Starting a Hedge/Private Equity/Investment Fund. Launching your own - How to start one successfully?

How does one usually do it successfully? Are most fairly experienced in the industry before they launch their own fund? How about contacts? Thanks.

 

Experience enough to know the answer to those questions.

‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns or dollars."
 

I think investors look for two things:

1.) Experience. 2.) Capital commitment to the fund.

The real question is whether you honestly believe you can beat the market- and whether it's a reasonable assumption to believe you're qualified to have that figured out. Four or five years in S&T and sticking in all of your savings (which should be substantial) should be a strong signal.

 
IlliniProgrammer:
Four or five years in S&T and sticking in all of your savings (which should be substantial) should be a strong signal.

Does the same hold for IB experience? How you get people to invest in your fund, via fundraisers?

 
Walkerr:
Does the same hold for IB experience? How you get people to invest in your fund, via fundraisers?
I dunno, you could always find the Boy Scout troop in some rich neighborhood and offer a 1% commission on investments to help pay for tents and camping gear. :D

In S&T and research, you develop a reputation and people eventually seek YOU out. I am not sure how it works in IBD. IBD might be good for a niche fund like risk arbitrage, but just based on experience and skillsets, it's going to be a bit harder for a banker to make a compelling case to investors than for a salesperson, trader, or research guy.

Not saying it isn't doable, just saying the PE/VC route would be a bit easier for a banker starting his own fund. Bankers claim that HFs hire them as traders and I believe them, so that might be another way to get some experience in as a trader.

The more intelligent money will be looking for a signal that you know what you're doing and you can make them money. A track record in research is one way to do it. A track record managing a trading book- ideally as a prop trader betting on market directions- is another way to do.

Partially disagree with Kenny in that the HF route, while helpful, may not be absolutely necessary. It comes down to your reputation as a stock picker/risk taker and how many rich people know you. There's a lot of ways to build that reputation, including the hedge fund route, but it generally takes a few years.

 

The majority of new funds are started by people who are coming from a leadership/risk-taking role in an existing fund (prop desks as well but that's not likely to be relevant to anyone who has to ask this question). Those people by and large have a) a track record and b) connections to various "gate-keepers" and capital allocators like fund-of-funds, family offices, private banks/wealth management groups, and rich individuals, etc from their previous jobs.

Besides these relationships, many new funds are seeded by the principals' former employers or by hedge fund seeding funds, who often take equity in the management company and/or reduced fees in addition providing investment capital.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 

IP you are consistently negative about banker's hedge fund roles and I have to say I don't see it in my circle of friends, acquaintances and colleagues (note that I was not a banker or a trader). You say that bankers are only suited for "niche roles" like risk arb but that is completely contrary to the real-world breakdown between fundamental, quant, and macro strategies. Big parts of the hedge fund world are related to bottoms-up, financials-driven strategies that attract bankers and research analysts. I actually know fairly few traders in non-execution roles, though I know that macro and commodities funds as as well as certain highly-structured strategies require more of a trader skill-set.

I agree with you that someone moving directly from a corporate finance role will have a hard time starting a fund, but that's not what most people do. People leave for the buyside and learn the portfolio/position management elements there.

I also disagree that people really view running a non-prop book or making buy/sell recs at a bank are really analogous to running a fund-that's why people go to the buyside as an analyst, trader, junior PM, etc and build a truly relevant performance history.

You're welcome to provide a list of the recent fund launches by sell-side and I will provide a list of the recent buy-side launches-I can guarantee there are more funds whose founders have buyside experience.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 

Not just a banker, ANYONE. The vast majority of fund launches come from existing buyside PMs, with the notable exception being prop trading desks which are essentially extinct now, or will be.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 
sartoris:
How does one usually do it successfully? Are most fairly experienced in the industry before they launch their own fund? How about contacts? Thanks.

Not too rip you apart or anything, but these are things you need to know before even considering starting a fund. Most of all you need to know the legal structure behind it. Your definitely going to need a Series 7 certification if you plan on managing equities. Its not an easy task, its why only a few individuals are able to accomplish such a feat.

 

Here's how one guy did it:

Grandmaster capital is a brand new hedge fund out of San Francisco. The founder and portfolio manager was a portfolio manager at Clarium before venturing out on his own. Clarium provided him the startup capital (I believe it was $50m) to get started.

 

good luck. reduce overhead costs! I've read books on small, successful funds that started up in a garage or empty office space. The more you put into the business, the more time you're devoted to non fund activities.

 

out of curiosity: is there a minimum $ requirement to create a HF? and what are the legal differences between a HF and a traditional investment fund?

i know i could google this, but since we are already on the topic...

Capitalist
 
esbanker:
out of curiosity: is there a minimum $ requirement to create a HF? and what are the legal differences between a HF and a traditional investment fund?

i know i could google this, but since we are already on the topic...

There's no minimum with regards to how much money you want to manage -- you could theoretically launch a fund with $50,000 in AUM if you wanted to. However, the minimum that we hope to launch with is $2,000,000 because at that amount, the 2% management fee will cover overhead (administrators, accounting and tax) for the year, although we have some extra money for overhead if need be.

As to the organizational expenses to launch a fund -- the most bare-bones you could do it with would run you about $15,000 for a boutique law firm. We raised about $60,000, and went with a boutique law firm that will run us about $20,000. The rest is for unexpected costs, first year overhead, and fundraising. They're fairly well-known and respected though for a small firm, and we researched them and found generally positive reviews.

 

Hedge funds with a reputable law firm (and ongoing representation) is between $60,000 and $100,000 and 6-month lead time. Now, you can get it done cheaper, but then you'll have other problems. Post-Bernie Madoff, people are doing additional due diligence and if anything smells funny (or cheap), they won't go. I'm an analyst at my firm and potential investors asked for my biography; and I have to have a notarized certificate of graduation on file in the office. That's how thorough things are getting.

Bene qui latuit, bene vixit- Ovid
 
rls:
Hedge funds with a reputable law firm (and ongoing representation) is between $60,000 and $100,000 and 6-month lead time. Now, you can get it done cheaper, but then you'll have other problems. Post-Bernie Madoff, people are doing additional due diligence and if anything smells funny (or cheap), they won't go. I'm an analyst at my firm and potential investors asked for my biography; and I have to have a notarized certificate of graduation on file in the office. That's how thorough things are getting.
After that ex CEO at Yahoo who could blame
 
nameback:
So, some of you are aware from my posts that I'm trying to start my own hedge fund. Yes, it's a bit ambitious for someone with a stats background and no finance experience to try to launch a fund, but we have a great system so we're going for it.

