This what Ted's thinking, what it takes to raise capital, discusses a few tips for small

managers to prepare to grow. No one wants to invest in a small manager. There, I said it,

but everyone wants to invest in a great small manager. There, I said it. But everyone wants to invest in a great small manager.

So how does a small manager try to prove that they're great? I'd like to share some tips,

most of which are routinely violated by the community of small managers.

First, it's not their fault. Having spent a decade and a half investing in

small hedge funds, I can't tell you how many times a manager complains that the only reason

they don't have capital is because allocators don't get it. That's completely backwards.

It's the managers who don't understand the playing field.

My favorite recent example is a blog written by a manager with less than $5 million under management.

He attended global alts in Miami, apparently didn't raise money from the event, and decided to blame the conference organizers for his

shortcomings. Any seasoned allocator will conclude that this manager didn't do his homework,

isn't self-aware, and will never grow a business when he blames others for his shortcomings.

A friend of mine calls this lesson, don't be an idiot. I'm trying to be gentler.

Second, do the work. In the first quarter of this year, we received 82 inbound requests

for managers to appear on the podcast. That's one a day. We have a process to vet potential guests that includes filling out a simple form,

answering a few questions, and hopping on a call with our team before we mostly turn them away.

It's quite like screening managers for allocations.

Incredibly, of those 82, only 20 filled out the form, and only four finished the questions.

About half of the requests came from PR firms, which tells you the managers are willing to spend

money, but they're not willing to do the work. As it turned out, we offered each of those four

a slot in our 12 annual sponsored insights.

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