Build Your Own Investment Team with These 6 Networking Tips
You can watch the video below the article.
Disclaimer: The references in this article are for websites and services that can assist you in building your network. Not all of them are being used by the author personally but are provided as examples.
In many of my webinars I talk about how investors without large teams and resources are still able to complete effective due diligence and source investment opportunities. One of the aspects I talk about is creating a network around you to help develop resources for yourself. You still need to identify what you are looking to add to your investment portfolio, determine your “non-negotiables” terms, and read the documents. However, insights from others with varied backgrounds and investment experience can help you catch more issues, and you can benefit from people’s extended network.
Identify your needs and missing resources.
We all want a network of experts and advisors. What do these advisors and experts need to know to fulfill your needs? What information do you need - valuations, legal, risk management, understanding about a particular trade or investment, compliance, or deeper understanding of regulations? Pick any of the required areas: investment, business, operational, or economic areas of due diligence, then define your goals and identify the "Who." Who can provide the expertise you need? It could be a seasoned investor, a legal expert, a risk management professional, a trade specialist, or a compliance officer. Perhaps you need someone with a deep understanding of the economic landscape for a specific business sector. Once you have identified your needs, you can explore the following to start building your network.
“Once you have identified your needs, you can explore the following to start building your network.”
Industry Events
Participating or volunteering in various networking events such as conferences, seminars, and workshops can prove to be extremely advantageous. They serve as perfect platforms to connect with individuals in your specific field of interest. There are several events that focus on due diligence, CAIA Conferences, Markets Group Conferences such as ALTSLA, ALTSNY, ALTSSEA, Custodial Conferences (view our custodial partners here), ADISA conferences, the Fact Right Conference, Buttonwood Due Diligence Conference, Financial Times Due Diligence Live, IPA Connect Public Markets and Due Diligence symposium, among others. Attending these gatherings not only allows for knowledge acquisition and idea sharing but also facilitates the establishment of valuable connections.
Social Media
Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and others can be leveraged as powerful networking tools. By joining industry-specific groups, participating in discussions, and connecting with professionals in your field, you can expand your network. Some LinkedIn groups you can consider are Alternative Investment Operational Due Diligence Group, Due Diligence & Background Investigations Network, Operational Due Diligence to name a few.
“By joining industry-specific groups, participating in discussions, and connecting with professionals in your field, you can expand your network.”
Online Platforms
Online platforms can help you find experts in many fields, beyond just social media. Take ExpertiseFinder.com for example. It offers a full list of experts in various disciplines. If you need advice or consultation from leaders in the industry, this platform is a great resource. But ExpertiseFinder isn't the only one. Clarity.fm, JustAnswer, Zintro, and hundreds more also link you with experts in various fields.
Investment Groups
Investment groups offer a platform for like-minded individuals to connect, share ideas, and sometimes pool resources to invest in various sectors such as real estate, stocks, bonds, and startups. They are an ideal place for both seasoned investors and those new to the investment world. Some examples of these groups are Left Field Investors, Private Investor Club, 506 Investor Group, White Coat Investors, Family Office Club. Before joining any investment group, it's crucial to do thorough research. Understand the group's interests, the sectors they invest in, and their commitment to member education.
Professional Organizations
There are many professional investment groups that have a lot of information about investing due diligence and alternative investments. Many of these organizations have chapters in different places. Look online for a chapter near you and go as a guest. Talk to the local board members to see if it meets your needs. If there is no chapter near you, they probably have websites with many resources. You might need to be a member to access the websites. Some good examples are the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA), Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (CFA), Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA).
Alumni Network
You can also leverage your college connections to build your network. One way you can do this is to stay in touch with your professors. Professors are often well-connected in their respective fields. Keeping in touch with them can open doors for introductions and mentorships from other alumni. You can also leverage your alumni network. These networks often host events and online forums where graduates can connect and share opportunities. It's always beneficial to stay engaged and participate in their events in order to establish new connections. Many universities host events such as seminars, guest lectures, and career fairs that are open to alumni. Attending these events can help you stay connected with the university community and meet potential connections. You can also reach out to other alumni on LinkedIn.
