Latest news with #LPs
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Asset Managers: Blockchain Can Modernize Your Operations and Reinvigorate Your Product Line
As an advisor to both TradFi and crypto native firms, one trend I'm excited about is the potential of blockchain and tokenization to help asset managers serve the next generation of investors. These financial institutions pride themselves on navigating complexity and pursuing innovative strategies. They manage trillions across private equity, credit, venture, and real assets. But for all their sophistication in portfolio construction, many still rely on infrastructure better suited for the fax machine era. Investor records are kept in spreadsheets. Capital calls go out over email. Waterfall calculations are done manually. LPs get quarterly PDFs and little else. The technology stack underneath these firms is fragile, opaque, and overdue for a serious upgrade. Blockchain isn't a speculative detour; it's a modern financial operating system. And for asset managers, it offers not just an opportunity to modernize fund administration and operations, but also to unlock new frontiers in product offerings to better serve their existing and future client base. The average investment firm still relies on a tangle of administrators, custodians, and transfer agents, each working from their own systems and reconciling records by hand during each stage of a fund's lifecycle: inception, setup, fundraising and onboarding, operations, trading and liquidity, and closing. Because much of this process is manual and bespoke, mistakes happen, delays are common, and transparency is low, while the cost of compliance and administration continues to rise. Blockchain and tokenization solves for these inefficiencies by standardizing workflows across multiple participants. A permissioned ledger, shared between GPs, LPs, fund admins, transfer agents, auditors, and more, can become the single source of truth for investor accounts, capital flows, and transaction history. Instead of fragmented systems, siloed information, and weekly reconciliations, everyone operates from the same data, updated and visible in real time. Smart contracts can automate capital calls, distributions, and even complex waterfall logic, ensuring that the correct payments go to the correct counterparties, instantly and transparently. And the tokenization and interoperability of different asset types can enable automated, instantaneous settlement. No PDFs, wire delays, and human error. These aren't gimmicks – they're operational upgrades. Investors can hold digital fund shares, settle redemptions in stablecoins, and track yield accrual in real time. For cash management, it's a game-changer. For operational teams, it means fewer bottlenecks and cleaner audit trails. Blockchain and tokenization aren't just about liquidity, but an opportunity to replace a clunky patchwork of systems with a streamlined, programmable foundation for fund operations. If blockchain is already modernizing fund infrastructure, the next frontier is even more exciting: using the technology to build products that couldn't exist before. Start with tokenized private credit. Just look at Apollo's tokenized private credit fund, which has moved more than $100 million on-chain and exists simultaneously on multiple blockchains, making it interoperable with digital custody systems. Or, Franklin Templeton's Benji platform, where tokenized money market funds live across numerous blockchains, allowing its investors to transfer shares peer‑to‑peer with stablecoins, earn intraday yield down to the second, and access tokenized money‑market liquidity. Meanwhile, BlackRock's tokenized institutional money market fund has already surpassed $2.5 billion AUM a year after its launch. These products offer more than operational improvements; they allow fractional ownership, secondary liquidity, and a radically more accessible wrapper for investors who want exposure to these products without the commitment of a traditional LP structure. The most forward-looking firms are going even further: building entirely new kinds of on-chain products. Take on-chain yield vaults, a relatively new primitive in crypto, which are like a self-executing investment strategy. Companies like Veda Labs are pioneering smart contracts that stake tokenized assets, sell covered calls, lend to protocols, or arbitrage rates across DeFi, allowing institutions like asset managers to offer white-labeled, branded investment strategies that automate execution while embedding compliance and fee logic directly into the protocol. No spreadsheets or intermediaries, just composable, auditable investment products built for digital-native allocators. Instead of relying on opaque NAV calculations, returns can be verified on-chain. Put simply: this is a new