Episode 227

full
Published on:

17th May 2023

The Growth of Alternative Financial Investments with Chuck Bauer

This week on the podcast, Matt sits down with Chuck Bauer, partner and head of investor relations for EnCap Investments. The episode begins with Chuck walking through what EnCap does as a private investment firm focused on North American energy markets. Matt and Chuck then dive into what alternative investments are as well as the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships in this industry. The conversation concludes with Chuck discussing his journey from working for a Congressman, to going back to school for his MBA, to ultimately working in alternative investments.

Transcript
Chuck Bauer:

People that are successful in this job are

Chuck Bauer:

people that go places. Simply you cannot do it behind the

Chuck Bauer:

desk. You can't do it through email. You can't do it. You have

Chuck Bauer:

to go sit down and get in somebody's face.

Matt Waller:

Excellence, professionalism, innovation and

Matt Waller:

collegiality. These are the values the Sam M. Walton College

Matt Waller:

of Business explores in education, business, and the

Matt Waller:

lives of people we meet every day. I'm Matt Waller, Dean of

Matt Waller:

the Walton College and welcome to the Be Epic Podcast. Today, I

Matt Waller:

have with me, Chuck Bauer, who is with EnCap Investments. And

Matt Waller:

he heads up fundraising, and also investor relations. Thank

Matt Waller:

you so much, Chuck for joining me today, appreciate it.

Chuck Bauer:

Great to be here. Great to be on campus as well.

Chuck Bauer:

Beautiful campus in Northwest Arkansas.

Matt Waller:

Isn't it? It's amazing. Although,

Matt Waller:

unfortunately, you came on a kind of a cloudy day, it's

Matt Waller:

usually sunny here and and perfect weather but,

Chuck Bauer:

I told my son who's touring here today that if you

Chuck Bauer:

can like it on a cold, windy and rainy day, those days when it's

Chuck Bauer:

75 degrees and sunny, it's gonna be the best place on Earth

Chuck Bauer:

Earth.

Matt Waller:

Absolutely. It really is. Well, Chuck, I'm

Matt Waller:

really thrilled to have you. You know, within most business

Matt Waller:

schools, there is less emphasis, I think on alternative

Matt Waller:

investments. First of all, there needs to be more, because it's

Matt Waller:

becoming more and more important in the financial system. But

Matt Waller:

even within the alternative investment category, and for

Matt Waller:

those listening, alternative investments include things like

Matt Waller:

seed funding, venture funding, private equity, these kinds of

Matt Waller:

things. But even within that, to the extent they are covered,

Matt Waller:

many times we don't cover fundraising. And that is a

Matt Waller:

critical part. And it's an area that you have expertise. And so

Matt Waller:

I want to talk to you about that today. But before I do. Would

Matt Waller:

you tell us a little bit about EnCap Investments?

Chuck Bauer:

Yes, certainly happy to do it. EnCaps is a 35

Chuck Bauer:

year old private investment firm focused on North American energy

Chuck Bauer:

markets, with offices in Houston, San Antonio, and

Chuck Bauer:

Oklahoma City. We have three verticals, three investment

Chuck Bauer:

verticals, three distinct teams that focus on three distinct

Chuck Bauer:

parts of the energy value chain. So we have a team that invests

Chuck Bauer:

in the upstream segment of the energy value chain, a team that

Chuck Bauer:

focuses on midstream, and a team that focuses on energy

Chuck Bauer:

transition, primarily around the decarbonisation of the power

Chuck Bauer:

grid, green field opportunities around wind, solar, and utility

Chuck Bauer:

scale energy storage. Midstream would be the pipeline systems

Chuck Bauer:

gathering, processing, treating compression, all those things

Chuck Bauer:

that after you capture the hydrocarbon at the wellhead,

Chuck Bauer:

you've got to move it and get it to a market to be sold or to the

Chuck Bauer:

end user. The upstream companies are the ones that are out there

Chuck Bauer:

drilling for natural gas or oil. And so we we back companies, so

Chuck Bauer:

we raise capital, create a fund and then those funds ultimately,

Chuck Bauer:

back portfolio companies that we build and grow and hopefully

Chuck Bauer:

become a strategic asset that someone else will want, we can

Chuck Bauer:

sell that business to them over time.

