastructure. 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:
🎙 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.
🎥 Watch Dan Vene, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Head of Investment Solutions at iCapital on episode 11 of the latest Monthly Alts Pulse as we discuss the evolution of the industry. Watch 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 wealth management industry titan Haig Ariyan, CEO of Arax Investment Partners, share his thoughts on the private equity opportunity in wealth management. 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.
Thank you for reading. If you like the Alts Weekly, please share it with your friends, colleagues, and anyone interested in private markets.
Subscribe below and follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter (@michaelsidgmore) to stay up to date on all things private markets.
If you have any suggestions, would like me to feature an article, research, or would like to recommend a guest or topic for the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast, reach out! I’d love to include it in my next post or on a future podcast.
Special thanks to Michael Rutter and Nick Owens for their contributions to the newsletter.
Fascinating insights re: younger investor generation and Alts. I think you’re spot on in your query: “What could move the needle for increasing retail wealth flows into alternatives? Content and brand.”