Key Takeaways:
- Family offices invest in people first and deals second, so credibility, transparency, and consistency matter more than hype.
- A tight founder investment theory and long-term vision are essential, because family offices evaluate repeatability and strategic fit—not one-off wins.
- Alignment (values, portfolio role, and exit plan) drives decisions, since family offices build multi-year portfolio strategies and avoid misfit mandates.
- Treat the conversation as education, not persuasion, because sophisticated allocators reject hard-selling and focus on clarity, risk, and structure.
- Co-investment and clear reporting reduce perceived risk, signaling skin-in-the-game and operational discipline.
Transcript
Why Family Offices Are a Prime Investor Base for Syndicators
As a syndicator or fund manager, it is always your job to be looking for investors. Even if you already have deals going on, or you don’t have any deals that you’re looking for investors right now, shopping for them is the most important thing that you can be doing every day. When it comes to investors, one of the best sources is a family office. Family offices have a lot of money to invest, but they’re also very, very smart. So let’s go through 10 tips on getting a family office to invest in your offer.
Family Offices can be a great investor base for you. They are led by very smart people who know the business well, which is a challenge to sell to them because you certainly can’t hoodwink them. However, they also have a lot of money. If they’ve decided that you’re a good fit, most of the time they invest with little additional oversight. They just want to make sure that their money is well placed and that they can trust you to do a good job. Once they’ve made that decision, they just review the documents, notices, or updates that you send them and are very easy to work with after that.
Also, they can be a great resource to find other family offices. They can also be a great resource if you hit a roadblock or have a little problem that you need additional help with. As I said, these are led by very, very smart people. So the additional help is oftentimes a phone call away if you really need it.
Tip 1: Trustworthiness, Transparency, and Integrity
Let’s go through the 10 tips that I would recommend in working with family offices:
Trustworthiness and integrity: If they don’t trust you, you’re out the door. And everyone they’ve talked to is going to hear about how dishonest you are. The most important thing is that you are just transparent, an open book. If you’re taking a big fee, disclose the fee.
If your performance wasn’t what you thought it was going to be in the last investment, still tell them why, what happened, explain why it went on, what you learned from it, and what sort of things you’re doing to mitigate that chance in the future. Just be open and transparent.
Tip 2: Long-Term Vision and a Founder Investment Theory
Having a long-term vision: For me, this fits in with the founder investment theory. Because if you don’t have that, what are you going to talk to them about? These people see deal after deal after deal. When they choose to make an investment, they’re choosing to make an investment in you.
They want strategic long-term vision, where they can count on you time and time again to invest with. They’re entering into a long-term relationship in their minds most of the time.
Tip 3: Alignment of Values and Investment Mandate
Alignment of values: If you are going to be doing a chain of vape stores… you may have investors who are just not interested in vape stores whatsoever.
Most family offices have a very clear picture of what their ideal investments look like or feel like to them, and it needs to match up to that. If it’s not a match, that’s fine. It’s just not a match.
Tip 4: Direct Communication and Access to the Sponsor
Direct communication: They need to be able to pick up the phone and talk to you immediately. They need to be able to have candid conversations quickly. They don’t want to waste their time going through loopholes in order to get you on the phone or to be able to understand XYZ.
Tip 5: A Clear Exit Strategy and Planning Discipline
Clear exit strategy: You can’t just say, “Well, we’re going to hold it for a while, and then we’re going to leave.” They are long-term planners. Planning is the key word there.
They need to understand their portfolio and how their portfolio is going to evolve over time.
Tip 6: Positioning the Deal for Diversification
Diversification: The reason that they’re talking to you at all is because they need to diversify their funds. They cannot put all of their funds with one money manager.
They make very large portfolio plans, and they need to understand how you fit into there. So help them out and make it clear how your project, your fund, or whatever you’re offering can fit into a diversity of their portfolio as a whole.
Tip 7: Educate Instead of Pitching
Educate, don’t just pitch: Don’t hard sell them. They need to understand what you’re doing. These people see deal after deal after deal.
They will not tolerate any sort of shenanigans going on with that.
Tip 8: Showcase Your Track Record
Showcase your track record: No matter what, you have a track record. So even if it’s a track record that’s very short, showcase why you’re good. Showcase why you’re doing this, make it clear why you can deliver results.
Tip 9: Personalize the Relationship
Personalize it: At the end of the day, you’ve got another person across the table from you. They need to understand who you are. That builds the trust, that transparency, that integrity, that vision.
Personalize it and it will pay dividends.
Tip 10: Pursue Co-Investment and Skin in the Game
Always look for co-investment opportunities with them: They don’t want to be the only one investing in your project. They would love to see you co-investing in it as well. Skin in the game is important for family offices.
Make sure that if you do have that, hey, we’re going to be putting 20% of our own money into it. Oh, that’s a big deal.
Closing Invitation
I hope these 10 tips have helped. Please let me know if we can help you put together your next Regulation D rule 506b or 506c syndication or fund. We will help you.