Adagio Group

08/25/2025

01/20/2025

12/04/2023

To learn more:
https://open.substack.com/pub/shadowbankerssecrets/p/access-and-grow-capital-in-times

11/30/2023

Watch now (59 mins) | November 2023

08/10/2023

We recruited a sophisticated anchor family office via a mutual relationship within the private equity space. The family office was tasked with recruiting four additional family offices that shared mutual respect to create a “Skull and Bones” of thought leadership within the space: a consortium of five family offices (the “Consortium”).

We built a dedicated GP stakes fund for the Consortium with a $65 million dollar soft cap. We allocated $15 million and each of the five family offices were made responsible for allocating $10 million. In addition to the $10 million dollar allocation, each family office agreed to be responsible for raising a minimum of $300 million into the other end of the structure—either into the fund of funds, or in rare cases, directly into the portfolio funds.

Why would a family office agree to invest $10 million as an LP into a de novo fund with an obligation to bring another $300 million into a different de novo fund?

https://www.shadowbankerssecrets.com/p/case-study-aggregating-15-billion

08/08/2023

Most people who raise money do so by virtue of playing favor cards with the relationships they’ve cultivated to “know, like, and trust” status supported by little more than a plausible story and a set of professional-looking offering docs.

If enough traction has been gained with this approach, asset managers may earn the privilege of dancing for intuitional money—as long as they are sufficiently deferential on terms, compensation, or to any other whim demanded by the potential allocator.

The trade-off between an institutional allocation and loss of control is often not worth the trouble.

Raising capital at institutional levels via private capital markets while avoiding subjugation to allocating institutions requires a true merit-based approach delivered with control of the frame.

You have to not only offer and communicate objectively better performance than what’s otherwise available, but you must do so with an irrefutably better structure—from the perspective of all parties involved—than potential allocators could devise themselves.

This requires a level of unavoidable complexity that is typically the sole domain of the most sophisticated asset management firms in the world.

https://www.shadowbankerssecrets.com/p/raising-capital-graduating-from-friends

08/02/2023

Capital Introductions for Alternative Asset Managers & RIAs

Is Your Strategy Good Enough to Warrant Introductions to 100,000+ Accredited Investors and 10,000+ Financial Institutions?

To learn more, visit:
https://www.shadowbankerssecrets.com/p/capital-introductions-for-alternative

02/09/2023

Asset Manager Case Study: Value-Add Healthcare Private Equity (Part 3)

What does it look like to become an institutional-grade fund manager?

In this fifteenth episode, join Michael Ballard and me as we discuss our journey to institutionalize his middle market medical services value-add private equity firm, CCS Growth Partners.

We are documenting Michael’s progress month-over-month as he weans CCS off parasitic capital providers and scales his AUM on responsibly structured terms.

In part 1, we discussed how his strategy works and the paradigm shift required for him to control his own capital.

In part 2, we discussed measuring and optimizing the risk-adjusted performance of his strategy.

In part 3, we discus how the research required to backtest his strategy uncovered an unexpected opportunity in public markets…

Asset Manager Case Study: Value-Add Healthcare Private Equity (Part 3)What does it look like to become an institutional-grade fund manager?In this fifteenth ...

02/02/2023

RIA Fundamentals: The Evolution of Data-Driven Investment Advice

What is the path for a smart, independent RIA to quickly scale from 8- to 10-figure AUM?

In this fourteenth episode, join Nirav Desai and me as we discuss his intellectually-driven approach to financial planning…

RIA Fundamentals: The Evolution of Data-Driven Investment AdviceWhat is the path for a smart, independent RIA to quickly scale from 8- to 10-figure AUM?In th...

01/14/2023

RIA Fundamentals: The Nexus of Business Consulting and Financial PlanningMost financial advisors take a direct career path. Others arrive in the industry cir...

12/31/2022

RIA Fundamentals: The Limitations of Modern Portfolio TheoryIn the early 1950s, Harry Markowitz began to analyze the stock market with mathematics leading to...