Going off on your own

How many years of experience do most people have before going off on your own?

Understand everyone’s path is different, but would love to hear some stories.

I am 27 years old with 5 years of development experience. Obviously need a money guy to take the jump with me, but I feel like after another 3 years of experience I will feel like I have seen enough to go out on my own.

Thoughts?

3 Comments
 

I think 30 is definitely an age where you could go out on your own and if you have 8 years of development experience that definitely gives you enough deals that you have seen through their entire cycle that you should be able to handle most aspects.

Think finding a large capital backer is harder than it seems though and that will be the major hurdle - not just funding the LP equity but also taking substantial risk with funding pursuit costs as well as signing on guarantees and flashing their balance sheet for banks to get comfortable lending to a new and unproven sponsor.

Finding LP equity is hard enough as a first time developer but finding a co-GP to fund these initial costs is even harder - if you have the money to fund them yourself tho and willing to put it at risk then it is much easier to go out on your own.

 

This is great feedback. I feel like most people I have seen go out on their own have a Co-GP to fund pursuit costs but don’t have the balance sheet to guarantee the loan. They typically end up lowering leverage, bringing in a bigger LP equity check, and ultimately take a small promote. Is this typically the route until you do enough deals to build credibility, balance sheet, and ability to lever up more?

 

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