Can algorithms already outperform human decision-making in private equity?

In this episode of Private Markets Podcast, Fund Shack www.fund-shack.com, Ross Butler speaks with Oliver Gottschalg, Professor at HEC Paris and founder of Gottschalg Analytics, about how machine learning is already reshaping private equity fund selection and secondaries pricing.

Drawing on more than 25 years of empirical research and extensive real-world back-testing, Gottschalg explains why algorithmic decision support can improve outcomes using the same opportunity sets LPs invest in today. The discussion explores why private markets may be structurally better suited to machine learning than public markets, where human judgement still matters, and how lower-cost, more scalable private equity products could emerge.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Topics covered include:

• How machine learning can outperform “normal” private equity allocation decisions
• What conservative back-testing on real LP portfolios reveals
• Why private equity secondaries pricing remains inefficient
• The limits of explainability and the rise of predictive decision-making
• How humans should interact with algorithms as downside governors, not alpha generators
• What this means for LPs, GPs and the future cost of liquidity in private markets

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Guest:

Oliver Gottschalg, Professor of Strategy and Business Policy at HEC Paris, Director of the HEC Private Equity Certificate, and Founder of Gottschalg Analytics.

🌐 Gottschalg Analytics: https://www.gottschalg.com/🔗

https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-gottschalg-b53b6261/

Host: Ross Butler, Founder and Host Fund Shack

🌐 www.fund-shack.com

🔗 CONNECT on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/

📘 Order Ross Butler’s book

👉 Invest Like a Barbarian: Share in the spoils of the Private Markets revolution

♾️ http://q-r.to/Invest-Like-A-Barbarian#investlikeabarbarian

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

About Fund ShackPrivate Markets Podcast, Fund Shack www.fund-shack.comExplores private equity, private credit, infrastructure, secondaries and private wealth access through long-form, technical conversations with leading practitioners and thinkers.

💡 Suggest a guest: [email protected]

📩 Join our community Substack: https://privateequitypodcastfundshack.substack.com/

🎧 Listen on podcast platforms or watch the full episode on YouTube

📘 Explore episode summaries, transcripts and related content at www.fund-shack.com

🔔 Subscribe for more deep-dive private markets conversations