Anyway, I just wanted to post that we raised money for the management company's startup costs, and have started getting all our docs done. We'll be launching on August 1st. Whether we have our seed capital by then is an open question, but we're on our way.

Many people have outlined steps of the process. Could you give a breakdown and perhaps what you found as your biggest challenges? Thanks
 
JoshFi7:
Many people have outlined steps of the process. Could you give a breakdown and perhaps what you found as your biggest challenges? Thanks

I mean, there are really two challenging parts, and the rest is just bureaucratic legwork.

(1) Developing a strategy that's unique, offers high returns, and is robust.

We're quants -- my partner and I are both statisticians -- so our main focus was and is developing our proprietary trading system and making it as versatile and robust as possible. It's been about a year of non-stop development and we're hardly done; there's still so much more to squeeze out of this system. This is obviously more specific to quant funds -- but in a way, I think you'll have an easier time starting a quant fund as the proverbial "two guys in a garage" than a qualitative fund, because your strategy is independent of things like pedigree, and its track record doesn't depend on experience, discipline, etc. Just set it running and wait for results.

(2) Raising AUM.

This is by far the harder part. It was easy enough to raise $70,000 from friends and family for a test fund to start building a track record ($5,000 here, $2,500 there, etc). And raising $60,000 to start the business wasn't terribly hard either. However, raising $2mil is another beast entirely. First of all, almost all fund of funds, institutional clients, and even most family offices are off-limits to you right out of the gate. They have too many screens. "We don't invest in quants." "We don't invest in anyone with less than $50mil AUM" "We don't invest in anyone with less than a three year track record." Even many seeders don't want to be the first investor in a fund.

So really, you have three targets from hardest to easiest: Seeder funds, family offices, and high net worth individuals. Then it's simply a matter of networking and getting your materials in front of as many people as possible. Cold calling funds, attending conferences, using your personal network, etc.

Our personal story went something like this:

I started creating trading models for fun last summer, and as some of them started looking particularly promising, I ended up putting more and more time into the hobby. Before long, the workload was becoming increasingly difficult to manage and the math was becoming quite complex, so I enlisted my friend who is getting his PhD in statistics.

We worked diligently for about three months before deciding we had something strong enough to test in the real world -- so we raised some money from friends and family. That took maybe a month to raise $70,000. People were generally eager to give it a shot, and we had prepared some nice materials that were pretty convincing.

Then there was sort of a doldrums from December 2011 through March 2012 -- just letting the system run and accumulate a track record. Then, we decided to revamp the model based on the results we'd been seeing and the lessons we'd learned so far. So we went about creating a new system based on the old one -- and in the process were able to dramatically boost returns and versatility. That took about a month to get to a place where we were confident in our revisions, though as I said we're continually evolving the system.

We then decided to try to raise money to launch a proper fund. We started by tapping everyone in our personal network who might be able to introduce us to HNW individuals, and then by attending SALT and other hedge fund events. It took us about another month to raise the $60,000 for business expenses, and concurrently about a month and a half to select a law firm and begin the process of setting up the fund.

 

JoshFi7, I reckon that he hasn't reached his biggest challenge yet- raising money. For an unknown manager with no background or experience in finance, to say it will be a herculean undertaking would be an enormous understatement. There isn't enough back-tested data in the world to easily overcome those odds.

I don't mean to be a downer, but 90% of hedge funds fail (they are small businesses after all). And they fail for operational reasons which are oft associated with not having enough money for continuing operations. Even if an investor is interested and willing to put money in a fund, they will hesitate if they don't think you have enough management fees to be self-sustaining. I'm assuming you'll be doing 2/20.

Question for the OP: How much money do the principals/partners have in the fund (assuming you are not alone)? That will be a very important question from potential investors.

Bene qui latuit, bene vixit- Ovid
 
rls:
to say it will be a herculean undertaking would be an enormous understatement. There isn't enough back-tested data in the world to easily overcome those odds.

Amen. We know it's going to be incredibly difficult, but we think we just might be able to pull it off. It may take us a year or more to raise the money, but we think our system is worth the effort. We've done 11% so far this year, and if we can finish out what is shaping up to be a shitty year with somewhere between 15% and 25%, we think that may just be impressive enough of a live track record to get some people interested.

We also have some decent personal connections. My partner's uncle manages the Soros Open Society Fund, for example. And then there's the random stuff you would never expect -- like my roommate (who is an exotic dancer) having Andrew Lahde as a regular client of hers and telling him about my fund, or my friend who is close friends with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Personally, living in LA I'd really like to reach out to the entertainment community, as they're not exactly known for being particularly conservative with their finances. It's tough to break into, but if I can pull a few good connections, it could be a good source of AUM for us.

Question for the OP: How much money do the principals/partners have in the fund (assuming you are not alone)? That will be a very important question from potential investors.

100% of gross assets to our names. Not much in absolute terms, but it's all we have.

 

Some updates on overhead costs for those curious: a lot of admins/auditors are willing to work with you on scaling down costs if you're a lean startup, and to that end I've got a proposal coming to me from an auditor for just $8,000 for our first 18-month audit. Then figure another 7k for taxes, and as long as we can keep admin costs below 25k for the first year we might even have a little bit left over to cover some fundraising expenses (conferences, travel, etc).

 

All the best Nameback, fortune favours the brave!

Something for you to maybe consider is how social media can help you getting your message out there, especially in regards to chasing AuM. There are many channels that can be utilised (within regulatory requirements) to develop your networks online. Be happy to help you out if you need some pointers.

Again, very good luck to you.

 

Congrats on getting this far....this is definitely a serious undertaking and its something i have looked into in pretty good detail.

On the expenses, I would be careful about going cut-rate on the attorney's/auditors etc. While it may be easier in year one, the business you are building is not going to make you rish in year one (or two or three) and down the road when you are trying to ramp the business it will really help to have relationships with top-level service providers. Many institutional investors will not even look at a fund that doesnt have big names providing these services.

 
Bondarb:
Congrats on getting this far....this is definitely a serious undertaking and its something i have looked into in pretty good detail.

