Alt Goes Mainstream: The Latest on Alternative Investments, WealthTech, & Private Markets

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

On today’s show, we welcome a senior member of the team at the world’s 3rd largest alternatives manager. Tyler Jayroe is a MD and Portfolio Manager in the Private Equity Group at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, which manages over $2.4 trillion of assets on behalf of a diverse group of global institutions and individual investors. Tyler’s team, the Private Equity Group, has a 40 year history of investing across private markets, covering the alternative investment spectrum and investing over $42B of capital. Tyler helps spearhead a team that invests into funds, co-investments, and secondaries across private equity, growth equity, and venture fund strategies.

Tyler and I had a fascinating conversation about how an industry behemoth allocates capital across funds and strategies. We discussed:

• What they look for when investing into funds.
• Why middle market private equity is an area they have focused on.
• The opportunity for secondaries in the current market.
• The differences between a first time investor and a first time fund manager.
• What a scalable and replicable process really means when it comes to evaluating fund managers.

Thanks Tyler for coming on the podcast to share your deep experience in private markets. Hope you enjoy.

Contact JPMorgan Distribution Services, Inc. at 1-800-480-4111 for a fund prospectus. You can also visit us at www.jpmorganfunds.com. Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives and risks as well as charges and expenses of the mutual fund before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the mutual fund. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.

This document is a general communication being provided for informational purposes only. It is educational in nature and not designed to be a recommendation for any specific investment product, strategy, plan feature or other purpose. Any examples used are generic, hypothetical and for illustration purposes only. Prior to making any investment or financial decisions, an investor should seek individualized advice from personal financial, legal, tax and other professionals that take into account all of the particular facts and circumstances of an investor’s own situation.

Risk Summary

The following considerations, which summarize some, but not all, of the risks of an investment in the representative strategy, should be carefully evaluated.

General Investment Risks

There is no assurance that the investments held by the Fund will be profitable, that there will be proceeds from such investments available for distribution to Shareholders or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. An investment in the Fund is speculative and involves a high degree of risk. Fund performance may be volatile and a Shareholder could incur a total or substantial loss of its investment. There can be no assurance that projected or targeted returns for the Fund will be achieved.

Financial Market Developments

Volatile conditions in the capital markets may cause limitations on the ability of companies in which the Portfolio Funds will invest to obtain capital, or subject such companies to higher costs of capital for financing. This lack of available credit could impede upon the ability of such companies to complete investments and higher costs of capital could reduce the returns of the Fund or Portfolio Funds. Changes in interest rates may adversely affect the investments held by the Fund. Changes in the general level of interest rates can affect the value of the Fund’s investments. Interest rates are highly sensitive to many factors, including governmental, monetary and tax policies, domestic and international economic and political considerations, fiscal deficits, trade surpluses or deficits, regulatory requirements and other factors beyond the control of the Fund and the companies in which the Portfolio Funds invest. Although it is expected that the Fund’s borrowings, if any, will be short-term in nature, the companies in which the Portfolio Funds invest may finance a significant portion of their activities with both fixed and floating rate debt. By financing the acquisition and development of an investment with floating rate debt, such companies and Portfolio Funds, and indirectly the Fund, will bear the risk that in the event of rising interest rates and a lack of concomitant growth in income, or any increase in underwriting standards that might limit the availability of credit, it could become difficult for such companies and Portfolio Funds to obtain refinancing. In such a case, a company or Portfolio Funds could be forced to take actions that might be disadvantageous at the time in question, such as refinancing on unfavorable terms or selling an asset. Any rise in interest rates may also significantly increase the interest expense of the companies in which the Fund and Portfolio Funds invest, causing losses and/or the inability to service debt levels. If a company in which a Portfolio Funds invests cannot generate adequate cash flow to meet debt obligations, the Fund may suffer a partial or total loss of capital invested in the Portfolio Funds. Given current market conditions following a historically low interest rate environment, risks associated with rising interest rates are heightened.

Closed-End Fund Structure; Liquidity Limited to Periodic Repurchases of Shares

The Fund is designed primarily for long-term investors. An investment in the Fund, unlike an investment in a traditional listed closed-end fund, should be considered illiquid. The Shares are appropriate only for investors who are comfortable with investment in less liquid or illiquid portfolio investments within an illiquid fund. An investment in the Shares is not suitable for investors who need access to the money they invest. Unlike open-end funds (commonly known as mutual funds), which generally permit redemptions on a daily basis, the Shares will not be redeemable at a Shareholder’s option. Unlike stocks of listed closed-end funds, the Shares are not listed, and are not expected to be listed, for trading on any securities exchange, and the Fund does not expect any secondary market to develop for the Shares in the foreseeable future. The Fund’s private market investments will be illiquid and typically cannot be transferred or redeemed for a substantial period of time. The Shares are designed for long-term investors, and the Fund should not be treated as a trading vehicle.