Matt Waller:

Does each time you each time you raise a fund, does

Matt Waller:

that fund focus on one of those three areas or a combination of?

Chuck Bauer:

They're three distinct funds that we have. And

Chuck Bauer:

so they don't, you know, there's there's not crossover. And so

Chuck Bauer:

the the individual investment teams within EnCap, are focused

Chuck Bauer:

on their own specific vertical. And so they're closed end funds,

Chuck Bauer:

they're typically 10 years in life. So there, they fit right

Chuck Bauer:

in the middle of that alternative investment category

Chuck Bauer:

that you referenced in there an illiquid asset for investors.

Chuck Bauer:

And it's, as you suggest, it's a growing area. The markets been a

Chuck Bauer:

growing area of the market over the last 17 years and an

Chuck Bauer:

important one for public pensions, for sovereign wealth

Chuck Bauer:

funds, for insurance companies, healthcare institutions, college

Chuck Bauer:

endowments and foundations, a lot of college, college

Chuck Bauer:

endowments and foundations actually, really were one of the

Chuck Bauer:

leaders in the alternative investment space, one of the

Chuck Bauer:

people that came out, following David Swensen at Yale in the

Chuck Bauer:

model that he put together, really, what's the endowment

Chuck Bauer:

model of investing? We're probably 30 to 40% of the

Chuck Bauer:

capital goes into illiquid investments. He was the one that

Chuck Bauer:

pioneered that, I think back in the 70s, maybe early 80s. I'm

Chuck Bauer:

not sure when he did it, but maybe the early 80s. And this

Chuck Bauer:

whole organization, whole industry has developed over

Chuck Bauer:

time.

Matt Waller:

So Chuck, since a key part of the purpose of this

Matt Waller:

recording is to fill in the gaps around fundraising, and

Matt Waller:

specifically with alternative investments. Would you talk to

Matt Waller:

us a little bit about how that process works and your

Matt Waller:

experience with it?

Chuck Bauer:

Yeah, certainly. Think that it's, it's really a

Chuck Bauer:

there's a I'm going to talk about two parts. One is the

Chuck Bauer:

personal relationship side or the or the relationship side of

Chuck Bauer:

that business. And then two's fundamentally the process of

Chuck Bauer:

that business, the actual fundraising that takes place.

Chuck Bauer:

And so you'll have a firm that just has decided they're going

Chuck Bauer:

to raise capital to pursue to build a fund to pursue

Chuck Bauer:

investments in a specific sector, specific strategy, they

Chuck Bauer:

will need to go identify sources of capital, the sources of

Chuck Bauer:

capital are what I've talked about, historically, it could be

Chuck Bauer:

public pension plans, could be college foundations and

Chuck Bauer:

endowments, healthcare institutions, sovereign wealth

Chuck Bauer:

funds, insurance companies, high net worth individuals, who are

Chuck Bauer:

all looking to deploy a portion of their balance sheet or

Chuck Bauer:

portion of the assets that they have under management into

Chuck Bauer:

alternative investments. And so it's important that you have

Chuck Bauer:

someone within the firm or the leadership of the firm that

Chuck Bauer:

begins establishing relationships with these groups,

Chuck Bauer:

helping them understand and identify who you are, what you

Chuck Bauer:

do, why you're differentiated in the market, how what your

Chuck Bauer:

product is going to be different than other things that they

Chuck Bauer:

have, why you're better positioned in this market to

Chuck Bauer:

take advantage of the opportunity set, and create

Chuck Bauer:

value for your investors. You know, your what you're selling

Chuck Bauer:

to them, ultimately, is a 10 year illiquid investment, it's

Chuck Bauer:

not you're not selling them public equities that they can

Chuck Bauer:

trade in and out of, if you make it, they make a determination,

Chuck Bauer:

they don't want to be with you anymore, they can't trade out of

Chuck Bauer:

it the next day, there is a secondary market for it. But

Chuck Bauer:

that takes time to sell, sell at a discount. And sometimes it's

Chuck Bauer:

not an avid not a very advantageous exit for you. And

Chuck Bauer:

so these people want to earn your trust. And they want to

Chuck Bauer:

know that who they're investing with, they're going to be in

Chuck Bauer:

partnership with you for at least 10 years. And most of

Chuck Bauer:

these funds, even other 10 year funds, take 12 and 13 and 14

Chuck Bauer:

years to ultimately wind down. And so it's very important that

Chuck Bauer:

you you have one on one relationship time with those

Chuck Bauer:

individuals who are ultimately making the investment decision.

