Billion Dollar Backstory

Most people love to talk about the “boutique advantage,” but very few can show you what it actually feels like from the allocator’s side of the table. Seb Stewart can. Seb is Partner and Head of US Institutional BD at Pacific Asset Management (~$20B AUM) and Chair of IMI, the global think tank for specialist firms.  In this episode, Seb and Stacy sit down at NASDAQ Studios to discuss what allocato...

If your firm’s outside the U.S. and you’re thinking about bringing your fund here, you’ve probably already started googling and found yourself a million new to-dos.  But before you start checking off all of the boxes (structure, fees, compliance, product, etc.), make sure you’re not skipping the vital first step most fund managers miss. In this episode, Stacy breaks down the underrated first step...

You know those Wall Street movies where young, hungry salespeople make 500 dials a day? That was real life for Devon Drew. He built his career in distribution at some of the biggest asset managers in the world—including Vanguard—before walking away from it all to launch AssetLink, a tech platform designed to disrupt how fund distribution gets done. Because Devon realized something: the model wasn’...

The founder is retiring. The team is evolving. The story… gets archived? Not so fast. In this episode, Stacy shares what to do before you toss the origin story and how to transition from version 1.0 to 2.0 without losing the magic. Inside the episode:  • Why “retiring the founder” ≠ “retiring the story”  • How to pull legacy threads into your firm’s next chapter  • What to do if the original story...

Some RIAs slap ESG labels on products and call it impact investing. Chat Reynders has been doing it for real, since before it was cool. In this episode, Chat sits down with Stacy Havener to unpack the story behind Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, the $4B firm he co-founded after starting his career… raising money for a whale documentary. Yes, really. In this episode, you’ll hear about: The wi...

Out of more than 100 episodes, this is the one that brought Stacy to tears. And once you hear it, you’ll understand why. Meet today’s guest, Lon Stroschein, founder of Normal 40, where he works with high-achieving professionals who look successful on the outside but feel stuck on the inside. In this episode, he and Stacy talk about: His backstory – how he went from farm kid to D.C. insider to lead...

A lot of people build firms. Very few sell them. Even fewer? Walk away from it all to start again. But that’s exactly what Toussaint Bailey did. After building and selling a $2B RIA, he’s back on the founder path, this time leading Uplifting Capital, a values-first platform rethinking what private market investing could look like. In this episode, he sits down with Stacy to discuss:  His backstory...

The finance and investment industry is a tough club. It’s known for being money-centric, number-focused, aggressive… even cutthroat. And few places capture that intense energy quite like the trading floor of the NYSE, where today’s guest, Joe Greco, cut his teeth. He started as a floor trader and media commentator, appearing on CNBC and guiding real-time market decisions. Today, as Founder & P...

The chart you shared on LinkedIn isn’t flopping because people “don’t get it.” It’s flopping because you made them work too hard to understand it. That’s one of the most common content mistakes fund managers make:dropping data without enough context. The good news? It’s an easy fix, and in this episode, Stacy shows you how. She dives into:    • 3 quick rules to make your chart posts actually land...

Your story isn’t too messy, too boring, or too personal to share. It’s the very thing that sets you apart. And Holly Crawshaw Joyner has built her entire business helping leaders do exactly that. Holly’s ghostwritten 120+ books and built a standout brand on LinkedIn by being raw, honest, and far from perfect. She knows what it takes to turn life experience into the kind of authority that makes peo...

People matter more than performance. Yes, even in a numbers-obsessed industry.  Take it from Karl Heckenberg, founder of Constellation Wealth Capital, a $1B platform that takes minority, non-controlling stakes in large RIAs and wealth management firms. Yes, he understands the numbers and mechanics behind investing. But what actually sets him (and his fund) apart is the fact that he builds real par...

What if the most powerful thing a CEO can do… is show up? That’s exactly what John Bowman is doing. As the new CEO of CAIA, he’s not sitting behind a desk or delegating from an ivory tower. He’s on a plane, in person, listening to the very people his organization serves. In this episode, Stacy sits down with John to talk about the underrated power of founder-led sales (even when you’re leading a g...

You’ve got your pitch deck. Your talking points. Your “why us” slide. But if you’re telling the wrong story in meetings, none of that matters. In this episode, Stacy’s diving into the two MVPs of storytelling for fund managers: the job story and the brand story. Think of them like the hammer and wrench in your toolbox, you need both, but you’ve gotta know when to use each. Inside this bite-sized e...

