Solutions FAQs

  • A pre-launch or early stage founder led asset management firm operating in the public or private markets. Likely launching or running it’s 1st, 2nd or 3rd co-invest or co-mingled solution aimed at professional investors. We also welcome conversations with founders who are a few years into their journey, managing modest sums and now ready to scale up.

  • For those RAISING capital we offer 3 solutions ranging from on demand paid advisory calls to incubator & accelerator programmes. Please note the information in our website & solutions teaser for specifics.

    For those INVESTING we offer a co-invest search & origination platform for professionally accredited investors seeking early stage access to a vetted & curated pipeline of world class fund management firms.

  • When you apply for our accelerator programme we take great care to learn about your team and strategy. If we feel that tastes and appetites are unlikely to favour your firm we will let you know.

  • We understand that you may bring decades of experience to your new firm - for that reason we don’t offer basic incubation of the type suitable for recent university graduates. Instead, we have structured our programme to provide actionable support in the areas most fund management pros lack muscle memory; distribution, sales and marketing plus operational organisation.

  • Our expectation is that 75% will graduate. Those who don’t quite make it will still be offered a financially valuable package alongside the tools, skills & peers developed during the 12 week program.

  • Recognition that a successful asset management firm is an operationally excellent distribution machine. The pursuit of investment performance alone, whilst worthy, will not catalyse asset gathering. We seek to work with founders who desire to pursue personal brand led strategies to build fast scaling profitable & durable businesses despite the ebb & flow of alpha generated from their investment team.

  • A conversation where the founder leads with performance, fees or risk may not last very long. Similarly, folks who share slides or long pitch decks at the start of a conversation are unlikely to fit well with our approach. Seeing a founder wanting to draw compensation from a new start-up to match their last employed pay is also very concerning! Seeing a projected cost base that has less than 65% devoted to sales & marketing in the start-up years will raise eyebrows here.

  • Yes.

  • The 4 or 8 week phase is held remotely via zoom & google-meet links. Assessment days are arranged at the end of the programme to establish your suitability to graduate via a series of video calls. Along with the self directed work we set, please budget for c10 hours per week.

  • To maintain service standards, we curate 5 cohorts per year, each with a very limited number of seats. Competition for those seats is significant and for firms that meet our criteria we accept on a first come first served basis.

  • We welcome applications from founders located in any of the G20 member countries.

I'm curious about the Middle East, what UAE footprints must I make to be successful?

Very simply FDI & if possible FPI is essential to succeed in the Gulf. Without investing time & money on the ground via your company set-up, team hiring, service provider contracts it will be extremely difficult to get traction.

What topics do you cover in the accelerator program?

3 core phases

Phase 1: Distribution

Phase 2: Operations

Phase 3: Capital

Why do you bring pro co-hosts/mentors into the programme?

We realise that we don't have all the answers and over the years have identified a group of exceptional specialists that add great value to our programme. Contrary to many programmes, we ask each mentor to make client slots available for our cohorts without a wait list. In addition each mentor has developed a pricing offer especially for our programme. It is recommended but not mandatory for cohort members to buy services from our mentors.

Do I have to participate in the full program to graduate?

The majority of applicants are seasoned asset management professionals with decades of technical experience. We have designed the topics covered to be appropriate for senior professionals whilst recognising that many have not had a background in sales, marketing, distribution or ODD. Similarly, those transferring from large brands may not have been directly involved in operational or organisational matters. Consequently, we require all participants to complete the program in full to be considered for graduation.

What do your clients find most challenging about working in new regions like the Middle East?

Suitcase based selling & western marketing collateral & sales techniques simply don’t work well here. Instead, lots of LinkedIn (social proof), tightly worded 1 pagers, press coverage (more social proof) & in-person availability are all needed here.

Why do you focus so much on the attention economy?

In the early years of a new fund business, founders should be spending nearly all their time on attracting AUM via getting new eyeballs. In the digital age, the most effective way of building a pipeline of inbound interest is via personal brand on social media channels, specifically LinkedIn and YouTube. Fund founders without a developing personal brand will struggle immensely to raise new AUM consistently.

What are the main areas of criticism or challenge you get?

We are originating transactions in very high risk situations (early stage/start-up firms) consequently we are not afraid of having hard conversations about hard topics which some founders new to entrepreneurship find challenging. We use templated documents to govern the GP and LP stakes we originate - these are drafted to be entirely fair and reasonable but are non-negotiable - we do this to ensure we can close deals at reasonable pace which enables us to support as many high quality fund founders as possible. We do not graduate any founder we work with unless they have completed the programme. Founders with 20+ years experience sometimes feel that an accelerator is too junior for them.