How I quit worrying and learned to love raising capital

All the capital for my second through 12th deals came from one of my best friends from highschool. Once he forced me to start raising money from other people, I remember complaining to him that I hated raising capital. You should have seen the stupefied look on his face, right before he said: “You realize … Continue reading “How I quit worrying and learned to love raising capital”

A surprising admission from Mr. Fund of Funds

Was at a terrible conference early this week, when I heard something amazing. It came from a guy who runs a fund that invests in other managers’ private equity funds… in other words, a “fund-of-funds”. Someone in the audience, presumably an aspiring fund manager, asked Mr. Fund-of-Funds how much of a co-invest he wants to … Continue reading “A surprising admission from Mr. Fund of Funds”

Suddenly, everyone cares about insurance

The wild fires currently raging all over California have me (and some of my investors!) thinking about insurance. In general, the insurance premia Adaptive pays on our buildings can appear high, relative to premia paid by owners. Why? Most owners do the following: Buy an insurance policy when they first buy their building. Then, each … Continue reading “Suddenly, everyone cares about insurance”

How we think about apartment design

When you’re designing apartment buildings, you need to resolve the following tension: You want the units to be cool enough to attract tenants today, while making them timeless enough to attract tenants for decades to come. We have settled on what I like to think of as “authentic Socal minimalism”: “Authentic”, because we avoid using … Continue reading “How we think about apartment design”

Why we’re sticking to our knitting

Regularly get asked the following questions: Are you planning to venture out to other cities? Start doing other product types (office, retail, etc.)? The answer to both is that I would love to branch out. Aside from the intellectual stimulation that comes from learning new things, expanding the pool of potential projects would allow us … Continue reading “Why we’re sticking to our knitting”