On the expenses, I would be careful about going cut-rate on the attorney's/auditors etc. While it may be easier in year one, the business you are building is not going to make you rish in year one (or two or three) and down the road when you are trying to ramp the business it will really help to have relationships with top-level service providers. Many institutional investors will not even look at a fund that doesnt have big names providing these services.

I would say our motto has been "small but reputable." We're using names that are reasonably well-known, especially on the West Coast (we're located in Los Angeles), but who are able to work with us on prices. No, we're not using Rothstein and Kass, but we're not using some guy in a strip mall, either.

 
Cries:
Would you mind sharing what your background is and how you started investing? Whats your general investment thesis?

My background is in politics, where I worked as a quant -- modeling voter behavior and preference, turnout projections, doing some database management, etc. Before that I was a political organizer. My partner is a PhD candidate in statistics and formerly worked as a quant in the consulting world and in government. We met on the Obama campaign in '08.

I started building financial models as a hobby to learn more about investing -- however I started having some pretty good success in backtesting, so I decided to take it a little more seriously. From there, it just kind of ballooned and now I do this full-time and it's been about a year of hardcore development.

We don't have an investment thesis so much as we have a proprietary algorithm, or set of algorithms.

 
Macro <span class=keyword_link><a href=/resources/skills/trading-investing/arbitrage target=_blank>Arbitrage</a></span>:
What type of quantitative trading models have you built? Given your background in collective intelligence and statistics, I hope you resist the temptation to deploy machine learning/ AI algos as that stuff is far more often than not fool's gold when applied to markets.

We heavily use machine-learning techniques. So far it's worked well! We're up 12.6% this year.

Can I ask why you are averse to these methods?

 

What kind of investors are you going to for commitments? I'm working with a group who is trying to get a fund launched sometime in the next two years and we can't justify it making economic sense without commitments of at least $100 million, though we're planning for about 3-4x that amount, if not more coming from funds these guys are going to be leaving if this gets off the ground.

I know you guys are probably young and it's just two guys with a quant strategy, but what about office space? What have your legal fees looked like and are you planning on adding back office staff for admin type work?

Have you gotten together with a prime broker yet and negotiated commissions, or how do you plan on placing your trades? Or what were you using before when you established your track record?

I'm sure the details of launching are a lot different for you guys than they are for the team I'm consulting right now but I'm interested to hear how it's working out so far. And congrats on the initial funding.

I hate victims who respect their executioners
 
BlackHat:
What kind of investors are you going to for commitments? I'm working with a group who is trying to get a fund launched sometime in the next two years and we can't justify it making economic sense without commitments of at least $100 million, though we're planning for about 3-4x that amount, if not more coming from funds these guys are going to be leaving if this gets off the ground.

I know you guys are probably young and it's just two guys with a quant strategy, but what about office space? What have your legal fees looked like and are you planning on adding back office staff for admin type work?

Have you gotten together with a prime broker yet and negotiated commissions, or how do you plan on placing your trades? Or what were you using before when you established your track record?

I'm sure the details of launching are a lot different for you guys than they are for the team I'm consulting right now but I'm interested to hear how it's working out so far. And congrats on the initial funding.

We're mostly going after medium-high net worth individuals that we have in our personal network. The reality is, not coming from established funds or investment banks or prop shops, we don't have access to institutional money or 7-9 figure commitments of any sort, really.

We will have no office space to start with -- purely out of home. Legal fees are already taken care of for launch, and we have a bit socked away for anything further. Admin will be external at the start -- everything for service providers should cost us about $29,000/year. We're still negotiating with primes. Probably going to go with a relatively cheap introducing broker.

And yeah, I'm sure it's ivery[/i] different from what you're consulting on, but as you said, we are young and basically two guys in a garage, so to speak, so for us this puts us 10% of the way to our goal of launching with $2mil.

And thanks!

edit: The one place we might be able to pull off some institutional money could potentially be with some unions -- if they have emerging manager programs. I say that because I used to work in the labor movement when I did politics, so I have some connections in high places at the AFL-CIO, Steelworkers, AFT, and AFSCME. It's something I haven't really been pursuing aggressively yet, but now that we have a launch date and everything is set, I think it's time to start after that money.

 

Got our foot in the door today with Larch Lane. First big seeder we've talked to that hasn't screened us out just based on materials. We're gonna have a follow-up with them in a week or two, and based on how that goes and what they think of our strategy, they'll decide whether to put us through the full due-diligence process or not.

Does anyone know what the success rate is like for a fund doing due-diligence with a seeder or FoF? If you make it that far, what level of interest in your fund does that indicate?

I'm very curious, because I know LL makes pretty big seed commitments -- the guy I spoke with told me they generally invest 75-100mil -- so I'm obviously excited at the prospect but I have no idea just how steep the odds are.

 

Few questions about your fund:

  1. What are administration fees / costs? (How much are they, what are they for, etc.)

  2. How are you doing on raising money from high net worth people? What's your strategy / approach for this group?

 
AK Senator:
Few questions about your fund:
  1. What are administration fees / costs? (How much are they, what are they for, etc.)

  2. How are you doing on raising money from high net worth people? What's your strategy / approach for this group?

  • Standard 2% management and 20% incentive. If we launch at 2mil, then management fee will go strictly to overhead only, and incentive fee will pay salaries at the end of the year.

  • So far I think we're doing alright, but we need to expand our network of HNW. Our biggest problem is simply not knowing enough wealthy people. We've raised $300,000 so far, which of course is not much in the scheme of things, but represents 15% of our goal.

  •  

    Honestly, it's starting to frustrate me how difficult a process it is talking to family offices and institutions.

    We've earned 20% on our proof-of-concept fund since December 2011. According to public indexes like BarclayHedge, the average hedge fund is up ~1.1% over the same time period.

    And yet people don't seem particularly impressed by our results. I get that we haven't been running our test fund for that long, but it's frustrating nonetheless. Ah, well, fundraising is a fundamentally unpleasant task. Just gotta keep your head down and plow through.

     
    nameback:
    Honestly, it's starting to frustrate me how difficult a process it is talking to family offices and institutions.

    We've earned 20% on our proof-of-concept fund since December 2011. According to public indexes like BarclayHedge, the average hedge fund is up ~1.1% over the same time period.