category of investment product. More transparent than an ETF, more automated than a hedge fund, and infinitely more programmable than any legacy wrapper. Asset managers don't need to abandon what they're good at. But they do need to modernize how and what they deliver. Blockchain isn't a threat to private markets; it's the upgrade private markets have been waiting for. A way to clean up back-office complexity, lower operational risk, and serve clients with products that are faster, smarter, and more productive. The tools are ready. The infrastructure is live. And the first movers have already shown what's possible. Asset managers who ignore this innovation risk getting left behind – because while others are still sending capital calls by email, the next generation of investment platforms is already being built: on-chain, in real time, and at scale. 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Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bruce Springsteen 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums' is expansive and remarkable: Review
Bruce Springsteen has a broken heart. You can hear it in his expressive voice on the 'Twilight Hours' and 'The Streets of Philadelphia Sessions' LPs, part of the expansive and remarkable 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums,' available Friday, June 27. Now we don't think the Boss really has a broken heart, but the broad material on 'Tracks II' lets Springsteen delve into the sweet subject of heartache — and it's a joy. The Boss, like Al Jolson, can sing with a tear in his voice. 'Blind Spot' from 'The Streets of Philadelphia' finds the protagonist looking for redemption in love, and Springsteen's voice finds the space between yearning, lust and fatalism. The gorgeous 'Late in the Evening' from 'Twilight Hours' is a soaring ballad of late-night solitude for which Springsteen unloads a magnificent vocal performance with sustained notes, tremolos and the aforementioned Jolson teardrop. The Springsteen love songs have been, to this point, largely about lovers about to consummate their relationship. Think of the couples of 'Thunder Road' and 'Fire.' On 'Tracks II,' we get glimpses of what happens after the initial spark. There is a lot to unpack on 'Tracks II,' ostensibly a sequel to 1998's 'Tracks.' On 'Tracks II,' there are 83 songs on seven full albums recorded between 1983 to 2018, and it's quite a lot more than relationship songs. There's an atmospheric soundtrack to an unmade spiritual Western movie called 'Faithless,' recorded in 2005 and 2006; a sparse and evocative collection of border songs called 'Inyo,' named after the California county and inspired by 1995's 'The Ghost of Tom Joad'; 'LA Garage Session '83,' a collection of lo-fi rockers and atmospheric ballads recorded 'Nebraska' style in 1983 that is a treasure trove; and 'Somewhere North of Nashville,' recorded in 1995, filled with rocking Texas country songs. 'Perfect World' is a rocker sparked by Joe Grushecky co-compositions. The tracks date back to 1994. 'The Streets of Philadelphia Sessions,' a meditation on the meaning of trust in a relationship, was recorded in 1994, and is as close as we'll get to the album by Springsteen and his 'Other Band,' who played more than 100 shows with the Boss in 1992 and '93 when the E Street Band was disbanded. Zack Alford, Tommy Sims and Shane Fontayne all appear on 'Philadelphia Sessions,' which has wrongly been referred to as a 'hip-hop' album. 'Twilight Hours,' the strongest album in the collection, is a companion to 2019's 'Western Stars,' according to the 'Tracks II' liner notes, and was recorded in a 1960s orchestra pop style in 2010 and '11 as a nod to the repertoire of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classics. 'Because I love Burt Bacharach and I love those kinds of songs and those kinds of songwriters,' says Springsteen in the liner notes. 'I took a swing at it because the chordal structures and everything are much more complicated, which was fun for me to pull off.' So why seven albums now? Each work has its Bruce-ian reason for not being previously released. 'The Street of Philadelphia Sessions' was too much of a 'relationship' album to come after the similarly-themed 'Tunnel of Love,' 'Human Touch' and 'Lucky Town.' 'LA Garage Sessions' was held back for another record: 'Born in the USA.' 'I've always released my records with great care, making sure my narratives built upon one another,' Springsteen says in the liner notes. 'I'm glad I did, as it usually assured the best of what I had came out, weaving a clear picture in my fans' minds of who I was and where I was going in my work life at that moment. The records in this collection did not comfortably fit into that narrative, my creative arc.' There is so much here, such variety and quality, that new narratives will be born on June 27. The Boss goes back to rock 'n' roll roots on 'LA Garage Sessions' with 'Little Girl Like You,' a Buddy Holly homage and, and 'Don't Back Down,' which echoes early Beach Boys. A pre-''Born in the USA' 'My Hometown' is here, sung in a higher key than the 1984 version. It's one of several songs on 'Tracks II' that have been released in different versions elsewhere. 'The Klansman' from 'LA Garage Sessions' is a compelling and driving rocker, unsettling in lyrical content and more than 40 years later more topical than ever. Marty Rifkin, a member of the Seeger Session Bands, lights up 'Somewhere North of Nashville' on his steel guitar, sizzling on 'Repo Man' with E Street (and Seeger Sessions) keyboardist Charles Giordano. Rifkin also gives a warm prairie echo to a cover of the Johnny Rivers classic 'Poor Side of Town.' First heard on 'Western Stars,' the song 'Somewhere North of Nashville' is given the Rifkin and Giordano treatment, and it sweetly aches. The stark 'Inyo' has several gems, including 'The Lost Charro,' which evokes Marty Robbins when trumpets ring in glory as fatal circumstances befall a noble hero. In 'Ciudad Juarez,' a daughter vanishes into the streets as told in this haunting ballad. 'Inyo' is set on the borders of California and Texas with one exception: 'Our Lady of Monroe.' The song takes place in Monroe, about 15 miles west of Springsteen's Freehold hometown, and it's a testament to Springsteen's eyes and ears as an artist that he gets it exactly right. Yes, it's very plausible that a retired Newark cop would come to live in one the senior communities in Monroe to try 'to lose some of what he'd seen' on duty. 'Another Thin Line,' co-written with 'Grushecky' from 'Perfect World,' is rocker that hits the mark with authority. "Cutting Knife' features a Springsteen rarity: a near-falsetto Boss on the chorus. The trusty E Street glockenspiel chimes in, this time played by co-producer Ron Aniello, and it's at once familiar and enticingly fatalistic. Like fellow Jerseyan Walt Whitman, the Boss contains multitudes. Prices for 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums' range from $14.98 for the companion CD, 'Lost And Found: Selections from The Lost Albums,' to $349.98 for the box set in vinyl format. Visit for more information. Follow That Dream Don't Back Down On Our Love Little Girl Like You Johnny Bye Bye Sugarland Seven Tears Fugitive's Dream Black Mountain Ballad Jim Deer County Fair My Hometown One Love Don't Back Down Richfield Whistle The Klansman Unsatisfied Heart Shut Out The Light Fugitive's Dream (Ballad) Blind Spot Maybe I Don't Know You Something In The Well Waiting On The End Of The World The Little Things We Fell Down One Beautiful Morning Between Heaven and Earth Secret Garden The Farewell Party Faithless The Desert (Instrumental) Where You Goin', Where You From All God's Children A Prayer By The River (Instrumental) God Sent You Goin' To California The Western Sea (Instrumental) My Master's Hand Let Me Ride My Master's Hand (Theme) Repo Man Tiger Rose Poor Side of Town Delivery Man Under A Big Sky Detail Man Silver Mountain Janey Don't You Lose Heart You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone Stand On It Blue Highway Somewhere North of Nashville Inyo Indian Town Adelita The Aztec Dance The Lost Charro Our Lady of Monroe El Jardinero (Upon the Death of Ramona) One False Move Ciudad Juarez When I Build My Beautiful House Sunday Love Late in the Evening Two of Us Lonely Town September Kisses Twilight Hours I'll Stand By You High Sierra Sunliner Another You Dinner at Eight Follow The Sun I'm Not Sleeping Idiot's Delight Another Thin Line The Great Depression Blind Man Rain In The River If I Could Only Be Your Lover Cutting Knife You Lifted Me Up Perfect World Subscribe to for the latest on the New Jersey music scene. Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at cjordan@ This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bruce Springsteen 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums' review
TechCrunch
20-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
The new math: why seed investors are selling their winners earlier
Charles Hudson had just closed his fifth fund several months ago – $66 million for Precursor Ventures – when one of his limited partners asked him to run an exercise. What would have happened, the LP wondered, if Hudson had sold all his portfolio companies at Series A? What about Series B? Or Series C? The question wasn't academic. After two decades in venture capital, Hudson has been watching the math of seed investing change, maybe permanently. LPs who've previously been patient with seven-to-eight-year hold periods are suddenly asking questions about interim liquidity. 'Seven or eight years feels like a really long time' to LPs right now, says Hudson, even though 'it's always been seven or eight years.' The reason: a steady stream of venture returns in recent years — returns that made long hold periods acceptable — has largely dried up. Coupled with the availability of other, more liquid investment options, many backers of very early-stage VC are demanding a new approach. The analysis his LP requested revealed an uncomfortable truth, says Hudson. Selling everything at the Series A stage didn't work; the compounding effect of staying in the best companies outweighed any benefits from cutting losses early. But Series B was different. 'You could have a north of 3x fund if you sold everything at the B,' Hudson discovered. 'And I'm like, 'Well, that's pretty good.'' Beyond pretty good, that realization is reshaping how Hudson thinks about portfolio management in 2025. Though now a veteran investor – Hudson has spent 22 years in VC between Precursor, an eight-year run at Uncork Capital and another four years at In-Q-Tel earlier in his career – he says investors in very young companies are being forced to think like private equity managers, optimizing for cash returns alongside the home runs that, if they're lucky, define their careers. It's not an easy mental change to make. 'The companies where there's the most secondary interest are also the set of companies where I have the greatest expectations for the future,' says Hudson. It's not just Hudson; his thinking about secondary sales reflects broader pressures reshaping the venture ecosystem. Hans Swildens is the founder of Industry Ventures, a San Francisco-based fund of funds and direct investment firm with stakes in 700 venture firms, told Techrunch in April that venture funds are 'starting to get savvier about what they need to do to generate liquidity.' He's seeing venture funds hire full-time staff members specifically to pursue alternative liquidity options, with some seed managers dedicating months to 'manufacturing liquidity from their funds.' Though this reshuffling of priorities extends far beyond any single fund, the pressure is particularly acute for smaller funds like Precursor, a traditional seed-stage fund that prides itself on backing unconventional founders like Laura Modi of ByHeart baby formula (a solo founder in a regulated industry with no prior experience) and Doktor Gerson of Rad AI (whose previous startup had failed). While firms with mega-funds like Sequoia and General Catalyst can afford to wait for $25 billion outcomes, smaller funds need to be more tactical about when and how they harvest returns. Perhaps nowhere is the shift more visible than in Hudson's relationships with limited partners. University endowments, once the most coveted LPs in venture, are now grappling with unforeseen challenges from the Trump administration. Harvard, of course, is the poster child here, with federal investigations into its admissions practices, threats to research funding tied to compliance issues, and ongoing scrutiny of its substantial endowment amid calls for universities to increase their annual spending requirements or face taxation. Hudson says that based on his conversations with LPs inside these organizations, they've never believed more in the power of venture, yet they've also never felt more hesitant about making 10- to 15-year illiquid commitments. The result is a more complex LP base with competing needs. Some want 'as much money back as soon as possible, even if that's a suboptimal outcome in the long term,' says Hudson. Others prefer that Hudson 'hold everything to maturity, because that's what's going to maximize my returns.' Navigating these demands requires the kind of portfolio management sophistication that seed investors haven't traditionally needed, which Hudson views with some ambivalence. Venture, he says, is starting to feel a lot less like an art and something that 'feels a lot more like some of these other sub-asset classes in finance.' Hudson isn't without hope, he adds, but he is clear-eyed about what's changing on the ground, as well as the opportunities those changes create. As funds grow larger and deploy more capital, they're becoming necessarily more algorithmic, looking for 'companies in these categories, with founders from these schools with these academic backgrounds who worked at these companies,' he says. The approach works for deploying large amounts of capital efficiently, but it misses the 'weird and wonderful' companies that have defined Hudson's best returns and kept Precursor in the game. 'If you're going to hire people just off a resume screener tool,' he says, 'you're going to miss people who maybe have really relevant experiences that the algorithm doesn't catch.' You can hear our full interview with Hudson via TechCrunch's StrictlyVC Download podcast. New episodes come out every Tuesday.
