Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
1/ I've gone deep on "private funds" -- vehicles like hedge/real estate/venture funds. I’ve had demos of practically all the software these fund managers and their investors use and I've learned a ton. tl;dr It's rough, and there’s a huge opportunity More below… 🧵
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Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
2/ The big picture is that this software is designed with the needs of fund managers in mind, not fund investors. It’s very utilitarian.
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Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
3/ Ex. "Sure, it handles KYC. You’ll just manually upload photographs of your ID and then wait 5 days to get approved. And if there’s a problem with the photo you sent, we’ll call you up to let you know and you’ll start over again."
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Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
4/ Ex 2. "Sure, it can ingest investor funds. We’ll just flash the wire details on the screen and the user will go over to their bank, copy all the numbers, send the wire, then you’ll just watch the fund’s bank account for an incoming wire, match it to the user, and manually mark the money as being received" 🙄
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Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
5/ Fund managers buy this stuff because it makes their compliance teams happy. The fund investors don’t figure in to the calculus because no matter where they go, they’re going to experience the same level of suck.
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Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
6/ The landscape is reminiscent of stock investing pre-eTrade, or home loans pre-Rocket Mortgage. All the incumbents are offering stagnant consumer experiences, and nothing improves until a new entrant threatens market share and forces change.
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Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
7/ Let’s tie this to defi — because a lot of defi products are really just offering “funds” by a different name...
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Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
8/ Making a (permissioned) defi investment is an interesting counter-example to the investor experience in private funds. You have all the same user needs: education, KYC/AML, agreeing to terms, transferring money, reporting, etc, but the products feel worlds apart.
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Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso pfp
Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward | Villcaso
@nsw
9/ The “sales motion” of trad private funds are so high-touch, that by the time the investor has agreed to a deal, they’re willing to eat glass to actually get their money deployed. Defi is different. The sales motion is low-touch and the buying behavior is often impulsive.
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