BTE Newsletter #30: The Time Has Come To Explain What I Do

Good morning everyone, and Happy Tuesday. I have a couple of updates from last Thursday.

First, I mentioned that I recorded episode 12 of the podcast with Capoeira Partners Founder & CEO Kurankye Sekyi-Otu, also known as "Krunch". That episode has now been edited and should be released soon. In the meantime, a preview of that conversation can be seen below. Also episode 13 is scheduled for recording on Friday. Stay tuned for more details.

I also said I’m planning to host a webinar next month on how I build portfolios that incorporate Private Markets. That webinar has now been set up and scheduled for Thursday June 18th at 11am. Some details on that are below, along with a signup link.

Ben

Building Investment Portfolios That Incorporate Private Markets

As you all know, there's a lot of information out there on Private Markets, and this site is meant to cut through the noise. Every week I look to explain something topical, while having some fun along the way.

With that said, my day job is building investment portfolios and helping people save for the future. And I tend not to talk much about that much on this site, in an effort to keep Beyond The Exchange more educational and less salesy (other than the obligatory call-to-action at the bottom of each newsletter).

But now with 30 newsletters released, the time has come to cover the fundamentals, such as:

• How does one construct a portfolio consisting of public and private assets
• What kinds of people are most suited for Private Markets?
• How do different asset classes such as Private Equity, Credit, Infrastructure and Real Estate compare?
• What kind of criteria are most useful when evaluating Private Markets funds?
• Is there a minimum dollar amount to qualify for these investments?

So with that said, here are the details and a sign-up button:

BTE Podcast Preview: Kurankye Sekyi-Otu ("Krunch"), Capoeira Partners

Ben Sinclair

My guest today is Kurankye Sekyi-Otu, also known as Krunch. He is the founder and CEO of Capoeira Partners, which is a boutique strategic advisory firm for founder-led alternative asset managers.

Prior to founding Capoeira, Krunch spent nearly 13 years at hedge fund Polar Asset Management, most recently as Chief Strategy Officer. So I can't think of anyone better to talk about what it takes to run a successful alternative asset manager. Krunch, thank you very much for joining me.

Kurankye Sekyi-Otu

Good morning Ben, and thank you for having me. Pleasure to be here.

Ben Sinclair

Likewise, Krunch. So first, can you tell me about your background and how you got to the point where you could even think about starting an advisory firm in this industry?

Kurankye Sekyi-Otu

Thanks for the question. We'll go back some time. I've been around for a while. First, a bit of personal background. I was born and raised in Toronto, my parents are of Ghanaian heritage, as you can tell from my name. I studied economics at university, worked through a series of industry courses, and then completed my CFA, many, many years ago.

So I'm now over 32 years in the business across asset management and capital markets, with stops at CIBC Capital Markets, Mackenzie Investments, a startup fund manager, and then Polar Asset Management Partners, where I spent over 14 years, including one year in a consulting capacity. Polar was a great run for me personally and professionally. I led business development and ultimately had the title of Chief Strategy Officer. I sat in the executive team for most of my tenure. And most relevant for today's conversation, assets under management grew from US$700 million to US$7 billion during my time with the firm.

Ben Sinclair

What were some of the keys to achieving that kind of growth?

Kurankye Sekyi-Otu

Wow, we can go on, and we'll get into it a little bit in the conversation around how to build, and how we work with alternative asset managers. But I say culture. 

During my period at Polar, everyone from the founders to the portfolio management teams, operations, business development, even folks that used to work at the firm would speak about the firm in such a glowing light. So culture has a substantial impact on the success of the firm. And we can get into a lot of different things around what goes around that.

Ben Sinclair

Well I'm sure you've brought a lot of that to your advisory work at Capoeira. Can you talk about the founding of that firm, and what was the thought process that went into it? What was the gap that you saw in the market that you were able to fill?

Kurankye Sekyi-Otu

I founded Capoeira Partners in April 2024. So we've just crossed over two years in the business. Today there's four of us: me, my wife Cheryl Noronha, Nishant Ramlal and Hashim Ariswala. 

I love being an entrepreneur. I love building. I love celebrating the little wins. I'm sure you can appreciate that. But as anything else in this business, starting a business is a journey. The opportunity that we identified was in helping small alternative asset managers build. Ultimately in fundraising, which is the big challenge, but there are many dimensions we provide guidance.

The opportunity also came about because most of the firms servicing emerging asset managers in an advisory or consulting capacity, they really do so on a transactional basis. As you raise X capital, we pay you X. So we're a little bit broader than that. We form long-term partnerships with our managers and are really looking to become an extension of the management teams.

Ben Sinclair

Can you go into that a little bit more, how you form these deeper partnerships? It seems you're alluding to a different compensation structure even. And what does that mean for the way that you would work with your clients?

Kurankye Sekyi-Otu

We take a multi-dimensional approach. We look at the overall business strategy. We advise on operations and risk. We advise on brand strategy, marketing and culture. I talked about that in terms of my previous experience at Polar. We help recruit talent. And then ultimately, we're deeply involved in the fundraising and connecting our managers with our network of family offices, wealth managers, institutional investors, and other allocators.

And in terms of the compensation, it's customized manager by manager, but ultimately we're looking to have a long-term participation in the growth of the firm, the growth of the businesses. So it's not “pay us today, we're off to do the next thing tomorrow.” 

It's “as you grow for the long term, we participate in that growth over many years.” 

It helps to fray some of the upfront costs associated with some of the advisory fees or consulting fees that are normally associated with folks like myself.

Want to find out more?

Private markets are not for everyone, and come with a number of risks, such as higher illiquidity and less transparency.

However, many of the world’s leading institutions and wealthiest families put a big emphasis on private markets, and recently these strategies have become more available to individuals too. Drawing on my background as an analyst specializing in private markets, I help investors cut through the complexity and understand how to build portfolios incorporating these strategies.

To explore whether these strategies are suitable for you, please schedule a 30-minute virtual meeting below:

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Disclaimer

Benjamin Sinclair is a representative of Designed Securities Ltd. Designed Securities Ltd. is regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (ciro.ca) and is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (cipf.ca). Investment products are provided by Designed Securities Ltd. and include, but are not limited to, mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. Benjamin Sinclair is registered to provide advice and solutions to clients residing in the province of Ontario. For more information, please see www.beyondtheexchange.ca/disclaimer/