Yesterday I attended the Inniches Virtual Conference on family office and fund-of-funds investing, featuring several hundred LPs, GPs, family office principals, and emerging managers across a half-dozen sessions. As always, Max Pog and his team did an amazing job putting this together. It was easily the most comprehensive conference of the year.
PwC presented data on global family office deal activity. Emerging platforms like Screendoor pitched their fund-of-funds model. Breakout rooms featured candid discussions with allocators from state-backed venture programs to single-family offices.
The thesis was compelling: family offices are shifting toward venture, alpha concentrates in smaller funds with massive return dispersion, and the "Fund I advantage" creates a window for skilled emerging managers to generate outsized outcomes. Platforms providing access to these managers represent the new intermediation layer.
It was a well-constructed argument. The data was real.
But the conference was missing the one thing that actually matters: a credible answer to what happens when the exits don't come.
In this special report, I synthesize the conference data and dialogue, analyze the market dynamics beneath the narrative, and explain why the definition of alpha must change.
It's no longer just picking the right managers early. It's building a system that can turn private value into cash returns on purpose, regardless of whether exit markets cooperate.
This is a must-read for emerging managers, startup founders, and Venture Studio operators.