Fund Winding Down, made $$$, not sure what to do now?
I posted on WSO a few years ago that I started a micro fund with a friend I met at Harvard during a startup pitch; we invested that 1 milli for the past few years and after a bunch of nice swings in our favor he decided to wind down the fund. My cofounder is moving back to Shanghai to start some weird biotech/healthcare startup with the money he's made and now I'm kind of at an existential end to my short stint as a (co)fund manager.
Just graduated from NYU and was never too invested in finding a job since I was making more than my friends at BBs as first and second years; but now that the fund is winding down my question is wtf do I do now? I don't have traditional institutional experience and most institutions don't give a shart about some small time garage band fund. I also saw that most L/S hedge funds only hire guys from PE and most PE firms only hire IB guys (???).
I don't know if I can or even want to raise another fund since most of our original capital came from dubious Chinese investors that his family was connected to. I also don't know if I can repeat the results of the past half decade considering market conditions seem to be ASS right now and I don't really want to risk my personal savings on that gamble (to be completely realistic here).
I'm virtually an invisible guy on the street, I currently have ~700k in savings (sold most of my personal equity positions and crypto a month ago) so I'm not in too much of a rush to find employment, but I need to at some point.
How do I get a job on the street as a fresh graduate with no traditional work experience? (I have some resume fodder as an intern at a $1b distressed debt fund over my Junior summer if that helps; didn't accept return offer because reading legal docs all day is not for me). Should I apply for S&T or a trading desk?
Be a Youtuber, bro.
Does Youtube have better exit ops than OnlyFans? Is OF considered FO?
OF can be FO if you go beyond the screen to offer true client-facing services.
Otherwise, I say no. Same goes for YouTube. OF is like a specialist vs. YouTube is a generalist.
Also if you just do content, you make once and sell infinite, so it has higher operating leverage because there is no incremental cost to serve an incremental customer.
For true FO services, you can scale it up to 2-3 clients tops but there is a limit depends on your experience, so it's not very scalable. So I am not sure if you really care to offer FO services in this genre. The way to achieve scalability would be maybe you can be a marketplace, but I think that's called a p*mp?
Well brother it looks like luck is shining upon you, for I have massive amounts of extremely dubious capital of Russian origin that is but waiting to be parked in American assets.
Nice, I got you good. I'll do a special 1/10 fee structure for your Rubles
Afraid I don't have any advice, but I do want to give you kudos for asking an intelligent question about an unusual situation. So many of the "what should I do next?" career questions here were obviously asked with no thought or self awareness, so it's refreshing to see someone like you who is not just a troll.
Good luck with whatever happens -- I'm afraid I don't have any advice, but I'm rooting for you.
Congrats on the success! The good news is you’re young and have enough cash to hang out a bit and figure out what’s next (a luxury a lot of peers your age would like to have). I would think about this question on a few dimensions:
1) What do you think want to do next? Update your resume and reach out to as many people as possible in roles/shops across that sound interesting to you/you have transferable skills for and ask for advice. Private wealth management, investment management, PE, and hedge funds come to mind. People like to talk to younger folks interested in their industry.
2) Definitely try to find a mentor or three (probably someone who’s done something similar to you) and get their feedback often. If they’ve been where you were they can likely tell you all of the pluses and minuses of whatever you’re about to do next.
3) Think about school. You’re probably not at the right spot career wise for an MBA, but a Master’s in Finance or one of those 1 year masters in management programs could be a good way to bide time for a bit and go through a recruiting cycle to see what other opportunities are out there. Also, you can meet people likely dealing with the same issue of trying to figure out where their career is headed.
4) Work on yourself - if you want to get a certification then work towards that. If you have some hobbies work on those. Your early 20s are usually spent trading your time for money, the fact that you don’t have to worry as much about that means you can focus on things that make you feel more fulfilled.
5) You’re already on track and in a great spot. Stay humble, and learn as much as you can from sites like this, mergers and inquisitions, etc. and always be ready - an opportunity can come up at any moment!
Bro wow, I want to thank you your comment. After reading this it opened up a bit of the fogginess in my head and I've been working off your roadmap all day today.
1.) Got my resume updated so it can reflect how much capital I've managed and what the exact metrics were of our performance. One question; how should I reach out to these people? I've used Linkedin for this purpose and oftentimes it seems as though most people don't reply to cold call messages. Should I try to leverage my experience in asset management to set up meetings with people in higher up positions? I'm guessing that asking people I know would be the best way of doing it, but is it worth it to try the cold call approach?