    And yet people don't seem particularly impressed by our results. I get that we haven't been running our test fund for that long, but it's frustrating nonetheless. Ah, well, fundraising is a fundamentally unpleasant task. Just gotta keep your head down and plow through.

    There's a lot more to it than just having the "product" part down. Think of it like you're selling any other product, because basically that's what you're doing. So you're basically trying to market a new, "better" product right now, but people aren't sure if they can believe it's better. The best way to get big institutions to buy into your product is to have some sort of credibility. If Martha Stewart is featuring your product, then Wal-Mart will probably put it on its shelves. Now I'm assuming you don't have a Martha Stewart on your investment team, but who gave you the $300,000... or is it just from friends and family? Anyone can return 20%, but if you have any relationships those are a lot more important when bringing your product to market. What has the Sharpe looked like? Drawdown? If you can, I'd look for institutions that apply quant strategies similar to yours and speak with them about it. At worst they'd be able to give you advice as to how/if your product is superior to most, and best case they seed you if they're really impressed. HNW aren't interested typically in your returns, they want a brand name or some sort of "reliability factor" where they can feel good that their money is with the XYZ guy who came from Goldman Sachs and wears a nice suit and pays for my steak when he's explaining to me why they're down 60%. You'd be surprised how shitty most HNW are at investing if they made their money elsewhere, or more often, inherited it.

    That said, best advice I can give you is to actually spend less time marketing to family funds and HNW, because they tend to hate on quant funds since they don't understand the risk/reward side of investing and just like the relationship side more often than not. I'd try and get in touch with some quant institutions that have more of an understanding of the way you're investing... if you really think you have a superior product.

    Best of luck with the capital raise going forward. Keep us updated.

    I hate victims who respect their executioners
     
    nameback:
    Honestly, it's starting to frustrate me how difficult a process it is talking to family offices and institutions.

    We've earned 20% on our proof-of-concept fund since December 2011. According to public indexes like BarclayHedge, the average hedge fund is up ~1.1% over the same time period.

    And yet people don't seem particularly impressed by our results. I get that we haven't been running our test fund for that long, but it's frustrating nonetheless. Ah, well, fundraising is a fundamentally unpleasant task. Just gotta keep your head down and plow through.

    How would your algos performed if they started running in 1998?

     

    I'm confused about why people are always asking what kind of leverage was used for those returns. If he made 20%, isn't it just 20% no matter how much leverage there was? Or is it possibly a way to see how risky the portfolio is?

    So Larch Lane got back to us, with some good news and some bad news.

    Bad news is that they don't want to put us through due diligence for seeding because we're too new to the industry.

    Good news is that they are interested in allocating to us from their FoF division, once we hit 25mil in assets on our own. They recommended that we hit up family offices to cover the initial seed, as apparently a lot of them are filling in the gap where traditional seeders have pulled back since 08. Still structure it like a seed deal, with profit sharing, just not from a FoF.

     

    What is your structure like? Normally we see:

    1. Delaware LP to accept subscriptions from taxable US investors

    2. Cayman offshore feeder fund to accept subscriptions from non-US persons and US tax exempt entities

    3. Cayman offshore master fund through which the US feeder and Cayman feeder invest.

    If you are faced with low capital, one suggestion is to sit on a platform designed by one of the larger fund administrators. The platform is a lower cost deal and is targetd at start-up managers who wish to establish a track record. Once AUM reaches a certain level, you come off the platform and form your own fund vehicles.

    Any questions on any of the above, just let me know.

     
    CaymanIncorporations:
    What is your structure like? Normally we see:
    1. Delaware LP to accept subscriptions from taxable US investors

    2. Cayman offshore feeder fund to accept subscriptions from non-US persons and US tax exempt entities

    3. Cayman offshore master fund through which the US feeder and Cayman feeder invest.

    So a fund that raises capital from U.S and foreign HNWs via private banks and PWMs would fall under 3?

    Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep.
     

    PS, If this is illegal per say per the SEC laws because I don't have a Commodity trading advisor license, is there a way around it so that I can trade capital that has been raised through my personal network? IE family and friends??

     

    Good learning experience, making some money would only be a bonus... and seems like this would be very useful in an interview to use as a platform for discussing what stocks you like. Just don't get carried away and pull a Lumina Investments. Surprised more frats and similar groups don't do something like this.

    I hate victims who respect their executioners
     

    Yes exactly we want to preserve our capital and offer an experience to the members. Indeed making money would just be extra.

    Great post on idea generation btw.

    I sold some shares, but on a net basis, significantly increased my ownership. Jeffrey Skilling
     

    That's actually pretty cool. It would be a great experience to bring up in an interview. Unless you guys are all idiots, why would a fraternity investment fund be different from one handled by another school organization? You might get someone who is biased against fraternities in interviews, however, speaking in general terms, I have yet to meet anyone who continued to hold on to negative stereotypes after I spoke intelligently about my fraternity experience. Dispelling rumors and false stereotypes is not hard. If you have good grades and relevant experiences, you could be in a better position than other applicants (assuming you interview well). Being in a fraternity and handling your priorities shows that you can manage your time.

    I'm not sure how large of a sum you're talking about, but I'm curious how you got approval from your alumni board to manage money if no one in your chapter had any relevant experience. I'm talking about having a track record of money management, PWM and IB internships don't count. Was it donated directly to your chapter instead of the housing or general corporation? We tried to do something similar, but our alumni corp denied the request.

     

    Hi redrocksky,

    So a bunch of the guys on our BOD have careers in HFs and AM firms. We sold them on the idea that we would keep the risk level very low and have strict covenants on how much equity vs bonds or ETFs we would hold and a market cap + minimum diversification restrictions on stocks. Additionally the BOD has total veto power over any transaction and we have to submit detailed written reports to them of our holdings,trades, changes in the portfolio on a monthly basis + meeting.

    My school has a strong finance program and part of the course is to manage a portfolio in the low-mid 6 figures. We are assisted by several profs in the whole process which has allowed me and a bunch of the guys to get great hands on experience of the difference dynamics of money management.

    Again even with this we are on a relative basis fairly unqualified but again the idea behind this is an educational experience and actually making any money is really just bonus.

    The sum was earned by our chapter through the house that we own and our national entity has not say over this. Were talking mid 5 figures so yea pretty small.