Chuck Bauer:

So what what begins with that, is you'll put together some type

Chuck Bauer:

of pitch book or deck, PowerPoint presentation that

Chuck Bauer:

kind of outlines some of those things I just talked about who

Chuck Bauer:

you, who you are, what your investment strategy is, what

Chuck Bauer:

differentiates you against your competition? Why, what is the

Chuck Bauer:

market opportunity? What are the types of investments you're

Chuck Bauer:

going to make? Maybe some case studies of what you've done. And

Chuck Bauer:

then most importantly, what is your track record? What have you

Chuck Bauer:

done in the history of your career, whether if this is the

Chuck Bauer:

first time you're creating a fund, or whether you've had

Chuck Bauer:

multiple funds, to go and demonstrate to that investor,

Chuck Bauer:

that you have the experience, you have the team that can go

Chuck Bauer:

deliver the type of returns that you're advertising in your in

Chuck Bauer:

your pitch book. And so you take that pitch book, and then you'll

Chuck Bauer:

begin calling investors going out seeing them, you have an

Chuck Bauer:

official legal document called a private private placement

Chuck Bauer:

memorandum, which outlines the investment thesis, and you have

Chuck Bauer:

legal documents surrounding it called a limited partnership

Chuck Bauer:

agreement and subscription documents. And then you have you

Chuck Bauer:

go meet with an investor the first time, they're likely going

Chuck Bauer:

to engage in some form of due diligence, and you have to

Chuck Bauer:

prepare, they will have a lot of questions, it will require

Chuck Bauer:

information, and you have to fulfill those data request and

Chuck Bauer:

help understand and shepherd them through the process. So at

Chuck Bauer:

the end of the day, they're going to have an investment

Chuck Bauer:

committee, they're going to have trustees likely they're going to

Chuck Bauer:

have to answer to and so from determining what is their

Chuck Bauer:

process, what does it take for them to get to a decision? But

Chuck Bauer:

also importantly, what is a timetable? How long does it take

Chuck Bauer:

someone to get from an introductory meeting, to

Chuck Bauer:

ultimately making a decision. That's vastly different from a

Chuck Bauer:

family office who has a sole decision maker, to a large

Chuck Bauer:

public pension who has, who doesn't move at the same rate

Chuck Bauer:

that a family office could move. It could be a six to nine month

Chuck Bauer:

process with the state of California and the state of

Chuck Bauer:

Florida and state of Arkansas, very different than dealing with

Chuck Bauer:

someone who invest money for the Walton family as an example.

Matt Waller:

Let's take a couple of examples, a University

Matt Waller:

Endowment Foundation, how do you contact the right people? How do

Matt Waller:

you find them? How do you develop a relationship with them

Matt Waller:

and approach them?

Chuck Bauer:

Certainly, yeah, it's definitely evolved over the

Chuck Bauer:

I've been doing this for 17 years now. So it's evolved over

Chuck Bauer:

17 years. Certainly technology has helped immensely. There are

Chuck Bauer:

databases that you can purchase, online databases that are

Chuck Bauer:

services that call the University of Arkansas and find

Chuck Bauer:

out what they're interested in who the people are that work

Chuck Bauer:

there who covers what asset classes. And so that's probably

Chuck Bauer:

the biggest help is to be able to go out and utilize a database

Chuck Bauer:

to figure out who's the right person to call. Secondarily

Chuck Bauer:

they're public. You know, anything that's public, a public

Chuck Bauer:

university, public pension plans, most of them are required

Chuck Bauer:

by state law to have a lot of that that information online.