Pointers for Networking Effectively
Here are a few pointers for networking effectively:
Strive to provide value from the get-go. Inquire if they have any issues or tasks where your skills could be beneficial. Always be prepared to extend your assistance or knowledge when others are in need. Demonstrate your commitment to their success by being proactive in offering support.
While reaching out to professionals for advice, always be respectful of their time. Prepare your questions in advance and be clear about what kind of assistance or information you are seeking. If they are unable to help, they might be able to direct you to someone who can.
“Strive to provide value from the get-go.”
Most importantly remember that networking and making connections is not a sales pitch. All too often I take calls and the person could care less about what I am doing, they just want to sell me their service or see if I will invest in their deal. Build slowly and with conscience and you will build a dynamic group of folks to help you with many aspects of investing.
Finally, always follow up after meeting someone new. Send a thank you note or a message expressing your appreciation for their time. This will help you to maintain a positive relationship and keep the lines of communication open for future interactions.
Conclusion
Building your network is a continuous process, so be patient and persistent. With time and effort, you will be able to create a strong professional network that can support you in your investment journey.
Remember, the goal of building this network is not just to fill gaps in your knowledge or resources, but also to gain a wider perspective, uncover new opportunities, and mitigate risks. With a diverse and robust network, you can make more informed investment decisions and increase your chances of success.
If done properly this network might not only help your due diligence process but as you listen to your growing network you might identify co-investors, or source a new investment of interest.
In conclusion, even without a large team or vast resources, you can still conduct effective due diligence and source investment opportunities by leveraging the power of networking and collaboration. By identifying your needs, defining your goals, and strategically building your network, you can access a wealth of knowledge, experience, and opportunities.
Watch the video below.
Transcript
Hello, everyone. I'm Chris Carsley from the Kirkland Capital Group. Thanks for joining us for this short webinar. Over the years, I've done lots of webinars on, you know, alternative due diligence, you know, looking at alternative investments and how to think about due diligence across a number of different aspects that you need to understand as an investor.
And many of you have reached out and said, hey, what, what's the next level? You've given me these things to think about, but How do I actually get this done? What's the application aspect? And recently, uh, you know, I did a webinar that was talking about performance measurement. You know, really when you're looking at performance measurement, it's not just a series of numbers of how well they did.
It can tell an entire story. So if you haven't caught that, be sure to watch that webinar as well. But on this one, we're gonna dive in and talk a little bit about one of the questions I've always had was, Hey, what's the difference between institutional and, you know, retail investors? And the biggest difference is, you know, an institutional group of investors, it's their job.
They actually have teams, they have systems, processes, they have everything built because that's what they do day in and day out. And most individual investors, you know, maybe it's you or just a small group of people trying to assess, you know, really, an investment that can be quite difficult to understand.
There's multiple facets. So one of the things that we talked about was, hey, build a network around yourself, maybe some team members, but also some additional resources. So let's talk about some ways to effectively build a network. Well, in this one, we're going to talk about, well, first you got to really identify your needs.
Well, what is it you're lacking? What is it you don't have in yourself, in your resources, or maybe a small team that you've put together? Then, we're going to walk through Some options. Okay, I'm going to give you a number of different things to think about of where to go find these people, these advisors, this network that you're going to build.
And then finally, we'll talk about, you know, some etiquette and some pointers in networking. Um, as somebody, I have a lot of people reach out to me and I love to help people. But there's only 24 hours in a day. And so we'll walk through some of the things that as an advisor and some people and someone who actually helps people, um, answer a number of questions in due diligence, uh, I'll share those points. First up, let's identify needs. When you're looking at an alternative investment, there's multiple factors that you may not understand. You know, does this particular investment require some unique valuation metrics? Do you not understand the legal or the compliance or the regulations? You know, what are the risks inherent?
You, you'll look at a lot of different types of investments and they're all going to have different risk factors. So once you've identified what you need, Then you need to do the next two things is really looking at, well, what advisors do I need? What experts do I need? And how am I going to source those particular experts to fulfill these needs?
Um, so that's important. Let's take that first step. Identify your needs before you start trying to reach out to people.
Some networking options. These are ones that I've, I've, I've used and I just want to say some of these I haven't used. These are just examples. I'm not saying these are the best or, you know, what I use, um, but I wanted to just give as many options as possible to these listeners about. Things that you might find and, you know, sometimes, hey, maybe you go on one of these online platforms that's created to find advisors like ExpertiseFinder or JustAnswer.
