Bryan Johnson has worked for 27 years in the alternative investment business, first as a portfolio manager for two family offices and then as founder of a family office consultancy where he worked with about 63 families investing $3 billion in private equity and hedge funds. Since 2010 he helped over 300 smaller fund managers with the holistic challenge of formulating and implementing appropriate marketing processes.
According to Johnson, having looked at almost 18,000 managers over a 15-year period, “89% of all managers never get over a $100m assets. Those that do get over a hundred million generally take about 16 months to do so on average. If you go to the further end of the spectrum, those who get over a billion, only 3.7% of all managers do, and it takes on the average of 55 to 57 months to do that. But the primary reason why most managers do not get over the hundred million hurdle, it’s not because of poor performance, it’s because of marketing.”
Not everyone is ready for Johnson's tough coaching: “In about 25% of the meetings I have with small managers, I end up talking them out of starting a fund. I’m just candid and tell them, “I’m saving you from yourself at this point because you’re not prepared to do this right. I understand you want to start a fund, but you’re not prepared to, whether financially, mentally or emotionally
to do this because it is a holistic commitment, and if you don’t understand that, it will bring havoc in your personal life.”
So what’s good marketing?
You need to have a “clear, consistent, concise, compelling, regulatory compliant process articulation, and you have to tell a story that’s believable, number one; verifiable, number two; and sustainable, number three. And if you don’t do those three things, you will not raise money in this environment.”
Still, most of the smaller managers come to the fund-raising and marketing challenge with the wrong orientation. The vast majority starts out with “all I have to do is put up numbers and the world is going to be the path to my door.” But that’s not true any more after the credit crisis. Further, marketing is more than just gathering assets but also includes asset retention, so really the acquisition, expansion, retention and stability of a manager's AUM all falls in the marketing bucket.
Which clients should you go after?
Johnson believes that “most managers don’t even understand the opportunity set on the buy-side that’s right underneath their feet - what I generally refer to as a geographical and relational footprint. For managers based here in Texas, we believe it is important that they really understand that in this state alone we have between 9,300 and 9,500 individuals and families with minimum net worth of $50 million. And their number is growing at a compounded annual rate of 16%.”
Do you have a process to identify and engage with such a group? Sure, they are harder to identify, which is why most smaller managers prefer to “chase institutional unicorns”, even though they often have an intuition that what they are trying to achieve with institutions won’t work out, at least while they are still small. Consultants control about 90% of institutional assets, and contrary to most high-net-worth individuals and single family offices, they are generally risk averse.
The Opalesque 2015 Texas Roundtable was sponsored by the London Metal Exchange and took place in March 2015 at the office of Akin Gump with:
Adam Rodman, Segra Capital
Brett Robertson, Robertson Opportunity Capital
Bryan K. Johnson, Johnson & Company
Burke McDavid, Akin Gump
Edward Ondarza, Virage Capital Management
Paul MacGregor, London Metal Exchange (LME)
The group also discussed:
How family offices select their investments
How smaller managers can best engage with and talk to family offices and high net-worth investors
How to make money with Duopolies, Special Situations and Turnarounds
Can you run a global emerging markets-focused fund from Texas? “Solitude makes for a great environment for thoughtful analysis and contemplation.”
How fund managers can save 25% in operational costs
“What gets measured gets fixed”:
The fund that runs a detailed investment logbook for each position with “Lessons Learned”
Friendly economic environment: Did you know that over 100 new funds were launched 2014 in Texas alone? Those include long/short hedge funds, but also credit, direct lending, energy-focused high yield debt and credit funds
What is the best way for emerging managers to get “well-enough organized”, have a real culture of compliance and the appropriate marketing procedures?
When should a fund manager employ a dedicated marketing person?
The vital difference between service providers and service partners
Why the U.S. has fewer “platform solutions” than Europe
The Come-Back of Volatility: Opportunities in Global Macro may outshine US strategies soon
Why the buy-side – CTAs, macro funds, systematic traders – should take a close look at new products launched by the London Metal Exchange (LME), now owned by the Hong Kong Exchange Group
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