Chuck Bauer:

And so you can go pull public records to determine who to

Chuck Bauer:

call.

Matt Waller:

And I would guess since you've been doing this for

Matt Waller:

17 years, you probably know a lot of these people.

Chuck Bauer:

Absolutely, yeah. So, you know, a big part of

Chuck Bauer:

business school, a big part of the education you gain not is

Chuck Bauer:

not just within the classroom, but it's learning how to

Chuck Bauer:

network, learning how to communicate, learning how to

Chuck Bauer:

build relationships with people within the business school

Chuck Bauer:

today, that will benefit you for life. And that is understanding

Chuck Bauer:

that a lot of the people that I talked to today, ultimately come

Chuck Bauer:

from referrals, or determining, hey, I need to get, I need to

Chuck Bauer:

find somebody at the University of Arkansas to talk to who might

Chuck Bauer:

I know that is connected to that person that could facilitate an

Chuck Bauer:

introduction for me. Because we know in our personal lives, if

Chuck Bauer:

your friend calls you and ask you, Hey, will you take a phone

Chuck Bauer:

call from my friend, you're much more willing to take accept that

Chuck Bauer:

phone call than if some someone cold calls you, you may likely

Chuck Bauer:

ignore it or never respond to it. So that's, that's a critical

Chuck Bauer:

networking, and building relationships that you can then

Chuck Bauer:

lean on throughout your career is a critical component of the

Chuck Bauer:

success in this role.

Matt Waller:

And in so many roles, I know many of our most

Matt Waller:

successful alumni, and I would think that almost all of them

Matt Waller:

are quite good at developing relationships and maintaining

Matt Waller:

relationships. And you know, it's more than just meeting

Matt Waller:

someone. It's learning how to relate to them, and then stay in

Matt Waller:

contact. It takes a lot of work, doesn't it?

Chuck Bauer:

Yes. Takes a lot of work. One's, communications key,

Chuck Bauer:

following up on what you said, you're going to do, delivering

Chuck Bauer:

on what you said you're going to do is key if someone asks you

Chuck Bauer:

for information, and what you have to determine how do I

Chuck Bauer:

remember how to do that? Do I need to write that down? Can I

Chuck Bauer:

remember it in my head? When do I need to follow up? How often

Chuck Bauer:

do I follow up without becoming a pest to them? All of those

Chuck Bauer:

things are critical. And then over time, you'll learn that

Chuck Bauer:

it's, you'll learn things about that person, you'll want it then

Chuck Bauer:

the next time you communicate with them, ask them what was

Chuck Bauer:

important in that last meeting, talk about your family, talk

Chuck Bauer:

about their family, those things that can relate to you. And the

Chuck Bauer:

most important part of I've learned probably my 17 years, as

Chuck Bauer:

I've matured and my career's evolved, is to become a good

Chuck Bauer:

listener. And I will tell you, most of the times I meet

Chuck Bauer:

somebody for the first time 95%, if I'm going to talk about

Chuck Bauer:

EnCap, a meeting for EnCap. The first time I've met somebody, my

Chuck Bauer:

goal is for 95% of the conversation not to be about

Chuck Bauer:

EnCap. I want to learn about that I want to learn about their

Chuck Bauer:

program, I want to learn about the institution, I want to learn

Chuck Bauer:

about that person. So I can understand what their needs are,

Chuck Bauer:

what they're trying to come to accomplish within their end

Chuck Bauer:

their institution, and how we might complement that. And the

Chuck Bauer:

EnCap stuff can come like if I'm successful in that first

Chuck Bauer:

meeting, then I'm definitely gonna get the second meeting

Chuck Bauer:

where we can spend time talking about EnCap.