    I sold some shares, but on a net basis, significantly increased my ownership. Jeffrey Skilling
     

    Sounds like you guys are risking burning through your frat's money in order to build up your own experience and resumes.

    Sounds very self-serving.

    If I was a running a PE shop, I'd worry that you have little sense of fiduciary duties and would happily burn LPs money for your own short term gain.

    That said, I don't run a PE shop.

    Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
     
    SSits:

    Sounds like you guys are risking burning through your frat's money in order to build up your own experience and resumes.

    This is pretty much what a frat is for...

    I hate victims who respect their executioners
     

    Sounds like a great opportunity. Speaking partially from experience, a few thoughts/tips:

    1. If you can find a faculty mentor then you can probably work it out to get class credit for the experience (via independent study). Everybody loves an easy A (and Emma Stone).

    2. Depending on the location of your school, try to get an alum or professional in the industry to act as a mentor.

    3. Reach out to investment clubs at your school/other schools and talk to them about how they structure their club, etc.

    [quote=patternfinder]Of course, I would just buy in scales. [/quote] See my WSO Blog | my AMA
     

    Hey,

    Yes we have several alumns working in finance on board to help us get up and running and mentor us/ conduct workshops along the way. We have a bunch of guys in the investment club and we've been talking to other schools in the area to seek advice.

    Reaching out to faculty for class credit is a great idea though!

    Thanks for the input and the DCF template.

    I sold some shares, but on a net basis, significantly increased my ownership. Jeffrey Skilling
     

    If you guys are going to do this, sit down and do this right from the ground up. Start with what the purpose of this fund is and look for the best "classification" for your account. Is this going to be a fund that speculates, that looks for GARP, Capital Appreciation or Income Generation? That's a huge thing to weigh in. I would also start reading as many Mutual Funds and ETF prospectuses as you can. They are set up in such a way that their holdings must follow explicit guidelines. Every fund has some form of this or another, but Mutual Fund and ETF prospectuses are the easiest to get ahold of so start there. IF you can't find it in the prospectus, look for the Additional Statements of Information" that may accompany it. This is a huge thing - especially if you have people that you are acting in the best interest of. These guidelines are there for both your protection and your investors piece of mind knowing that your holdings will follow some rough guidelines.

     

    I have a relevant question, My friend and are opening a joint E-trade account, but it's in his name. It's not a substantial amount of money or anything. I am wondering if we might run into issues in terms of the taxation of our earnings ( if we have any haha)-- that is, since the account is in his name, technically, he is liable for any tax payments. What should we do?

     

    This can be extremely beneficial or an utter joke. Having a defined investment and risk management plan etc is crucial but stuff like 'hedging' with ETFs to reduce "systematic" [i'm sure you mean systemic] risk is just over the top. Hedge fund jargon dropping is gonna make you guys an easy target in interviews and I'd be willing to bet that there's no way way you're going to generate a "decent level of income in any market environment". Worry about generating great risk-adjusted returns instead of impressing your interviewers. Best of luck, sounds like a great idea.

     

    Yes agreed perhaps income in any market environment was the wrong way to put it. What I meant is build a very defensive portfolio to limit downside risk as much as possible if the index takes a beating which we would aim to do in holding mostly debt, blue chip companies and long inverse market ETFs to reduce the theoretical beta of our holdings to 0.

    Again I realize this is much easier to say than implement successfully.

    As BlackHat mentioned the last thing we want to do is pull a Lumina Investments.

    We'd focus on educating our members, deploying our capital in a responsible way and taking a lot of advice from our alumns/mentors.

    I sold some shares, but on a net basis, significantly increased my ownership. Jeffrey Skilling
     

    Agree with the above comments. My contribution is look into the potential for it to be an endowment, and follow Swensen's model. This would emphasise asset allocation over security selection though, nevertheless it would give you a good foundation into the funds management business altogether.

    In my opinion you'd; 1) Come up with a set of Strategic Asset Allocations across;

    Listed: cash, corporate bonds, government bonds, domestic equities, international equities, emerging markets,

    and if you can gain access through your alumni network, Unlisted; Litigation Funding, Absolute return (hedge funds), Private Equity, Infrastructure (physical), property (physical), commodities (physical).

    Beyond that you may be able to beef Listed up with REITs for property + infrastructure funds etc.

    Your split should be essentially 'around' a 60/40 split between 'growth' assets such as equity, and 'debt' assets such as cash/short duration bonds. This is a time-proven split that's ideal as a foundation, which you can then deviate from if you provide an adequate justification (i.e. the sacrifice of liquidity for increasing Sharpe ratio -> this is essentially what Swensen's model advocates)

    Once you've established how much you want in each asset class then;

    2) Set out the governance of the funds management:

    I.e. How much are you allowed to deviate from each of Strategic asset allocation, how regularly will you rebalance the weights (as there is drift daily), what are the rules you are using for rebalancing (is it time-based, risk based, return based etc).

    The most basic setup would be a Tactical asset allocation of 3-5% (i.e. you can be overweight equities upto 5% of the SAA), with rebalancing set monthly (good balance between transaction costs and control of SAA).

    3) Then set out your risk-controls; You say you want to be low-risk; what does that mean?

    Essentially you would want your multi-asset portfolio measured against a modified CVAR - this would then allow you to effectivley manage the risk your portfolio is taking, and adjust it to a more suitable level through reduction in exposures. This measure is more for internal use than 'performance' reporting.

    4) Then set out your performance evaluation or 'attribution analysis'

    I.e. this would 'explain' your performance monthly as a split between your 'asset allocation' decision, and your 'security selection' decision. This is important information as it allows you to monitor how you're actually going, and what areas need work.

    5) Then designate security selectors (mini-pm's) to manage each asset class.

    Here you'd designate the 'conviction' that each PM can have - i.e. what % of the asset class can they use up on one stock selection, what controls are over this PM - what is the budget for transaction costs etc etc.

    You would then use Sharpe ratios etc to evaluate performance on a monthly basis.

    6) Finally - this is crucial; you set your 'target' return per year.

    This is the entire point of the exercise; generating alpha. This requires the following;

    1) Setting an 'internal' benchmark for the entire portfolio (it could be the SAA's theoretical return) 2) Setting industry-recognised benchmarks for asset classes 3) Setting internal PM benchmarks

    Then you're able to actually able to say that your decisions over asset allocation, security selection (and even market timing) have generated 'alpha'.