The impressively bold mindset that drove Chad Willardson to leave behind a million-dollar salary and a top 1% client base to build his own firm from scratch is the same mindset that grew his firm to $1.5B AUM and earned him the status of 5X bestselling author.   In fact, Chad’s story is proof that thinking like an entrepreneur can take you far in the fund world–and beyond. But can this mindset be...

Fund managers, it’s time to ditch the pitch deck of doom. It’s not helping you differentiate. It’s putting allocators to sleep.  Take it from Lucy Walker, Founder of data platform AM Insights, who spent the bulk of her career as a manager of managers allocating over $1B at specialist firm Sarasin Partners in the UK. She knows this business inside and out, and today she’s sharing her wisdom on up-l...

Alfonso Peccatiello built a following of 500,000 on LinkedIn by doing something radical – by being a real, authentic human in the fund world.    And that authentic social presence helped him close investment deals for his new hedge fund, Palinuro Capital.    Alfonso’s story is proof that it pays to challenge the status quo and to put people (and connections) first – even in a numbers-obsessed indu...

Success as a founder is about more than impressive AUM. It’s about maintaining autonomy and connnection. It’s about taking pride in what you do, the team you’ve built, and most importantly having fun along the way.  Take it from today’s guest, Greg Dean, founder of global small-cap specialist firm Langdon Partners. In this episode, he and Stacy discuss:  Greg's backstory:  From Fidelity Investment...

What do a chimney sweep empire, a top hat obsession, and a $500M home services company have in common? Dock Street. This Newport-based multifamily office is redefining wealth management for Main Street entrepreneurs, and it’s run by a sibling duo, Spencer Ogden and Liz Curtin. who swore they’d never work together. In this episode, Spencer and Liz join Stacy to talk about: Growing up in a business....

What do you do when the market tells you there’s no room for another fund? You tell a better story and carve your niche anyway. In this episode, Stacy sits down with Bob Lind, Co-Founder of Lind Capital Partners, a boutique manager specializing in one of the most overlooked corners of the credit market: non-rated municipal bonds. They dive into how Bob went from selling himself into his first rese...

Headed to a new city and thinking, “Should I try to book lunch with that allocator?” Not so fast. If your first email is a wall of text with your bio, your strategy, and your lunch plans all crammed in… it’s probably going straight to the trash. The good news is that there’s a better way to warm up new prospects, and in this episode, Stacy is breaking down exactly how she extends invitations to br...

Picture this: You’ve got a big job in finance, two tiny humans at home, and a brutal 90-minute commute. Then one day, you trade it all in to start a business with your husband. That’s exactly what Liz Fritz did. In this Episode, she joins Stacy Havener to chat about:  Taking the leap from corporate to co-founder (with two babies in tow) What it’s actually like building a company with your spouse ...

What if luck plays a bigger role in fund success than anyone wants to admit? Simon Evan-Cook isn’t just throwing that idea out there. He’s lived it. He spent years on the allocator side, vetting fund managers and learning what really sticks (hint: it’s not just your track record).  Now that he’s a fund manager himself, he’s pulling back the curtain on the truth no one wants to say out loud… Yes, b...

Forget what you think you know about finance careers. Eric Flynn didn’t come up through Wall Street. He grew up on a ranch in Montana. An actual 20,000-acre ranch, wrangling cattle before most of us were out of bed.  Today, he’s the EVP and Head of Wealth Management at Compound Planning, a $3 billion digital family office built by tech founders who believe wealth management should feel a lot less...

When you think about European credit investing, most people assume it’s only for the big shops with billions under management. Agata Dornan, Founder & CIO of Chepstow Lane, is here to challenge that, and she’s doing it with smarts, grit, and real talk about what it really takes to succeed. Agata’s path to launching her own boutique wasn’t a straight line. As a first-generation American who sta...

Stacy and Rob Morier met over 25 years ago at Julius Baer Investment Management, long before podcasting, LinkedIn, and fund manager personal brands were even a thing. Fast forward to today, and Rob’s resume reads like an adventure novel. He’s done it all. From Wall Street, to teaching the next generation about all things VC as a Professor at Drexel University, he knows a thing or two about how ass...