Matt Waller:

You know, that's true in all kinds of sales as

Matt Waller:

well. And even in interviewing for jobs. You know, a lot of

Matt Waller:

times I think, when people are interviewing for jobs, they want

Matt Waller:

to just spill everything out in terms of what they're good at

Matt Waller:

what they've accomplished. But, you know, a lot of times, you're

Matt Waller:

better off asking questions and learning about the person

Matt Waller:

interviewing you. Sometimes they will hire you based on they'll

Matt Waller:

talk themselves into it in some cases. So when you're raising

Matt Waller:

funds like this, from, say, a big pension, public pension,

Matt Waller:

versus a home office to your point, the processes take

Matt Waller:

different lengths of time. And I would imagine that you have to

Matt Waller:

do a lot of nurturing of the process for something like a

Matt Waller:

large pension fund that is has more bureaucracy to deal with

Matt Waller:

more policies and even state laws, in some cases,

Matt Waller:

regulations. So those are two very different situations. How

Matt Waller:

do you manage them differently? What do you do?

Chuck Bauer:

Yeah, part of it is, as you suggest, you really

Chuck Bauer:

have to understand their process. You can't you need to

Chuck Bauer:

understand, and I will tell you, in many cases when dealing with

Chuck Bauer:

an entity or an organization that's going to move slower or

Chuck Bauer:

has more bureaucracy has more steps that they have to get to

Chuck Bauer:

through an approval process. Many times it's let's go set a

Chuck Bauer:

date, a goal of when we're going to be finished. And then let's

Chuck Bauer:

work backwards and create some key milestones and I'm talking

Chuck Bauer:

about if you've gotten to the point where you know that that

Chuck Bauer:

individual that you're working with at that institution is

Chuck Bauer:

going to move forward, going to engage in diligence, they're

Chuck Bauer:

going to take this forward with a with a goal towards committing

Chuck Bauer:

capital to the fund you're raising, then let's go say that

Chuck Bauer:

you want to be finished by October the 15th. What are the

Chuck Bauer:

key milestones that we need to hit and so that we can make sure

Chuck Bauer:

that we're on target to hit October the 15th. And the reason

Chuck Bauer:

I say that is, you know, at some of these institutions, the legal

Chuck Bauer:

side, so you've gotten an official commitment out of a

Chuck Bauer:

board of trustees at a public pension plan, well some of

Chuck Bauer:

there, there may be a legal review, that takes three or four

Chuck Bauer:

months. So if you know, you have to have this by October, the

Chuck Bauer:

15th. And you know, you better be through committee by June the

Chuck Bauer:

30th, or July the 15th, or you're not going to hit that,

Chuck Bauer:

that target. Now, family office, as we just discussed, you could

Chuck Bauer:

go sit down with the principal, have a cup of coffee. And as you

Chuck Bauer:

even like you were talking about an end job, it's almost like a

Chuck Bauer:

job interview. Right? If that person trust you, they believe

Chuck Bauer:

in the sector you're investing in, they may, they may make a

Chuck Bauer:

commitment on the spot. And they could turn legal documents in,

Chuck Bauer:

in two days. You know, and so it's really, it's really the key

Chuck Bauer:

is understanding the process that the people that you're

Chuck Bauer:

working with have to go through. Also recognizing and something

Chuck Bauer:

that I that I have to continue to remind myself every day is

Chuck Bauer:

the stuff I'm calling them about isn't I'm not the only person

Chuck Bauer:

they're working on, I'm not the only person they're talking to.

Chuck Bauer:

And so they're being torn in 20, 30, 40 different directions on a

Chuck Bauer:

daily basis. So there's you need to learn to be patient, and

Chuck Bauer:

guide them and help them and determine what are some steps,

Chuck Bauer:

things that I can do to help alleviate any challenges you're

Chuck Bauer:

having getting the work accomplished. As an example, you

Chuck Bauer:

know, this person may have to write in an investment committee

Chuck Bauer:

memo. And they may be getting the time to dedicate to writing

Chuck Bauer:

the investment memo may be challenging for them. So maybe

Chuck Bauer:

you can send them some examples that they can cut and paste

Chuck Bauer:

certain portions of that will help them you know, make that an

Chuck Bauer:

easier process for them. So there's certain things that you

Chuck Bauer:

can help along the way, can't write it for him, obviously, but

Chuck Bauer:

you can help provide them some guidance on.