    But also - you're able to establish a base-line required return so that you are 'risk-aware' and realise that achieving a 5%+CPI return consistently is far more difficult task than 'matching' the SP500's return.

    The above is essentially how I would structure such a fund based upon my experience within a large University endowment fund - and I have been toying with implementing this set-up myself (no Frats in Aus though so i'd be doing it personally with a lot less capital).

    Two key benefits;

    1) If done correctly you won't look foolish if you blow-up; because it has inherent diversification and layered controls. 2) If done very well - you may use it as a vehicle to fund-raise from Alumni and actually establish an endowment for the Frat that would consistently payout and benefit current frat and future frat members equally.

     

    I was apart of an endeavor similar to this last year, so here's some advice from a student. Our attempt failed, and it was because participation and interest dropped right off a cliff as soon as we got to the stage where we needed to start generating investment ideas, and you should expect the same to some degree.

    I think a better approach to making something like this successful would be to structure yourself not as a "hedge fund", but just as an investment club. Everyone will be all over the place in terms of equity research and investing capabilities, so trying to come out of the gates with a target alpha goal would probably be counter-productive. I know of similar clubs in other houses, and they usually start because the founders of it want to pad their resumes and have some alpha results to put down. As a result a lot of the ideas and execution are rushed and sloppy.

    This would be a great chance to have workshops on valuation, markets, modeling, etc to start getting everyone up to speed on ER. If you have an alumni base within finance, see if you can get some guest speakers to talk about their experience. When it comes to idea generation encourage club wide collaboration, and when agreement comes on a thesis use the funds your Alumni Board approved to execute these trades not with the goal of building a track record for your club, but to study and see where you were right and wrong.

    Remember, just because you have money to invest doesn't mean you HAVE to spend/allocate it. If you can get a solid foundation with the club you can potentially have something great in 2-4 years time and beyond, especially as new members come into your house. Possibly after that time your club will be large enough to where you can have a sect break off and be your Investment Committee with the primary duties of idea generation and portfolio management.

    Good luck!

     

    Not a bad idea.

    Two suggestions:

    1. Participation is key. Even if enthusiasm is high amongst the initial set of members, it needs to stay that way even when you've long since graduated. You may need to make it a constitutional requirement in your charter or have some requirement of commitment from pledges.

    2. Establish a process and have the discipline to stick to it. Create an investment committee that approves what is sent to the Board and consider having outsiders (a prof, alumni, etc.) on it. Have a formal reproting and recommendation process to that committee. Don't make decisions informally over beers.

     

    You should really open up a non personal account for this endevour. If you do end up having gains, someone is going to get hit hard with taxes. Or if you lose a lot of money that person is going to do awesome on their taxes taking in that credit.

    Also, this is college, so if you piss off the person with the personal account, you can say bye bye fund.

    make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier
     
    Skinnayyy:

    You should really open up a non personal account for this endevour. If you do end up having gains, someone is going to get hit hard with taxes. Or if you lose a lot of money that person is going to do awesome on their taxes taking in that credit.

    Also, this is college, so if you piss off the person with the personal account, you can say bye bye fund.

    this is 100% correct. +SB

    titling is the #1 mistake people make with their assets after they've done some planning (e.g. drafting a trust but not funding it, leaving IRA beneficiaries to an ex or to your estate, etc.). and I mean no disrespect to the HF and AM alums you have, but their realm of expertise is not in account titling or the legalese therein, that's the job of an attorney. The reasons why you absolutely HAVE to have the assets in a non-personal account are thus:

    1. when the person who owns the account graduates, I assume you'd give it to another brother. the brothers would have to file a gift tax return and the surrendering brother would lose part of his lifetime exemption. not fair to the surrendering brother, and this is an irrevocable action.
    2. if the brother who owns the account goes into bankruptcy, creditors can seize the account and you have no recourse.
    3. same goes for divorce, if this brother gets divorced while he has this account, say bye bye to half or more of it.

    seek legal counsel, but I was president of a large fraternity and I can say that while some of the guys are my best friends, will be my groomsmen and my pallbearers, I cannot say the same for all of them. you need to set this up as something where any individual brother puts the chapter at zero liability and zero risk (aside from investment risk). this will usually mean setting up a corporation or LLC, make your alumnus advisor CEO or something and have the brothers change as the guard changes. partnerships are tricky because the general partner still has liability and if you have LPs always leaving (graduating), it's more paperwork and trouble than it's worth. still, seek legal counsel, you are setting yourself up to possibly get royally fucked.

    I hope none of these things happen to you, but I'm of the opinion that one should plan for the worst, and hope for the best. I hope it all works out for you, but please heed my warning.

    PM me if you have more questions.

     

    This is a cool idea though. I'd love to have this opportunity.

    When a plumber from Hoboken tells you he has a good feeling about a reverse iron condor spread on the Japanese Yen, you really have no choice. If you don’t do it to him, somebody else surely will. -Eddie B.
     

    My MBA program had some of the school's endowment allocated to them so we could gain real time experience managing money. It had an air tight IPS and quarterly reviews with industry professionals. You should call alum of your frat and ask if they want to participate. Great networking tool and a way to get mentors

     

    Does anyone know of a reasonably comprehensive portfolio management software that can be used for virtual/paper trades? Looking to start a student managed fund as well but without real capital so as to establish a track record and receive an endowment... The software doesn't have to be free but it definitely can't be what I imagine most funds pay for their service, if it means anything I have access to bloomberg terminals.

     

    It was posted three times because I'm assuming that the crowd that looks at this forum may be different from the hedge fund crowd, which may be different from the PE crowd.

    As opposed to relying on one group of people that are interested/experienced in one aspect of finance, I'm trying to get as many ideas as possible. Hope the triple posting doesn't offend anyone!

    Also will apologize/justify my comment about the "game." I go to NYU and every kid I meet (especially in Stern) seems to be interested in "finance", but few seem to be able to describe why other than money. Now, I respect financial aspirations big time. That being said, because I'm not purely in this for the money, I feel the whole "traditional" route may or may not apply to me.

    Sorry to create such a headache for you all!