Um, I haven't used those in particular, but I know people who have, so these are things that you can just go in and try. But the other ones that I think are more common that people have really gone out there is, you know, social media, Facebook. You know, Twitter, LinkedIn, uh, those are great ways to go in and do searches.
Maybe you get a premier membership at LinkedIn so you can do deeper dive into the particulars of who you're looking for. Um, Industry Events, um, obviously I go to a lot of these events. I am a CAIA, I am a CFA, but there are other events like FactRight and Markets Group puts on a number of different Alternative Investment, uh, events, you know, conferences all over the nation. Um, I think even internationally now. These are places you can go, you can attend, you can get a feel for who's in the room. Now, you gotta remember, first step, we've already identified who we're looking for. So, once we get into these conferences, we go into social media, we go into these online platforms, you know, you already have an idea of what you're hunting for, so it'll narrow your search in the time there, and you can find one of these that works best for you, or maybe a combination of them.
You know, further, uh, investment groups, you know, there's some here that I've listed that we work with, um, others that I, I know of that, you know, don't work with yet, but that's a great source. You're finding people who are part of groups. There are already perhaps working on some of the problems that you're dealing with.
So you might find not only a network of investors and people who can help you with your due diligence, you might find also, you know, deal sourcing as well. There, you know, as I had mentioned earlier, you know, professional organizations like the CAIA, the CFA, AIMA. All the ILPA, all of those organizations, you know, work in investment management and, you know, some, some specialize in alternate investments and actually provide documents and question lists, things that can help you build out your whole process of doing Alternative Investment due diligence. Um, and next, I always tell this, I go talk to a number of different students at a variety of different colleges. I say, listen, you know, look at the person to your left and your right. This is your network, you know, and this is a network that even when you're in the work world, you can go back into.
You can reach in there and say, well, who else was in that class that's doing something that I need, that I've identified as one of my weaknesses. You know, maybe I can network with that person. Maybe that person can be part of my future network, and we even went to the, you know, to the same school, um, or, you know, even a different school.
I have networks that span multiple colleges, um, you know, so it's, you find, you find value in a variety of different areas, and some of that, you know, reaching into other alumni networks, I've actually kind of done through LinkedIn as well, so, uh, some of these ideas and these network options will overlap with each other, and you can use them, you know, in conjunction with each other to be more effective, um, and, you know, next, some of the pointers for networking.
I'll go to the one that's probably the most important on this page right now is networking is not a sales pitch. You know, I'm raising money. I run a fund. I don't reach out to someone immediately and say, Hey, here's my fund. Um, it's not, networking is not a sales pitch. You're trying to really learn about this person. You're trying to learn and hopefully they have you know, something that helps you one of your needs that you identified earlier. But one of the things also is you could give value at the start too once you listen to what this person is working on. And you know and listening will help you identify if this is the right person to fit your need that you identified earlier. You also might learn how you might be able to help them you could be providing value back to them.
That's a great way to start a relationship is where you've helped someone. I've actually had investors that have come into my fund that I listened to what they needed, made introductions to them, helped them long before, you know, they came into my fund. So, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's really a powerful piece is that combination.
It's not a sales pitch. See how you can add value, because obviously you're successful in your own right, and you have your own networks, and you have your own knowledge base, so maybe there's a fit there. Um, if you're talking to someone that, uh, you know, is very, very busy, be respectful of their time. You know, come prepared to the meeting.
You know, you start the conversation. But in that start the conversation is be ready with questions, you know Have things ready to go for what you want to drive at and understand and then be sure to once you're done with this Follow up with that connection, continually work with them, see what they need.
Everyone's always working on things. Everyone always has challenges. So just as you're trying to fix one of your needs in this process, they may have something that you can help them with as well. And it may not be day one, but later in that relationship as you're building it over time.
Thank you. And if there's any questions, or you'd like to talk further, or you watch one of my webinars in the past, and there's something else that's not performance related, or not, hey, how do I think about building networks, and you want me to talk further about application of how I actually solve some of those problems and do things with regards to alternative investments to, you know, be better at it, please reach out.
I look forward to talking to you.