Matt Waller:

Back to the large public pension fund, in addition

Matt Waller:

to being a good relationship builder, a good listener, you've

Matt Waller:

got to be a good project manager in that case, it sounds like.

Matt Waller:

And there's lots of tools to help with project management,

Matt Waller:

you were talking about if they have a deadline and a certain

Matt Waller:

point, they may need to be through some other milestone

Matt Waller:

before they get to that point. You have to think about the

Matt Waller:

milestones and the key events that need to occur, and tasks

Matt Waller:

that need to be done. How long will those tasks take? That

Matt Waller:

sounds fairly complicated with some of these funds and I would

Matt Waller:

imagine many of them have different rules and regulations.

Matt Waller:

So you have to adjust your project, I'm calling it a

Matt Waller:

project, based on the funds. So that takes a lot more time. And

Matt Waller:

so I'm thinking about it from a ROI perspective. You know, if

Matt Waller:

you can get a family office and, you know, make a decision more

Matt Waller:

quickly, that could be a higher ROI on your time. But on the

Matt Waller:

other hand, the big public pension funds have more money usually.

Chuck Bauer:

Matter scale as well, right. So big public

Chuck Bauer:

pension could write 100 to $300 million commitment, family

Chuck Bauer:

office might write a five to $10 million commitment. So it's also

Chuck Bauer:

an allocation of time, allocation of resources. And

Chuck Bauer:

really, the what I love about what I do in the role that I

Chuck Bauer:

play is it really touches upon many of the disciplines within

Chuck Bauer:

the business school. We're not, we're not one discipline focus.

Chuck Bauer:

So there's a huge component of my job that's communications.

Chuck Bauer:

It's a huge component of sales and marketing. But there is

Chuck Bauer:

project management. There's, you've got to understand the

Chuck Bauer:

business, the law, in many cases, the regulations, the

Chuck Bauer:

rules, you have to operate by, back to your point you you know,

Chuck Bauer:

there are some people that want to be go have dinner, like they

Chuck Bauer:

would prefer to have that conversation in a social

Chuck Bauer:

setting, that initial conversation, in social setting

Chuck Bauer:

a family office or someone like that. They're comfortable in

Chuck Bauer:

that environment. Well, there are a lot of people that work

Chuck Bauer:

for a public university or a public pension, that have rules

Chuck Bauer:

that prohibit them from even accepting a bottle of water in

Chuck Bauer:

your office, or a cup of coffee. And so you have to understand

Chuck Bauer:

that regulation. You have to understand if you want to do

Chuck Bauer:

business in the State of California, you'd have to go

Chuck Bauer:

register as a lobbyist. If you want to do business in LA, you

Chuck Bauer:

have to go register as a lobbyist in the city of Los

Chuck Bauer:

Angeles. So there's there are just so many dynamics around

Chuck Bauer:

that entire role that it's really interesting. I'm

Chuck Bauer:

interesting to see how many portions of the business school

Chuck Bauer:

and what you learned in business school you actually now applying

Chuck Bauer:

in that role.

Matt Waller:

At what point did you realize this would be a

Matt Waller:

strength of yours to manage something like this?

Chuck Bauer:

Yeah, well, interestingly, I began my career

Chuck Bauer:

in politics. So I was a political science major,

Chuck Bauer:

graduated from TCU in 1994, immediately went to work for a

Chuck Bauer:

gentleman running for Congress, and knew that I, kind of my base

Chuck Bauer:

skill set was relationship development, I knew I could

Chuck Bauer:

communicate, I was pretty natural at developing

Chuck Bauer:

relationships with people. And so I became, spent 11 years

Chuck Bauer:

working for the Congressman, speaking at Rotary Clubs,

Chuck Bauer:

