Should You Launch? A Founder's Reality Check
Most people who want to run their own fund never test the decision properly before committing two years and their savings to it. This package is the stress test. We work through whether your strategy, track record and network actually support a launch — and if they don't yet, what would have to change. I've made this decision myself: I left an institutional seat to build a hedge-fund allocation practice, then co-founded an asset management firm and took it through SFC licensing. I've also sat on the other side, running due diligence on 100+ managers and deciding which ones deserved capital. Key components include, but are not limited to: - Honest assessment of strategy capacity, track record portability and what you can and cannot claim from a previous seat - Break-even economics: the AUM you need at your intended fee structure before this is a business rather than a hobby - Structure orientation: Hong Kong SFC Type 9 manager with a Cayman fund, versus OFC or LPF, versus launching on an incubator platform - A realistic cost and timeline map from decision to first trade - The allocator's verdict: an early read on whether your proposition would survive a real due-diligence process - What to do instead, if the honest answer is not yet
What's included
- Made the decision, or defined precisely what must be true before you can
- A realistic number for the personal runway required, tested against your actual circumstances
- An honest view of what your track record is worth outside your current firm
- If the answer is not yet: a dated set of conditions rather than a vague deferral
Meet your expert
Paul W.
2x Finance Founder — I've Also Been the Investor You Pitch
I've spent twenty-plus years in Asian equities, in every seat the industry offers. Ten years on the sell side at CLSA in Tokyo and Hong Kong, ranked Asiamoney #1 best analyst in the region five years running. Five years inside hedge funds — running my own book as a portfolio manager at Horizon, and most recently as a senior analyst on a Japan market-neutral pod at Millennium. In between, five years independent as founder, CIO and head of alternative investments: I launched a hedge-fund allocation practice for family offices, conducting due diligence on 100+ managers, then co-founded an asset management firm and took it through SFC licensing as its Responsible Officer, growing it from a private-equity and real-estate shop into a multi-strategy alternatives platform. Today I also design and build agentic-AI research workflows for my own global-equities portfolio. Born and raised in Hong Kong, educated in England, and lived in Japan for a decade. Native English and Cantonese, fluent Mandarin and Japanese.
