Garnett Station Partners??

…their returns have been good? It’s a 1.2bn fund btw.

They started as a franchise roll up player, which is not that difficult to get into and requires a lot less capital than an average PE fund. Would compare their beginnings to a search fund, not a PE fund. They've just been very successful and went on to raise real institutional capital. 

Search fund industry legends. A similar success story to Garnett Station are the guys behind Crete United, which is now a Ridgemont portco. 

Fund I is a top decile fund. The rest have top quartile marks. Nepo babies or not, the returns were there early which is why they could do a $200m Fund I and now try to raise a >$1B fund a few vintages later.

LPs have been very wary of investing in the consumer space because they view it as a space that’s very trendy and flighty and therefore difficult to invest in. But also LPs want to invest in consumer because if you don’t then you’re ignoring a big part of the economy. By focusing on franchise businesses, Garnett Station gives LPs consumer exposure but in a way that is more comfortable.

A fair question to ask though is how much does this strategy scale. Will it work at $1B or does something have to change? And if it has to change, will the returns change?

Ha OP again here — I swear I didn’t see this before , but just saw that the WSJ did a piece on these guys.

It definitely seems pretty obvious from the WSJ that the two guys had a lot of money and “privilege” (I don’t want to cite examples since that feels kind of weird to do on an anonymous forum ) where it probably would not have been possible for them be as successful as they are without it. HOWEVER it also is not sufficient for their money to equal their success , eg there are definitely plenty of dudes from old money who strike out entirely.

But ya seems like an interesting fund to learn more about , both from the POV of what one can strive for, and from a fund strategy pov .

Think they are a good model of what's possible when you combine ideal family background, likely very smart people, and good execution. Their results are the real deal. 

Lots of people in this forum that are their age (or not far behind) probably looking at their success and feeling a bit envious. Think it is fair to say they had some advantages in risk tolerance and initial access to capital to establish a track record at a young age that normal people just don't get. Hard to compare them to someone from middle class background.