Chambers of Commerce on his behalf, cutting ribbons and

Chuck Bauer:

getting to know people in the district. But then I identified

Chuck Bauer:

that this was there was a role of raising capital, in financial

Chuck Bauer:

firms, that I didn't really at that, until that point, I didn't

Chuck Bauer:

realize the role existed. And so I put, I correlated the fact

Chuck Bauer:

that what I do for the congressman, and being his

Chuck Bauer:

person in the district, and and being out, kind of in front of

Chuck Bauer:

him being his flagbearer, I guess, carrying his story in the

Chuck Bauer:

district, and being the flagbearer for a financial firm

Chuck Bauer:

and telling their story, rather than but not in a congressional

Chuck Bauer:

district, but around the world, to just a different audience was

Chuck Bauer:

very similar actually, and the process of raising capital was

Chuck Bauer:

similar to the process of running for office. And so I put

Chuck Bauer:

those two together. And some people said, you know what, you

Chuck Bauer:

need to go back to business school. So I went back and got

Chuck Bauer:

my MBA, and then ultimately found a job with a firm in

Chuck Bauer:

Dallas. And I've been doing that for 17 years.

Matt Waller:

It's amazing how many people really pivot through

Matt Waller:

an MBA. MBAs are a great way to pivot into business. So it seems

Matt Waller:

to me, and I'm no expert on this, but it seems to me that

Matt Waller:

the number of family offices has increased dramatically over the

Matt Waller:

past 30 years. Is that, have you notice that, is that true?

Chuck Bauer:

Yes. Yeah, they're every day, we see more and more

Chuck Bauer:

family offices that are becoming interested in alternative

Chuck Bauer:

investments, particularly.

Matt Waller:

So there's probably is there a database out there

Matt Waller:

for family offices? Or how do you find them.

Chuck Bauer:

They're, they're trickier. That's a trickier

Chuck Bauer:

universe to uncover. A lot of them don't want to be

Chuck Bauer:

identified. A lot of them want to do direct deals, they don't

Chuck Bauer:

want to invest in funds. A lot of them if you think about the,

Chuck Bauer:

the genesis of their wealth in most cases, it's an entrepreneur

Chuck Bauer:

that took risk and built a business and sold it to someone

Chuck Bauer:

and created a generational amount of wealth that now he or

Chuck Bauer:

she needs to manage. And they want to create capital

Chuck Bauer:

preservation and then wealth, create continued wealth

Chuck Bauer:

creation. There is a database out there that you that we

Chuck Bauer:

utilize, that does a really nice job of uncovering family

Chuck Bauer:

offices. But typically, that is a place where networking and

Chuck Bauer:

word of mouth referrals is going to be the key to success.

Chuck Bauer:

Because once they, you know, if they've done business with you,

Chuck Bauer:

they like what you've done, then they'll they'll want to make

Chuck Bauer:

sure their friends have an opportunity to or people that

Chuck Bauer:

they've done deals with will have an opportunity to look at

Chuck Bauer:

what you're doing as well.

Matt Waller:

Well Chuck, thank you so much for taking time to

Matt Waller:

visit with us about fundraising for alternative investments. I'm

Matt Waller:

sure there's many students listening that have not really

Matt Waller:

thought about that as an option, but they're probably geared

Matt Waller:

towards that naturally, and others that might be interested

Matt Waller:

in it after listening to this. So I really appreciate you

Matt Waller:

explaining this.

Chuck Bauer:

Thanks, glad to be here. I think you're gonna be

Chuck Bauer:

stuck with me for four more years. So anytime you need me to

Chuck Bauer:

come to campus or our students or anybody that wants to learn

Chuck Bauer:

more about the role that investor relations and

Chuck Bauer:

fundraising plays within the business community, on the

Chuck Bauer:

private investment side, very happy to spend more time helping

Chuck Bauer:

the Walton School of Business.

Matt Waller:

On behalf of the Sam M. Walton College of

Matt Waller:

Business, I want to thank everyone for spending time with

Matt Waller:

us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe

Matt Waller:

by going to your favorite podcast service and searching Be

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About the Podcast

Be EPIC Podcast
Welcome to the Be Epic Podcast featuring Brent Williams, interim dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. In each episode, you will hear from guests that will inspire you to be epic. As experts in their field, they will emphasize strategy, leadership, and entrepreneurship. This programming will highlight innovation and cutting-edge information that will leave you wanting more. Be sure to connect with Brent Williams on LinkedIn to join the conversation, access show notes and discover fantastic bonus content.