2.) Reached out to my advisor from uni, he happens to be a former fund manager and massive capital allocator so I'm in good hands working under him; going to ask if we can continue meeting in a more professional relationship in my post-grad career. He was a huge help for me while I was managing the fund and actually chose to be my advisor because I reached out to him via email; was a mistake on my part not to consult with him for my post grad plans. Also reached out to a former student who started a VC fund and raised 10m right out of college, even though VC is a little different from what I've done I think it would be helpful to see how he's come along and how he met investors and grew his network. I think for my third mentor, maybe I need someone more on the personal development side? Maybe someone outside of finance or is finance-adjacent who knows how to grow and can advise me on my development. Not sure how to do that exactly but will ask around.
3.) This is a good point, more schooling can give me time to do something while getting ready to fire off another round at recruiting/networking. You're right about the MBA point though, I don't necessarily have the best experience to shoot for that. Are these one years masters programs worth it for recruiting or do these shops look down on extra schooling that isn't an MBA or something more "typical".
4.) Probably one of the most important parts of this roadmap. Creating a foundation for good habits and lifestyle in my early 20s will be massively useful for the future of my physical and mental health. I know my body is not yet at its physical peak in terms of performance, and I currently have time to work on that; I've set up a meeting with a personal training gym and going to see if I can lock in a schedule for that. In terms of the fulfillment aspect of it I've been meditating a lot and enjoy that, maybe I'll do a retreat or travel. I should find out what hobbies are out there and if I like them. I should also figure out what parts of my lifestyle are a time waste and hinder my happiness (i.g. porn usage, partying a bit too much on the weekends, procrastinating and using social media too much, etc.) Sorry for TMI.
5.) Searched WSO for distressed since I've worked a little there, found the DistressedDebt investing website and am going to go through it to look for more information and knowledge. You're absolutely right, opportunity can come up at any moment and I need to prepare heavily for it.
My final question; how can I maximize the chances of encountering this opportunity? Are there places I should go and events I should attend in order to meet or encounter people who potentially are involved in this? I am extremely outgoing and love meeting new people so all I really need is an idea of where to focus my physical attendance.
Sorry for the rambling, just wanted to show you that your thoughts helped me out a lot. Very useful for me to type this all out as well. I could use this post as a kind of framework going forward. I'd also love to keep you updated as I continue my career.
No problem! Happy to help!
1) Honestly, LinkedIn and cold emails work shockingly well as a student/young person. Like anything, you're going to face your fair share of non-responses but you just need to have a "hook" or connection. Start with alums, then people who are 2nd connections and get referrals from there. Also, I would just tell people what you did - you raised and ran a fund right out of school. Trust me, some people will take the chance to meet you because someone your age having that kind of success is rare and they just want to hear firsthand what your experience was like. you did the work and it's an impressive accomplishment, so when people ask you about it paint the picture and take them there.
2) Honestly, you can have as many mentors as you want. Focus more on the relationship aspect and not the title. Over time, if you meet enough people you'll find a mentor or two you just "click" with - it's almost like dating in a sense. Keep people up to date on your progress and you'll start to see people wanting to help you out more, see what you're up to, get coffee, etc.
3) I think it's like anything - try to go somewhere with a good brand. Northwestern has a master's in management and so does Duke that I'm aware of - those are both solid brands (with good sports too). I know Princeton has an MSF, but that might be a lot more work than you're willing to take on. I would just email admissions and tell them your story and see if they bite/think you're a good fit. If they do, get the contacts of some students and ask more questions. If not, look at other programs. I think these programs are still fairly new, but then again you're not going for a "prestige rebrand", you're going so that your resume starts to look more "normal"
4) Rock on. Good for you recognizing the value of building good habits early. This will serve you well as you get older as long as you make these things a priority.
5) Glad you agree
To your last question - just keep meeting and talking to people. You'd be surprised how many opportunities pop up when you have a few skills and people can tolerate talking to you for more than 30 minutes. I've had people offer me internships and try to put me into recruiting processes just because I was curious about their firm/career path/etc. I mean lots of professional organizations have conferences, but they're usually there to sell and they can be quite expensive. I would maybe hang out at a membership/athletic club like a soho house - you're bound to meet a few interesting people in there. Feel free to reach out and PM me whenever. Good luck!
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