     

    This is so jokes because I'm pretty sure the OP is being sincere, just naive. If you want to start a Hedge/Value/PE fund someday (What finance guy wouldn't?), you're going to have to spend 10-20 years working for someone to have the required capital and connections for such a venture, that is if you're ever fortunate enough to have that option. PE and Hedge funds, as well as private investment vehicles are all radically different in strategy, markets and skills required so it's very short-sighted to lump them all together.

    If you want to work in private equity, it's a general consensus that IBD situates you well from both a recruiting and knowledge base standpoint.

    If you want to work @ a hedge fund, you have your choice of S&T or AM generally, and the decision rule really being the strategy of the fund. Value funds might even be better suited to IBD veterans because to the fundamental nature of the strategy, but I'd ask people in the industry.

    TBH no offense OP but for someone with such lofty dreams and tacky jargon you don't know a whole lot about the finance world, especially for a Stern sophmore. You really should try and get some finance-related work experience under your belt this summer. Given you said "recruited" and didn't say "was hired" I'm guessing you're gonna have to find some boutique IBD or PWM experience this summer but do your HW man and figure out the route you want to take.

    ‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns or dollars."
     

    Youre a prospective IB monkey? May I ask what the interest is?

    Generally, it depends on the fund size. Some have their own fund raisers. Using placement agents is very common - they take ~.5% of the money raised for larger clients, and different amounts for other sized groups.

    The only people who can raise funds successfully are experienced in the industry.

    Contacts should be extensive prior to finishing your MBA.

    “...all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” - Schopenhauer
     

    It's really hard (and I would know). You need a good product/thesis and the contacts and be prepared to spend a nice chunk of your personal money getting everything set up and funding yourself while you build track record. How much experience matters depends on what you want to do, but obviously more is better.

    It's the ultimate high risk/high reward career move.

     

    Obviously its tough..but there is no one set way to do it. Look at Citadel. Ken Griffen found it at 22 with no industry experience.

    Einhorn started a few years in the industry but with only $1m dollars

    Cornwall capital had an initial capital base of $110k.

    It doesn't cost much to set up a hedge fund and can easily be done for less than ~$50k. The hard part is finding seeding capital and performing

     

    I imagine that thread gives you everything you need. If you want to do it right, you are going to spend thousands of dollars setting it up. Unfortunately there is no DIY solution for something like this- its why lawyers can bill hundreds of dollars an hour for this work. If you're trying to really start a fund and make some money, you can't risk fucking something up because you wanted to save a couple grand.

    On the other hand, if you are going to be dealing with

     

    Two cents on your trading strategy, have you considered that it might only work with smaller dollar amounts? The more dollars you trade in a name the more you may move the market on it against you with larger volume's, and could potentially offset any economic gains from the trading strategy. Especially if you are trading smaller cap names. This is part of why large (and small) portfolio manager's have a hard time beating the market.

     

    No. It's not even close to enough. You could just have these people open accounts at Fidelity (or wherever) and take discretion over them. I believe if it's less than 5 people you don't need to register as an investment adviser in most states, but don't quote me on that.

     

    I looked into this briefly and the start up costs would range between $50-$100K for what we were looking to do. We figured we would need at least $10MM and that would be cutting it. I guess it would just kind of depend on your set up, but I found think anything under $10MM would be really hard, unless it was something more of a hobby.

     
    subrosa:
    I looked into this briefly and the start up costs would range between $50-$100K for what we were looking to do. We figured we would need at least $10MM and that would be cutting it. I guess it would just kind of depend on your set up, but I found think anything under $10MM would be really hard, unless it was something more of a hobby.

    Contemplating starting a fund while networking at the gym and applying for executive assistant positions? How do you find the time?

    [quote=patternfinder]Of course, I would just buy in scales. [/quote] See my WSO Blog | my AMA
     

    Any reason why they're trusting you with their funds? I hope you know what you're doing because your family and friends can quickly turn into something else. Don't mean to rain on your parade but unless you have a proven strategy and a track record, it seems a bit reckless. Again I don't mean to put you down, but just want to give you some real advice

     

    You kidding? You'll shoot your eye out...

    [quote=Dirk Dirkenson]Shut up already. Your mindless, reflexive responses to any critical thought on this are tedious. You're also probably a woman, given the name and "xoxo" signoff, so maybe the lack of judgment is to be expected.[/quote]
     

    Joking aside at that level of AUM you're better off having them give you discretion over their brokerage accounts. The cost of forming entities alone will be too much to make it worthwhile.

    There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
     

    For what you're looking to do it would cost under $10K to set up. That can be amortized for accounting purposes (but that's not GAAP). Ongoing legal, accounting, and tax will cost a few thousand a year. Your time spent dealing with the fund won't be worth it either.

     

    I'm actually in the process of something similar so I'm interested in responses...but you really need to specify which type of 'group' as each are incredibly different skill sets, legal structures, goals, etc.

    If the glove don't fit, you must acquit!
     

    The reality is that if you have to ask...you probably are not qualified or adequately prepared to start your own fund.

    Most of the individuals that you refer to generally created a track record of performance over time and even the guys who did not know the procedural/legal/logistical steps required to open a fund were all but forced to open funds due to the demand from others to manage their money. I'm thinking of Buffet's partnerships, guys who started successfully trading out of college dorm rooms, etc.

    A) You are asking a pretty broad/stupid question but I'll bite using broad generalizations because your post is so vague. You can do any one of or a combination of the following:

    1) develop a track record of successful performance that can be independently verified 2) spend a number of years working at a successful shop and/or under a successful mentor before spinning off to do your own thing (Tiger cub hedge funds as an example) 3) have access to a ridiculous network of capital whether it be family money, high net worth individuals, institutional money (less likely), etc.

    Unfortunately, the recession, guys like Bernie Madoff, and increased regulation have ruined it for guys like you. It is difficult to raise capital even for guys who have been building track records for most of their careers.

     

    I am just a college student, but I would say if you are coming here for answers, then you are not in a position to start one of these firms. Even on the smallest of scales, you need an enormous amount of capital to start any of those three types of firms, especially in PE and VC where your money is going to be tied up for years at a time. If you don't have it yourself, you'll need to get it from investors like you said, but in order to do that you will need to a) know lots of high net worth individuals and b) have an amazing and relevant track record. On top of that, your name will have to command some type of respect in the industry in order to get any talent to your firm unless you have the type of capital to pay people exorbitant salaries.

    As I'm sure you have learned from your readings, most of these firms are started by high net worth individuals who have led long and successful careers in the field.

