Billion Dollar Backstory

“Keep me posted.”
Sounds promising. But also... what does that actually mean?

In this Story Snack, Stacy Havener breaks down one of the vaguest phrases in fundraising, and why “keep me posted” should be the start of the conversation instead of your cue to sit back and wait.
Because if an allocator wants you to keep them posted, your next job is figuring out what they actually want updates on.

Listen in to hear:
The question to ask so “keep me posted” actually means something
Why waiting until you hit the magic number could mean starting the relationship over from scratch
How often to follow up (Stacy has a number)
What to send when there isn’t a huge update to share
How to stay top of mind without becoming the person they stop opening emails from
This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized series for fund managers who want to get better at strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

"The key to business is biting off more than you can chew, then figuring out how to chew it."
Manish Khatta has been running that play for a while now.
Last time he was on the pod, back in 2023, Potomac had just crossed $1B and he was pretty sure they were only getting started.
Three years later? They're past $5B.

And the lessons got a whole lot bigger with it.
Manish is back for a next-chapter conversation about what happens after the growth starts working. When the revenue finally catches up. When hiring gets harder than raising assets. And when the job starts asking you to stop being the operator and actually become the CEO.
In this episode, Manish and Stacy get into:
Why hiring and stepping into the CEO mindset is infinitely harder than raising assets
The question Manish asks advisors who say they “can’t grow”
How firms can actually build relationships and land meetings on social media 
His new marketing strategy (and why he doesn’t believe in chasing concrete ROI) 
Why caring what other people think is the biggest roadblock to creating good content
A pretty wild 2027 announcement Potomac gets to share for the first time 

About Manish Khatta:
Manish Khatta is a quant who has spent his entire career creating and refining technical trading strategies. A lifelong Potomac employee since 2002, he programmed the initial work behind Potomac's mechanical trading systems and now runs the firm as CEO and CIO, where he's known for driving innovation across investments, technology, and brand growth.
He's also a father of four and spends his free time playing tennis and being on the water.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

This conversation was too good to leave in the archives.

In this encore of our Ask an Allocator series, Stacy sits down with Bill Harding, CIO of Jackson National, who oversees $200B in assets and $29.8B in directly managed fund-of-fund assets.
Bill gives us a look inside the mind of an allocator and shares what he’s actually paying attention to when evaluating fund managers, because past performance is only part of the story.
In this episode, Bill and Stacy discuss:
Bill’s backstory, from financial analyst at a cheese manufacturer to CIO at Jackson National
What fund managers need to get right when pitching a potential partnership
Why past performance alone isn’t enough to earn an allocator’s attention
Why Bill sees culture as a real source of alpha
The questions fund buyers are asking behind the scenes (and why the most important ones aren’t always quantitative)
If you’ve ever wondered what really matters on the allocator side of the table, this conversation gives you a pretty good look behind the curtain.
 
About Bill Harding:
Bill Harding, CFA, is Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at Jackson National Asset Management (JNAM), where he leads asset allocation, portfolio construction, sub-adviser monitoring, and manager research. 
He joined JNAM in 2012 after serving as Head of Manager Research for Morningstar's Investment Management division, and has more than 30 years of experience across JNAM, Morningstar, and Leprino Foods. He holds a B.S. from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago.
Bill graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business. He holds an MBA from Loyola University Chicago and is a CFA charterholder.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

In the world of M&A, deals tend to get reduced to spreadsheets long before anyone asks about the story or the actual people underneath.
Emily Blue built her whole career on believing maybe we’ve got that backwards.

She started out as a nursing major (until an anatomy syllabus sent her running ), failed the CFA before she passed it, and eventually found herself sitting across the table from some very fancy investment bankers. Then one afternoon, she was standing in an airport after a pitch that had gone really well... wondering why she felt so flat.

A phone call with her friend Ryan Halls changed everything. Eventually, that conversation became Hue Partners, an M&A advisory firm that works exclusively with sellers.

In this episode, Emily and Stacy get into:

➤ The airport phone call that turned into a firm
➤ Why Hue said no to every buyer who wanted to hire them
➤ What happened when a banker called Emily "soft" (and Ryan’s PERFECT comeback)
➤ Why younger, fast-growing firms are exploring partnerships earlier, and why waiting too long can cost you
➤ The real estate analogy that makes a pretty freaking good case for having someone in YOUR corner when you sell
➤ Why wealth firms are starting to look at boutique asset managers as a talent strategy
➤ The "messy middle," and what happens when the story that got you HERE stops fitting where you want to go NEXT

This one is about M&A, but it’s also about relationships, story, and knowing what you actually want to build. And what happens when the way it’s always been done doesn’t feel like the way YOU want to do it.
About Emily Blue:
Emily Blue, CFA, is a math nerd turned M&A disruptor and the co-founder of Hue Partners. She cut her teeth in M&A integrations, pushed back on traditional valuations, and led corporate development, and through every deal one thing stayed true: the best transactions aren't about multiples. They're about people. So she built Hue to put founders first, with no corporate fog and no empty promises, just real partnership before and after the deal.

Outside of work, Emily serves as Board Chair of the Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri, and advocates through Big Brothers Big Sisters and Newhouse. She has traded Kilimanjaro for toddler trails for now, and lives a chaotic, joyful life with her husband Harrison, their kids, and two doodles.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

Allocators are drowning in manager emails.

Kristof Gleich would know.

Today, he’s President and CIO of $50B Harbor Capital. Before that, he spent eight years leading manager selection at JPMorgan, fielding pitches from managers trying to break through.
So, he's a good person to listen to when it comes to figuring out how to stand out and win over allocators. 
In this Encore episode of Kristof and Stacy discuss: 
Kristof’s path from physics to finance, how he went from studying physics to landing his first finance job at Goldman Sachs right after 9/11
What actually makes a fund manager stand out (hint: it’s not tweaking a model or slapping “contrarian” on your deck)
Why it pays to celebrate even the smallest wins as you grow your fund 
Harbor Capital’s approach to backing emerging managers early (and why he believes more allocators should follow suit) 

About Kristof Gleich:
Kristof Gleich joined Harbor in 2018 and was appointed CIO of Harbor Capital Advisors in 2020, with oversight of the firm’s investment, distribution, marketing, and executive functions. Before Harbor, he was a managing director and global head of manager selection at JPMorgan Chase. He holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of Bristol and is a CFA charterholder.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus