David Weisburd

It reminds me of that old joke, the best way to diligence a manager is to make an investment.

this is kind of what you guys are doing, which is you're not actually investing in the fund.

You're investing in a deal with the manager, which it gives you a much deeper ability to diligence the manager and figure out whether you want to be in with him or her for three to five years on deal or in a marriage across fund cycles.

Tell me about what you're trying to ascertain in those one or two deals that gives you a better sense in terms of underwriting the manager that you wouldn't be able to otherwise do in a traditional fund investment.

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Perhaps a very basic question, but when you look at diligencing fund managers, whether through by doing independent sponsor deals first or directly in the fund, one of those components obviously is trust, trying to ascertain how truthful and trustworthy the manager is.

What are some of the other components they're trying to gain either by doing independent sponsor deals or directly by diligencing funds?

And are the GP Commit

and the percentages, are those contingent on the situation of the investor or are there strict minimums on that?

And how do you think about the GP command these deals?

And a lot of these independent sponsors come from very pedigree firms, KKRs, Apollos, Blackstone.

For those that don't come from pedigree funds, how do they position themselves or how do they get from zero to one?

How do they do the first deal?

And walk me through maybe some of the hacks or some of the best practices when it comes for managers that don't come from pedigree funds.

Because it really goes back.