What does it really take to back the next generation of investment managers?

In this special live recording of the Dakota Live Podcast from Drexel University’s Boathouse Row, host Robert Morier moderates a rare discussion on GP seeding across three different asset classes—hedge funds, venture capital, and lower-middle-market private equity.

While GP seeding is often discussed within a single asset class, this conversation brings together three distinct perspectives to explore how the strategy evolves depending on the market, the structure of capital, and the type of investor being backed.

The panel examines how seed investors identify emerging talent, structure alignment with founders, and help new firms overcome the “chicken-and-egg” challenge of launching a fund.

Joining the discussion:

Scott Schweighauser, Founder & Managing Partner of Borealis Strategic Capital Partners – sharing the hedge fund seeding perspective and the importance of identifying talent early.

Andrea Lo, Founder & Managing Partner of Main Character Capital – discussing GP seeding in venture capital and how to back the next generation of specialized VC managers.

Dan Pogue, Vice President at Catalyst Partners – explaining how seed investors support first-time private equity managers and help institutionalize emerging firms.

Together, they explore:

✓ How GP seeding differs across hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity
✓ Why alignment, structure, and value-add matter in early-stage asset management
✓ The evolving economics of GP stakes and revenue-share structures
✓ How investors identify emerging managers before they become household names
✓ The challenges of launching a firm in an increasingly competitive fundraising environment

For allocators, emerging managers, and anyone interested in the institutional investment ecosystem, this episode offers a rare cross-asset look at how early capital shapes the future of asset management.

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.