About this episode
Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.Today’s episode dives into what it takes to start, build, and scale an alternative asset manager.We sat down in Stable Asset Management’s London office with Erik Serrano Berntsen.Erik is the CEO of Stable, where he defines and executes the firm’s investment strategy. Stable is one of the largest and most tenured GP stake builders globally. The firm manages around $5B in assets and has built over 40 firms since 2006.Stable makes strategic seed and acceleration investments to launch and scale alternatives GPs across public and private markets. With offices in New York, London, and Palm Beach, the firm backs investment firm Founders who understand that extraordinary performance requires building exceptional organizations.Committed to education as a catalyst for change, Erik supports the LSE Alternative Investments Conference — the world’s largest student conference for alternatives, which is how we met 16 years ago — as well as Girls Who Invest and Girls Are Investors. Stable backs 100 Women in Finance and is a Founding Partner of the 10,000 Interns Foundation.Erik holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Keble College, Oxford, and an MBA with honors and a concentration in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.Erik and I had a fascinating conversation about what it takes to be a great investor and build a unique investment firm. We discussed:How the business of asset management has evolved since 2006.The incentives gap between LPs and GPs — and how that evolves as GPs scale.How GP seeding and GP stakes can be a solution to LP / GP misalignment.How to discern a manager’s “edge" and how “edge” can change with firm growth.The most non-obvious trait that makes for a great asset management founder.The nuances of evergreen structures and which strategies might be better suited for evergreen structures.The merits of the GP stakes investment strategy for LPs.Thanks Erik for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about GP stakes and asset management.Show Notes00:00 Likeability Wins00:37 Welcome to the Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast01:50 Introduction to Erik Serrano Berntsen and Stable04:08 Why the Name Stable06:26 From Benchmarks to Solutions05:31 Branding as Alts Evolve08:11 Stable’s Two Market Gaps08:47 Fixing LP / GP Misalignment09:29 GP Stakes Alignment Model09:59 Non-Market Risks vs. Operating System11:15 How Edge Changes with Scale14:06 Three Edges to Underwrite16:18 Founders Think in Decades19:53 Timing Cycles and Strategy Drift23:31 Seed vs Acceleration Playbook25:39 Evergreen Capital Goes Mainstream
