Happy Thursday and welcome to another edition of Beyond TVPI.
Let's talk about placement agents.
When I started as an LP, I thought placement agents were highly paid used car salesmen. I'd sold a house, worked with real estate agents - I understood they provided value to the GP. Raise the fund. Find the investors. Move on.
But value for me as an LP? I couldn't see it.
Why would I pay attention to someone whose incentive was just to get me to commit? Weren't they just another layer between me and the GP, another voice telling me why this fund was different, this team was special, this strategy was the one?
That was me in year one.
By year ten, my view had changed completely.
What Changed
Over time, I started noticing a clear pattern.
Some placement agents kept pitching me funds that were obviously irrelevant - credit, venture, strategies far outside my mandate. Those were easy to ignore.
Others behaved very differently. They filtered hard. They only came with opportunities that actually fit. They knew what we valued - and remembered it.
That’s when it clicked: placement agents aren’t just intermediaries for GPs. The good ones become gatekeepers in both directions.
Take a recent example that’s been discussed publicly: Nautic Partners raising with Evercore. I don’t have any particular insight into that fundraise, and this isn’t meant as a behind-the-scenes account. But it illustrates a broader dynamic that’s become increasingly common.
In highly sought-after raises, capital itself isn’t the constraint. What matters is speed, certainty, and execution risk.
In those situations, the role of the placement agent isn’t really distribution. It’s screening:
Which LPs have a real process
Which ones can move on a defined timeline
Which ones won’t create late-stage friction
If you’re not already known as someone who can move decisively, you may never even see the opportunity.
What Actually Worked
Over time, two things materially changed how placement agents worked for us - and both were fully within our control as LPs.