Your First Fund Should Be Easier to Defend Than to Market.
Your First Fund Should Be Easier to Defend Than to Market. A lot of first-time managers make the same mistake. They build the story before they build the structure. They obsess over the deck, the...
August 12, 2026
SEC Form D Data: Private Placements Raised $2.4 Trillion in 2025
TL;DR: Companies and funds raised $2.4 trillion through Regulation D private placements in 2025, up from $2.1 trillion in 2024, according to the SEC's own tally of Form D filings. That is more than 33 times the $70.3...
August 12, 2026
The SEC's New Risk Alert Just Told You What Examiners Are Writing Down About Your Fee Disclosures
TL;DR: On June 9, 2026, the SEC's Division of Examinations published a Risk Alert on economic conflicts of interest at registered investment advisers, and one day earlier the agency fined Phoenix-based Foundations...
August 12, 2026
GCM Grosvenor's $1.2B Credit Secondaries Fund Signals a Market Shift
TL;DR: GCM Grosvenor closed its first dedicated private credit secondaries fund at $1.2 billion, according to the firm's own July 23, 2026 announcement , with the deal still generating fresh trade coverage into early...
August 12, 2026
How to Vet an Emerging Fund Manager's Track Record Before Committing Capital
TL;DR: Before you commit a dollar to an emerging fund manager, verify that the track record they're pitching is actually theirs, read the IRR and multiples net of fees, call at least three prior LPs directly, and run...
August 12, 2026
What a Fund Administrator Does, and Why LPs Now Require One
TL;DR: A hedge fund manager named Grant Grieve invented a fake back-office administrator called Global Hedge Fund Services and used it to certify returns that didn't exist. The SEC charged him with securities fraud...
August 12, 2026
The Keyman Clause: What Happens When Your Fund's Star Partner Walks
TL;DR: A keyman clause (also called a key person provision) is the section of a private fund's limited partnership agreement (LPA) that names the specific individuals whose continued, active involvement the fund is...
August 12, 2026
Energy Capital Partners Closes $8.1B Fund VI to Bet on AI-Driven Power Demand
Energy Capital Partners closed its sixth flagship fund, ECP VI, at $8.1 billion in total capital commitments on August 6, 2026, blowing past its original $5 billion target by more than 50% and hitting an expanded hard...
August 12, 2026
The Democratization of Private Markets Is a Liquidity Trap With Good Marketing
TL;DR: The "democratization of private markets" pitch tells you that interval funds, non-traded REITs, non-traded BDCs, and tokenized fund platforms now give you the same access institutions have always had. That is...
August 12, 2026
EquityZen Review 2026: Fees, Track Record, and Real Risk
Bottom line: EquityZen is a legitimate, SEC-registered broker-dealer marketplace that lets accredited investors buy exposure to pre-IPO companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Stripe through single-purpose vehicles, with...
August 12, 2026
Cadre Review 2026: Fees, Track Record, and the Willow Wealth Risk
TL;DR: Cadre built a real institutional-caliber commercial real estate platform, with a genuine 2020-2022 track record and a secondary market that pioneered fractional CRE trading. My verdict for 2026 is that the...
August 12, 2026
Your Fund Narrative Is Too Wide to Underwrite
Your Fund Narrative Is Too Wide to Underwrite Most emerging managers do not lose LP attention because the market is cold. They lose it because their story is too wide to hold conviction. If your...
August 11, 2026