Axios
17-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
It's a bad time to launch first-time funds, but that isn't stopping investors
Conventional wisdom is that now is a terrible time for private market investors to launch first-time funds. But that isn't stopping a slew of folks from trying. The big picture: Limited partners are seeing a wave of general partners spinouts, and many expect that the trend will outpace industry consolidation, according to a recent Coller Capital survey. One major reason, they say, is that firms have done a lousy job nurturing homegrown talent. Coller's questionnaire didn't go a level deeper, but it's not too hard to read "tilted fund economics" in that response. Everyone inside a firm knows who brings in the home run deals, and if that rainmaker doesn't get compensated like one. By the numbers: 38% of LP respondents said they expect the number of new managers to increase over the next three to five years, compared to just 33% who say they expect it to decrease. The "increase" cohort was particularly strong among Asia-Pacific respondents (64%). Coller also found that 36% of LPs report the number of spinout funds within their portfolio has increased within the past few years, while only 3% said it's decreased. The majority said it's remained flat. Zoom out: Raising a first-time fund is never easy, and many believe the process has become even more challenging as LPs have sought to shrink their manager rosters — preferring to plug larger amounts into multi-strategy firms. Plus the VC/PE distribution drought that's reduced the amount of available LP capital. On the other hand, LPs also worry that too much mega-fund exposure won't allow them to beat industry benchmarks — which means many are willing to bet on a few emerging managers to provide alpha. What they're saying: "It's like the old phrase: people hate Congress but love their congressperson," a veteran LP tells me. "A lot of people are super risk averse (and liquidity crunched) right now, making emerging funds a challenge to raise, but known quantities de-risk the decision for those who are able to put out capital."
Forbes
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
New Doc ‘The Tallest Dwarf' Shows Power Of Body Acceptance
Some of the cast of The Tallest Dwarf (left to right) Mark Povinelli, Matthew Jeffers, Sofiya ... More Cheyenne, Aubrey Smalls, Julie Wyman and Sarah Folkins Filmmaker and director Julie Wyman went into creating her newest documentary, The Tallest Dwarf, with the ambition of telling the stories of little people in a totally different way. Early on, the film points out that little people (LPs) exist at the intersection of hypervisibility and invisibility. It's hard to imagine the American history of film and television without LPs, for instance, but this community often faces social ostracization and a medical field that sees their bodies as problems that need to be fixed. As a plus-size woman whose been peddled weight-loss medications and procedures her entire life, this part was exceedingly relatable. In the film, Wyman explores the diverse experiences of LPs through both in-depth interviews and movement-based workshops captured on film. The Tallest Dwarf asks the viewer to consider important questions, like, 'What if the culture created pathways for LPs to love and accept their bodies?' and 'What if LPs don't want medical interventions that make them or their children closer to the norm?' We begin these inquiries as an audience through Wyman, who is on her own journey into an identity as an LP. Filmmaker, Julie Wyman Wyman tells the story of lifelong sense of feeling different. She suspects that she is from a long line of LPs on her father's side, but no one in her family has ever been genetically tested. Wyman has short limbs and a long torso, a trait her father also possesses. Standing at five feet today, she's been tall enough throughout her life to be under the radar for an immediate medical diagnosis of dwarfism. This, however, didn't stop her from being subjected to bullying. She says that part of coping with her limb size difference was turning to the pressures to lose weight and diet. "As a kid, I felt the culture's and my family's drive to change my body in the way I supposedly could, (like) becoming thinner or avoiding fatness," shares Wyman. 