Repurchase of Shares Risk

Although the Board may, in its sole discretion, cause the Fund to offer to repurchase outstanding Shares at their net asset value and the Adviser intends to recommend that, in normal market circumstances, the Board conducts quarterly repurchase offers of no more than 5% of the Fund’s net assets. Shares are considerably less liquid than shares of funds that trade on a stock exchange or shares of open-end registered investment companies. It is possible that the Fund may be unable to repurchase all of the Shares that a Shareholder tenders due to the illiquidity of the Fund investments or if the Shareholders request the Fund to repurchase more Shares than the Fund is then offering to repurchase. In addition, substantial requests for the Fund to repurchase Shares could require the Fund to liquidate certain of its investments more rapidly than otherwise desirable in order to raise cash to fund the repurchases and achieve a market position appropriately reflecting a smaller asset base. This could have a material ad...

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

On today’s show, we welcome a long-time VC investor who brings the perspective from both sides of the pond. Fred Destin, the founder of Stride VC, a seed fund operating out of London and currently investing out of its second £123M fund, shares his views on the venture capital industry.

Prior to Stride, Fred was a General Partner at Accel and Accomplice (fka Atlas Venture). He’s invested in some of venture’s big winners, including Deliveroo, Pillpack, Cazoo, Zoopla, Secret Escapes, Integral Ad Science, and more, generating over $1.4B in value to investors and a blended multiple in excess of 7x. Fred has been featured on the Forbes European Midas List a number of times. 

Fred and I had a fascinating conversation about the hows and the whys of early-stage venture. We discussed:

• How VCs can navigate the difference between decision points and discovery zones.
• Why a positive bias towards people can be a driver of returns in venture.
• Why venture capital is often a poor experience for founders.
• Why trust, truth, and empathy make for a strong and enduring founder relationship.
• Why Fred thinks that the most product of a venture capital organization is decisions.
• Why. and how simplicity can be core to company-building.
• How to evaluate risk versus reward at early-stage.
• How younger investors can hone their craft.
• The future of early-stage venture.

Thanks Fred for coming on the podcast to share your wisdom on early-stage investing.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

On today’s show, we welcome a veteran of venture, a champion of portfolio concentration, a master of micro VC. 

Chris Douvos has taken a mosaic of experiences as an allocator at both endowments and funds that worked on behalf of institutional investors to found Ahoy Capital in 2018, an intentionally right-sized firm focused on working with smaller, emerging VC managers. A pioneering investor in the micro VC movement, Chris has been a mainstay in venture capital for decades. At Ahoy, he discovers and partners with smaller VC funds to help drive returns for his LPs, being seen as a “bird dog in the Valley” for many institutional investors who lack the access, network, and knowledge of the early-stage venture landscape to Chris’s degree.

Chris has been embedded in the venture world for years, dating back to the early 2000s. Prior to Ahoy Capital, Chris spearheaded investment efforts at Venture Investment Associates and The Investment Fund for Foundations. He initially learned the craft of private markets investing at Princeton’s University endowment, although he earned his BA and MBA from Yale.

Chris and I had such a fun discussion about venture and the emerging VC landscape. We discussed:

• How the business of venture has changed.
• Why there’s always room for a Bugatti when the market has a lot of Fords and Toyotas.
• What he learned from Doug Leone at Sequoia in his early days as an allocator at Princeton and how it’s informed how he invests today.
• Why it’s tough to be a midsized fund in today’s venture market.
• Why he believes that concentration is key as a LP – and that diversification can lead to “diworseification.”
• Why he believes smaller fund sizes can lead to outperformance.

Thanks Chris for coming on the podcast to share your wisdom and lessons learned from decades in venture.

Welcome to the 6th episode of a collaboration between iCapital x Alt Goes Mainstream.

Here’s the latest episode of the Monthly Alts Pulse, a live conversation in studio with Lawrence Calcano, the Chairman & CEO of iCapital, who as the leader of a platform that is responsible for the majority of individual and advisor-led investment flows into the alts space, has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in private markets.

