In this episode of dakota Live!, we step into a space where venture capital meets operator realism.

While we often sit with allocators and emerging manager gatekeepers, today we turn the lens toward the managers themselves — and examine how early-stage consumer investing mirrors the same discipline allocators demand in emerging manager due diligence.

Robert Morier sits down with Sean Kelly and Christine Wang of Family Fund to unpack what underwriting consumer brands can teach us about underwriting people — and why early-stage due diligence in venture is less about trend-chasing and more about pattern recognition, character assessment, and disciplined execution.

This conversation moves beyond surface-level “consumer is back” narratives. Instead, we explore:
• Why Series A consumer investing may offer asymmetric risk/reward in a valuation-compressed environment
• How data-rich consumer businesses reduce “taste risk” through measurable retention, velocity, and unit economics
• The difference between community as a vanity metric and community as a moat
• How emotional resonance paired with rational economics creates durable companies
• What allocators often misunderstand about consumer venture — and why specialization may be the real edge

For institutional investors and consultants evaluating emerging managers, this episode offers a parallel lens:

Just as consumer VCs must separate fad from durable trend, allocators must separate storytelling from scalable process.

If you allocate to venture, evaluate emerging managers, or think deeply about how consumer behavior drives GDP and exit pathways, this conversation offers a structured view of what early-stage investing looks like beneath the narrative layer.

In the latest episode of dakota live!, we step into a part of the market that rarely gets explained well — the mechanics of volatility trading.

As equity markets move through higher dispersion, regime shifts, and increasingly systematic flows, some of the most interesting price discovery is happening in derivatives.

Volatility isn’t just a hedge or a headline metric. It’s an asset shaped by positioning, liquidity, and structural supply-demand imbalances.

We discuss how firms like Zero Delta, a hedge fund of funds, allocating to specialists trading single-name and index options — evaluate markets where dealer gamma positioning, liquidity fragmentation, and flow-driven distortions can create temporary pricing inefficiencies.

This is a conversation about process.

How experienced volatility traders:

✓ Interpret skew and term structure
✓ Think about convexity and asymmetric payoffs
✓ Adjust exposure as opportunity sets expand or compress
✓ Trade relative value rather than directional views

The broader takeaway for institutional allocators is structural. As passive flows grow and options volumes reach record levels, derivatives markets increasingly reflect stress and opportunity in real time.

Volatility trading — when executed as disciplined relative value — can become a way to engage dislocations created by crowding and hedging demand, rather than simply reacting to them.

If you allocate to hedge funds — or evaluate them — understanding how volatility traders actually think beneath the surface of the VIX is imperative.

If you’re an individual market participant trading your own account, appreciating how professionals interpret skew, positioning, liquidity, and convexity can sharpen how you think about risk.

This episode is about framework — a closer look at the mechanics that drive derivatives markets and the discipline required to navigate them.

In this special “On the Road” episode of the Dakota Live! Podcast, Robert Morier travels to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville for a live CIO panel discussion on endowment management, private equity, private credit, asset allocation, and manager research & due diligence.
Featuring:

• Rip Mecherle, CIO, University of Tennessee System ($1.8B endowment)
  
  
• Cathy Ulozas, CIO, Drexel University
  
  
• Bridget Sproles, Partner & Co-Head of Healthcare Practice, Cambridge Associates
  
  
• Ryan Farley, Professor and Director, Torch Fund Program, University of Tennessee
  
  

Recorded in front of students from Drexel University and the University of Tennessee, this episode explores how institutional investors think about:

• Endowment portfolio construction (public vs. private markets)
  
  
• Private equity allocation strategy and long-term commitments
  
  
• The risks and realities of private credit in today’s market
  
  
• How CIOs underwrite managers and assess integrity, culture, and risk
  
  
• Teaching students to think like real-world investors
  
  

The panel also shares candid career lessons — including trading mistakes, surviving market crises, and the importance of adaptability in finance.
If you’re interested in institutional investing, asset allocation strategy, manager due diligence, endowment management, OCIO relationships, hedge funds, private markets, or building a career in investment management, this conversation is essential listening.
Learn how top CIOs make capital allocation decisions under uncertainty — and how students can prepare to enter the world of institutional asset management.