Questions to ask a large HF founder

An alumni from my school is visiting soon and hes within the HF space (L/S). He created a fund worth 6B and I am not quite sure what to ask of him. I am doing IB and already have an internship. I was thinking about asking him about the current trends of ESG investing but thats all I really had on my radar.

 
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It's off the top of my head but here goes:

- What do you think is your fund's greatest competitive advantage in a market that, according to some, is hyper-efficient esp. in l/s equity? In other words, how do you strive to consistently deliver alpha in such a market?

- (assuming that to the above he'll say people, but even if he doesn't) How do you manage talent? How do you recruit, what do you analyse when considering new analysts?

- Would you found a hedge fund today? If so, how? If not, why and what would you do in exchange?

- What has been the greatest challenge you've faced in the early innings of setting up [X Capital] ? What do you think would be the biggest challenge today?

- What in your past professional and personal life has prepared you best for running your fund?

- What do you think would be the optimal size of your fund? In other words, how much bigger would you get if you had sole control over this aspect? 

Hope it helps and enjoy the session!

 

If someone asked me about ESG I automatically ding them it’s stupid AF and shows you actually don’t know and don’t care about the industry

 

Until it becomes cumpulsory by the SEC on behalf of the plethora of three letter agencies that'd stand to benefit tangibly or on the back-end. These companies aren't over disclosing ESG or CSR or DEI (and no, not REAL DEI that they janked the name from) just for public goodwill right now. They're getting ahead of what'll come down as another next political notion to placate public opinion and enact regulatory compliance.

The poster formerly known as theAudiophile. Just turned up to 11, like the stereo.
 

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