...trust when you acknowledge volatility instead of hiding it. Show contingency plans for tax, legal, compliance risk. Own your weaknesses before investors find them and communicate proactively. Transparency turns perceived risk into perceived readiness

...to monetize the trust that you've earned, rightfully so, through your reputation, relationships, and results. There there's a little bit of a logic chain here. And so my question for you, and especially Skyline, because you guys are so good at what y

...is sort of trust. It is confidence, but it's quite self aware. And, you know, they, I think, would would say that going through that process was quite valuable. And and, hopefully, that would stretch

Think about someone like Blackstone Steve Schwarzman. When he started raising for his first fund, he wasn't selling deals. He was selling certainty. And he showcased his track record at Lehman Brothers, his team's pedigree, and their network that gav

more likely than not, this person is going to surprise you on the upside. And at that point, it is so hard to anyway find these people. They don't exist. Literally, they don't exist. It's so hard to f

...trusted Bridgewater because decisions were visible, debated, and documented, and repeated. And that is key. So here's how you institutionalize that in your own fund or or your deal or your financial firm. So first, you define decision authority. You

...and it gives you reputable, a good reputation that people will get behind. Brilliant. You said the magic word. So I always believe that reputation, relationships, and results are the best, most valuable assets in any fund manager's position. And, you

...just focus on building your credibility, your trustworthiness in the market that people can rely on you, not just for, like, you're not giving financial advice, but just say, yeah, let me share my experience, the things that have worked for me, thing

Latent Space

[Ride Home] Simon Willison: Things we learned about LLMs in 2024

...people to trust me. I want to do things that that gain credibility in people's eyes so that they will come to me for information as a trustworthy source. And it's the same for the sources that I'm I'm consulting as well. So that's something I've I've

...trust always comes before the transaction. So here's what you do. You document why this deal exists, how it could fail, and what would trigger that type of event. Then you document the decision itself, not necessarily for complaints, but for memory.

Equity

Build Mode: Capital is a commodity (but your investor relationships aren’t)

the thing that I now feel much more very confident telling them is the thing that we are best at. Well, that we only really have one job. And so our job is to raise the next round of funding for the founders. And because my lived experience now, year

...focus on building your credibility, your trustworthiness in the market that people can rely on you, not just for, like, you're not giving financial advice, but just say, yeah, let me share my experience, the things that have worked for me, things tha

and that their compliment to me was, hey, Kevin. It shows a lot of maturity that you were willing to take that suggestion, get your fun going, get it off the ground, show me with actual evidence that you are going to do what you say you're going to d

Capital Allocators

WTT: What it Takes to Raise Capital

Third, be lucky. Putting your best foot forward is necessary, but not sufficient. You'll need a healthy dose of luck too. Howard Marks advises young professionals that the best way to build a successful investment business is to have started forty ye