On this episode, Lawrence and I had a fun and lively discussion. We covered:

• Will private equity save the day?
• Why the “educated consumer is the best customer.”
• Is liquidity the threshold issue of getting more investors to participate in private markets?
• How 80% of the flows into alts from the wealth channel are currently driven by 20% of the advisor population … and how the next wave of advisors can understand and allocate to alts.
• How the industry moves from education on alts to education of how alts fit into broader portfolio construction strategies.
• How do we go from “talk to action” in the allocation of alts.
• What’s the interplay of technology innovation and product innovation in alts?
• What is the “technology chassis” for alts?
• What’s the missing piece from a technology perspective to take alts to the next level?
• What’s the role that tokenization can play in helping alts go mainstream?
• Does private markets have its connective tissue?
• The current status of Michael’s Monthly Bracelet Pulse, featuring Eintracht Frankfurt and Angel City FC bracelets.

Thanks Lawrence for a great episode … looking forward to next month’s conversation!

Welcome to the 5th episode of a collaboration between iCapital x Alt Goes Mainstream.

Here’s the latest episode of the Monthly Alts Pulse, a live conversation in studio with Lawrence Calcano, the Chairman & CEO of iCapital, who as the leader of a platform that is responsible for the majority of individual and advisor-led investment flows into the alts space, has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in private markets.

On this episode, Lawrence and I had a fun and lively discussion. We covered:

• How interest in alts is growing around the world.
• What Lawrence learned on his trips to Europe, LatAm, and Asia meeting with advisors, private banks, and GPs across those respective regions.
• Why each region has its own unique challenges, in large part due to different regulatory structures and wealth management market structures.
• How to build a global alts business while simultaneously tailoring the culture and client experience to specific client demands.
• Why global, brand name fund managers may resonate in different parts of the world.
• Why advisors are very focused on products right now that have a “modicum of liquidity.”
• Stories and anecdotes from Lawrence’s conversations at an event they hosted with over 200 advisors in LatAm through iCapital’s partnership with Unicorn Strategic Partners.
• Why being on the ground to understand different cultures and ecosystems is so important to learning and building the right organic feedback loops to structure solutions in private markets.

Thanks Lawrence for a great episode … looking forward to next month’s conversation!

Today’s show brings us inside the mind of a top allocator and CIO in the private wealth world.

We talk with Shannon Saccocia, the CIO of Neuberger Berman Private Wealth, a division of NB that has almost $70B of assets under management. With over 24 years of experience, Shannon brings a wealth of knowledge on private markets to bear. At NB Wealth, she works closely with investment leadership to establish market views, asset allocation, and portfolio recommendations tailored specifically for NB Private Wealth clients.

Prior to joining NB, she was the CIO for 5 years at SVB Private and Boston Private Wealth, which SVB acquired in July 2021. In this capacity, she oversaw all investment management functions, including portfolio construction, asset allocation, third-party manager selection, equity and fixed income portfolio management, performance and trading.

Shannon and I had a fascinating conversation on the evolution of private markets and how both allocators and GPs can think about this changing landscape. We discussed:

• The definition of alts and what “true alternatives” are.
• The changing nature of asset allocation and why alts are such a critical part of an investors’ portfolio.
• The evolution of fees and what investors should be paying for.
• Why specialized managers can win.
• The importance of geopolitics and macro in a world where deglobalization has an increasing impact on asset allocation.
• Why secondaries are an important onramp to private markets for the HNW channel.
• What it means to get comfortable with being uncomfortable as an investor.
• What the institutional investor world can learn from HNW investors.

Thanks Shannon for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your thoughts and wisdom on private markets.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s show dives into the collision of culture, sports, and finance. We talk with Chase Griffin, a student-athlete and QB at UCLA, who has become a pioneer in the college athletics Name Image Likeness (NIL) movement and is the 2x winner of the NIL Male Athlete of the Year awards from the NIL Summit and Opendorse.

Chase has excelled on and off the field, so he’s no stranger to success. In high school, he was the Texas Gatorade Player of the Year, and he turned down Ivy League offers to commit to UCLA. At UCLA, he’s played behind NFL draft pick Dorian Thompson-Robinson and put up strong performances on the field. Off the field, he’s been a leader in the NIL movement and an exemplary scholar-athlete, to the point where his coach at UCLA, Chip Kelly, has said, “if you could buy stock in a human, buy stock in Chase Griffin.”

Chase has deftly navigated the rapidly changing landscape of the NIL to secure over 30 NIL brand deals and launched the community / charity giving platform #NILforGood. He recently joined Range Media Partners as Athlete/Creator in Residence and contributes to Range business operations across Sports, NIL, Film, TV, Music, and Social Impact.