     

    I understand the above comments, but I've also read books, seen things on CNBC American Greed, read articles, etc where some anonymous person comes out of nowhere(maybe starts with like 5-6 figures of inherited on family money and then gains more investors from there. Plus, now with the Internet, I believe it's called crowd funding, can't u solicit investors online on specific sites tailored for this?

    "Did you know that Whitney Houston's debut LP, titled simply Whitney Houston, had four number one singles on it?"
     
    bbillgold:

    I understand the above comments, but I've also read books, seen things on CNBC American Greed, read articles, etc where some anonymous person comes out of nowhere(maybe starts with like 5-6 figures of inherited on family money and then gains more investors from there. Plus, now with the Internet, I believe it's called crowd funding, can't u solicit investors online on specific sites tailored for this?

    I don't think you've read enough books. Otherwise, you're reading the wrong books.

    Also you ask for advice. Then when people give it to you you claim to understand, but ignore it because of your books.

    Get some experience in the industry and then give it some more thought.

    twitter: @CorpFin_Guy
     

    You could theoretically crowd source money, but most of those sites that I know of are funding projects and not really "investing" their money looking to get a return. And even if you could fanagle that, think of how many people with the resources to make a meaningful contribution spend their time on crowd sourcing websites. I'm guessing not many.

    If you have 6 figures worth of truly dispensable capital then you could actually potentially start a "hedge fund" but you would need to personally invest that six figures and turn it into at least 8 figures before you are even in the ballpark. And if you can do that, then people will be literally begging to give you their money. So if you are a Paulson-esque trader, then yes, you could start a hedge fund with that little capital.

    But think about how much money you actually need to start a Private Equity shop or VC fund. Those guys buy companies for tens of millions of dollars and have their money tied up for years at a time. Even if you had ten million dollars to spend, you could maybe invest in two companies. Then you would have no money until you exited those companies, and there's no guarantee you make a profit at all.

    My advice would be to take this money that you have and start investing it if you really want to do something like this. Like I said earlier, if you are phenomenal at trading, you could end up doing all three, but in my estimation you need at least $10 million that you don't mind losing to even be thinking about PE or VC.

     

    I'd be very careful about crowdsourcing the funding for PE/IM. If you have a lawyer, check it out with him. As for your questions:

    1) You generally get years of experience elsewhere first. A couple years in banking followed by 10+ year in PE to learn the business will do it. Investing is a little different. If you start somewhere and are a rockstar you can do anything after ~3ish years (these numbers are complete guesses, but needless to say you need experience).

    2) It's very difficult if you have no experience unless you plan on conning people out of their money. I'd highly advise against that.

    Also, those guys you read about/saw on TV who started with 5-6 figures and got more investors afterwards, they didn't just get them off the bat. For one, I highly doubt they started with only 5 figures. Maybe low 6 figures. On top of that, it probably took them years to get outside investors.

    You don't just jump into a pool without making sure it's full first. The one's that do die or paralyze themselves on the concrete.

    In short...

    Step 1: get a couple years' experience, learn about the industry/business, and create a track record for yourself

    Step 2: see how your boss gets clients, try and sell the company's services to others (see how hard it is for an established firm, much less a new shop with no record)

    Step 3: ????

    Step 4: profit!

    "You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
     
    tradewell12:
    you could try to get arabs to give you money

    or a Nigerian prince. You just need to give them your bank account information and will be in your account in no time.

    Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
     

    Doubtful. Only way I could see this (even maybe) happening- somehow either join a PE/VC firm out of school or out of 2 years IBD, work 5-7 years there and somehow get enough responsibility/credibility that people are willing to trust your investment decisions (and you have enough capital to get started). You'd also probably need to have some very wealthy connections. Very very unlikely.

     

    The only way to do this is you are in your 20s is via starting a Search Fund. A lot of MBAs from H/S have started doing that as it is almost like a fast track to C-Level.

    I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. See my Blog & AMA
     
    AstonMartin:
    Is it possible to start a VC/PE fund in your 20s if your parents are not extremely wealthy/well-connected?

    Watch Wall Street Warriors, season 2. There's a guy (maybe 26?) who runs his own PE shop. He talks about his story in a few episodes.

    I'll do what I can to help ya'll. But, the game's out there, and it's play or get played.
     

    Labore deleniti molestiae corporis. Amet molestiae autem velit voluptas velit veritatis. Adipisci non aut odio sint. Cupiditate et quasi omnis blanditiis quas. Pariatur doloribus dignissimos eveniet. Incidunt omnis eaque optio provident ullam illum nesciunt maxime. Dolor quas dolore in qui voluptatem. Beatae dolorem neque quae ad ut labore quod.

     

    Voluptates qui consequatur placeat aut error reiciendis delectus. Asperiores ut sed reiciendis aut. Animi facilis debitis error et accusantium id. Minus quia et ut enim minus reprehenderit voluptatem ea.

    Doloribus sit et et ut qui magni. Sunt doloremque rerum dignissimos aut qui aliquam suscipit odio. Quasi eum voluptatem officiis deleniti qui qui quo. Fugiat debitis omnis nulla commodi.

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    Perferendis velit nam accusamus. Perspiciatis magnam et impedit excepturi dolorum. Mollitia suscipit sed sed quod quisquam nisi voluptatem. Aspernatur explicabo id unde itaque nostrum beatae.

    Ex repudiandae ut consequuntur soluta ex molestiae repellat. Rerum libero illo officiis dolorem. Voluptatem rem debitis nesciunt quia sint vitae.

    One of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over.
     

    Rerum id velit quasi molestiae ipsum aliquid. Omnis praesentium excepturi quo voluptatem repudiandae accusantium cupiditate. Nostrum illum illum sequi veritatis pariatur illo labore. Consectetur consectetur quos voluptate voluptas quisquam aut. Sed fuga dicta est dolores quidem illum aut magni. Aut magni expedita assumenda voluptatum fugiat cupiditate.

    Iusto deleniti rerum delectus officia. Sunt officia est nostrum consectetur quidem enim perspiciatis consectetur. Dolor dolorum est quisquam et sequi quos. Voluptates ad nisi maxime.

    Aliquam accusantium reprehenderit consequatur repudiandae. Rerum et animi soluta enim. Sapiente cumque dolores minus omnis.

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    success
    From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

    “... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”