'The film intentionally shows both my own past and present questions about my body and the struggles with (my body). I also wanted to punch up at the much larger forces that make people want to be 'normal' rather than take the risk of being in the zone of difference.' Dwarfism is recognized as a disability by the Americans with Disabilities Act. This has offered needed legal protections, but also has opened up the LP community to the pressures of medical interventions that can be contentious. One of these interventions is a procedure called 'limb lengthening." Wyman herself was offered the option to undergo limb lengthening as a child by her father, but ultimately did not pursue it. Through interviews in the film it becomes clear that for some LPs, biotechnological innovations designed to lengthen limbs are well-received. For others, however, these types of procedures are interpreted as erasure that ultimately delegitimizes disabled bodies. Behind the scenes of The Tallest Dwarf, Aubrey Smalls (left) and Katrina Kemp At one point in the film, Wyman receives the results of genetic testing she underwent in hopes of confirming her dwarfism. Of that moment she shares, 'I felt goosebumps, and a big smile popped onto my face. There's something incredibly vindicating about finding out that in each cell in my body, in my DNA, there is a mutation that makes my limbs grow more slowly than average height people. It explains decades of having to work a bit differently than average proportioned people to figure out dance moves, yoga poses, and as a kid in gymnastic routines.' We learn that Wyman and her father have hypochondroplasia. Basically, Wyman is a tall dwarf, as the film's name suggests. 'I really wanted to find connection for my dwarfism and had a sense that that could be possible even in the gray area that I fall in as a tall dwarf.' The film premiered at South by Southwest in March, and returned to be screened on its home turf at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April. Masashi Niwano is the Director of Artist Development for SFFILM, the non-profit organization that oversees the festival. Niwano shared, 'When Julie told us about her film as a grantee of the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities program, we knew how vital and impactful it would be. Seeing it on the big screen, we were equally touched by its charm, humor, and heart.' Wyman points out that San Francisco is ground zero for the disability justice movement as well as the home of some of the biotechnology that impacts LPs the most. 'So the San Francisco International Film Festival (was) a perfect place to show the film,' says Wyman. "I (felt) really honored to be included in this year's festival program.' Sofiya Cheyenne, the Co-Chair of Dwarf Artist Coalition and one of the stars of The Tallest Dwarf, shared how intention and trust-building were baked into the process of filming and film preparation. Cheyenne shared, 'We did multiple exercises to build trust and ensemble with each other.' One of those exercises was something called 'flocking," an activity where a group follows a leader as if they were a flock of birds in sync. 'Our twist on that exercise (was) not only following our leader, but also encouraging (everyone) to move in whatever way (made) their body feel liberated.' Cheyenne said these explorations in liberated and joyful movement led to things like 'rolling or lying on the floor, sitting in stillness, and using arms and upper body more than our lower extremities.' Behind the Scenes of The Tallest Dwarf with Julie Wyman, filmmaker, and Sofiya Cheyenne 'I think it was a testament to the little people centered space we created,' shared Cheyenne. "When I watch that footage, I am in awe. The flocking represents more than an ensemble-building exercise. It also exemplifies the love that we were fostering in, with and for our bodies as we move in them.' Wyman says she hopes the documentary gives audiences a sense of her drive to find community. She describes this as a 'tentative and awkward process,' but one filled with joy and the satisfaction of a diagnosis she could share with her father. 'It feels gratifying to be within the little people community now, to have new friends with whom certain struggles and experiences are understood and never need to be explained. I feel a very strong and new sense of connection that delights me." The Tallest Dwarf will premier in New York City in July as a co-presentation of Rooftop Films and Reel Abilities.