Chase and I had a fascinating discussion about how the NIL could change college sports as we know it and how it will coincide with more investment into college athletics. At a time when private equity firms are investing into companies that are part of the developing NIL ecosystem and possibly even investing into collegiate athletics conferences, Chase shares his views on the impact that the NIL and financialization of sports has on athletes, colleges, pro sports, and broader student bodies.

Congrats on all the accomplishments in your young career thus far, Chase. Thanks for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your experiences and wisdom on the NIL.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

On today’s show, we bring the institutional family office perspective to private markets. We talk with Jamie Rhode, a Principal at Verdis Investment Management. Verdis is a single family office based in Philadelphia that was built on the rich legacy of the family, a major business family, that has spanned over three centuries.

At Verdis, Jamie is focused on venture capital, private equity, and hedge fund investment sourcing and due diligence. She joined Verdis from Bloomberg, where she held roles in both equity research and credit analysis. Verdis is an active investor in the venture capital ecosystem, leveraging a data-driven investment approach that Jamie spearheads to allocate to mainly smaller and emerging managers. They’ve taken a very thoughtful approach to asset allocation, particularly venture, and have had a number of valuable insights on asset allocation come out of that process.

Jamie and I had a fascinating discussion about the allocator’s perspective on venture capital and smaller fund managers.

We discussed:

• Why Jamie believes that 90% of investment returns come from asset allocation strategy.
• Why smaller funds often drive the best returns.
• Why illiquidity and duration are so critical to producing outsized returns, with Verdis finding that the last 20% of the hold period of a fund producing 46% of the returns.
• Why Verdis believes in the strength of the YC network.
• The perfect fund size and portfolio construction.
• Why former operators may not make the best fund managers in Jamie’s view.

Thanks Jamie for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and data-driven perspectives.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today we bring on one of the world’s largest pre-seed investors to cover what the state of early-stage investing looks like.

We welcome Maelle Gavet, the CEO of Techstars, a leading accelerator and global investment business that works with early-stage startups. Maelle has taken a background where she’s been a CEO, COO and operator at the likes of Priceline and Compass to run Techstars as they continue to transform their business. Techstars has invested in over 3,700 early-stage startups that have collectively achieved over $98B in all-time accelerator portfolio market capitalization.

With a global reach and an early-stage perspective across ecosystems and sectors, Maelle was in a great position to share views on: 

• Why being relentless makes a great founder.
• Why, even despite more seed funds than ever, there’s still been an increase in applications to Techstars by over 2.5x.
• Why Techstars can be seen as the ultimate fund-of-funds in her view.
• Why an actively managed index of early-stage innovation can make sense for many allocators.

Thanks Maelle for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and perspectives on early-stage investing.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today, we travel to London to talk with someone who has seen the evolution of the European tech ecosystem up close.

We discuss the rise of Europe with Isomer Capital’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner Joe Schorge. Isomer is a pan-European fund-of-funds, co-investment, and secondaries platform that is on its way to €1B AUM. They’ve invested in 70 VC funds, including the likes of Seedcamp, Hoxton Ventures, Atlantic Labs, and leading European companies like Sorare, Refurbed, Zenjob, and more.

Joe has a fascinating perspective on European’s tech ecosystem on a number of dimensions. He’s an American who moved to Europe in the late 1990s to work in tech before moving to the allocator and investor side. He worked as an investment consultant at Cambridge Associates, where he advised institutional investors in Europe and MENA on strategy, planning, and implementation that amounted to over $2B of capital across 75 transactions in private markets. He was then a Managing Director at Pomona Capital in Europe, where he focused on secondaries, fund investing, and co-investments, which paved the way for him to found Isomer as one of the early institutional pan-European fund-of-funds based in Europe.

Joe and I had a rich conversation about the past, present, and future of the European tech ecosystem. We discussed:

• Why Europe is a great place to invest right now.
• Perspectives on how to build a tech ecosystem, given Joe’s deep experience and history in Europe.
• How they uncovered two local funds which invested in one of Europe's biggest tech successes, UiPath.
• The biggest opportunities in the ecosystem.
• Why availability of capital is not the issue for the European ecosystem.
• Why local funds will still win in their respective regions at pre-seed and seed.
• Why there are different skillsets that both investors and founders need to have to succeed in Europe.
• What the current market environment means for European venture.
• Why more institutional investors should be allocating to European venture.

Thanks Joe for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and experiences about European venture and thanks to the EUVC team, Andreas Munk Holm and David Cruz e Silva, for the intro to Joe, where they together have a fantastic partnership between Isomer and EUVC.