Pentith.

The most expensive decisions on a first fund are made before the first close.

Structure, economics and thesis. All of them hard to reverse.

I spent almost a decade making those decisions and living with them. Six funds, numerous co-investment vehicles and a platform that reached c. £500MM, across thesis, structure, fundraising, investment process and investor relations.

I now do that work for a small number of managers, family offices and corporates standing up vehicles of their own.

[email protected]Thirty minutes, no materials, no pitch. If I am not the right person I will tell you in the first ten.

Where I am useful

Usually two or three of these rather than all of them.

Thesis and positioning

Before you start telling people about it

Whether the fund is fundable as stated, where the edge actually is and which LPs it is for. I have sat on the other side of that pitch from sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and family offices. I know which versions of it get a second meeting.

Structure and economics

Expensive to get wrong, worse to reverse

Vehicle and jurisdiction, feeders and parallel structures, SPVs and co-investment. Fee, carry, hurdle and how the economics behave if the fund is half the size you hoped. Choosing and directing the lawyers and tax advisers rather than being led by them.

Getting to first close

Longer than anyone budgets for

Materials, DDQ, data room and the discipline to run an LP pipeline without the rest of the firm stopping. What gets asked in diligence, what gets checked afterwards and what quietly ends a conversation.

Investment process

The thing LPs are really assessing

How decisions get made and evidenced. Investment committee design, papers, portfolio construction, cheque sizing and reserves. I have sat on eight investment committees and written for all of them.

A seat in the room

Ongoing, a limited number

Independent investment committee member, advisory board or venture partner. For a first-time manager an experienced outside voice in the process is worth something to LPs as well as to the decisions.

Fund operations, valuations, audit and compliance are all work I have owned end to end. I will take them on where they are genuinely in the way. They are rarely what I am hired for.

Where this comes from

Future Planet Capital, from inception to a global multi-fund platform.

MeasureDetailFigure
CapitalPlatform built from nothing across six funds and numerous co-investment vehiclesc. £500MM
FundsStructured, operated and reported through their full lifecycle6
PerformanceFunds in the top quartile by TVPI3
CommitteesInvestment committees sat on8
InvestorsInstitutional, sovereign and family office relationships held20+

The thesis gets you the meeting. What sits behind it decides whether there is a second one.

Whether this is a fit

The honest version, same as everywhere else on this site.

Probably yes

  • A first or second fund, pre-close or recently closed
  • Sub £50MM, where every structural decision is load bearing
  • A family office formalising what it already does informally
  • A corporate standing up a venture unit from scratch
  • A syndicate lead moving to a committed vehicle
  • An established manager who has nobody independent in the process

Probably not

  • Managers who want a back office rather than a second opinion
  • Funds outside venture and growth
  • A search for a full time CFO or COO
  • Strategy decks about where the market is going

[email protected] Tell me where the fund is and what is in the way. Two paragraphs is plenty.