
The new playbook for emerging managers
From Private Equity Spotlight by PEI Group
April 15, 2026 · 29 min · Episode 266
About this episode
This episode discusses the challenges and strategies for emerging managers in the private equity landscape.
This episode is sponsored by Davis Polk and DC Advisory Senior dealmakers at established firms increasingly seem to be choosing to strike out on their own, much like those firms’ original founders once did during the surge in mid-market firms during the late 1990s and early 2000s. But in those years, institutional capital was flooding into a PE market that had proven its model repeatable, whereas the landscape for new firms today is markedly different. Not only do LPs want to see differentiated strategies with a compelling story and outsized returns, they want the young managers with whom they invest to have institutional-level operations and infrastructure. In this episode, Buyouts senior editor Graham Bippart sits down with Michael Hong, a partner in the Investment Management practice at Davis Polk, and Donato de Donato, co-lead of DC Advisory’s GP Strategic Advisory practice, to discuss the state of the emerging manager market. They point out that there is no shortage of challenges and complications lying in wait for would-be new managers, who often may be more restricted by their previous employers than they thought, make all-too-common mistakes in their pitch decks, and may…
People in this episode
Host: Graham Bippart
Guests: Michael Hong, Donato de Donato
Topics covered
- emerging managers
- private equity
- institutional capital
- investment strategies
- manager challenges
- pitch decks
- LP interest
Keywords
- emerging managers
- private equity
- institutional investors
- investment management
- capital raising
- pitch deck mistakes
- LP strategies
Sponsors
Davis Polk
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: DC Advisory, Buyouts
More episodes of Private Equity Spotlight
- A GP and LP unpack best (and worst) practices in co-investment · June 3, 2026 · 33 min
- What’s next for value creation? · May 26, 2026 · 36 min
- Measuring alpha in private markets: Why asset-level data matters · May 12, 2026 · 10 min
- PEI’s Data Dive: Reading the signals in secondaries sentiment · May 5, 2026 · 32 min
- PEI's Data Dive: How LPs' investment priorities are shifting · April 9, 2026 · 25 min
- Are PE's best days behind it? An LP and GP discuss · March 30, 2026 · 30 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Private Equity Spotlight podcast page.