Billion Dollar Backstory

Ten years ago, Andy Raskin wrote a piece called "The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever Seen."
And Stacy Havener is still thinking about it.
Not because you need to build a SaaS deck, but because the structure underneath it works on allocators too.
Too many pitch decks start with some version of: "Let me tell you all about us."

You go into a long spiel about your fund’s process and performance. Meanwhile, the allocator is sitting there with a very reasonable question: "Okay... why should I care?"

That's the gap Stacy digs into in this Story Snack.
Listen in to learn:
What a decade-old SaaS sales deck can teach fund managers about raising capital
Why allocators move faster to avoid pain than to chase upside
How to frame old way vs. new way without accidentally insulting the allocator
Why "better" might not be the word you want, and what to say instead
This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

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

Most boutiques market the product. Manish Khatta barely mentions his.

Roughly 90% of what Potomac Fund Management puts out has nothing to do with the funds. No performance charts. No fact sheets. Their most successful piece of content is a five-minute video series about fintech gossip that never says the word Potomac.

It sounds backwards. It's also how Potomac went from around $130 million in 2020 to $1.2 billion today, after more than three decades of hovering in the low hundreds of millions.

In this episode, Manish and Stacy get into:
What "eyes on brand" actually means, and why product marketing comes second
The scrappy pandemic video that started it all
 Why he told his team not to measure ROI for two full years
The Eminem clip he was told not to play at a conference, and why he played it anyway
 What happened when Potomac started partnering with its own competitors
Why he's now pivoting back to postcards, suits, and old-school marketing

About Manish Khatta:
Manish Khatta is a quant who has spent his entire career creating and refining technical trading strategies. A lifelong Potomac employee, he programmed the initial work behind Potomac's mechanical trading systems and now runs the firm as CEO and CIO. He's a father of four who leads an RIA built on content and transparency, and he spends his free time playing tennis and being on the water.

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

Should you ever repurpose an old post on LinkedIn?
Short answer: yep.

Slightly more annoying answer: it depends.

Before you copy, paste, and send that post back into the wild, figure out why it flopped the first time. Was it actually a good post the algorithm didn't push out? Or was the post itself a little off? Those are two very different problems.

In this Story Snack, Stacy gets into how she decides which posts deserve another shot, which need a tweak first, and which she'd leave alone.

Listen in to hear:
The one reason NOT to repost that Stacy isn't buying
How to distinguish a reach problem from a writing problem
When a few tweaks will do, and when you need more than that
Why her short Tuesday posts aren't just chopped-down versions of longer ones
What working with the LinkedIn algorithm right now

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.

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

What if luck plays a bigger role in fund success than anyone wants to admit? 
Simon Evan-Cook isn’t just throwing that idea out there. He’s lived it. 
He spent years on the allocator side, vetting fund managers and learning what really sticks (hint: it’s not just your track record).  
Now that he’s a fund manager himself, he’s pulling back the curtain on the truth no one wants to say out loud… 
 
Yes, being good at what you do matters, but so does luck, timing, and learning how to stack the odds in your favor.  
In this Episode, Simon and Stacy dig into:  
Why some of the most skilled fund managers don’t always win 
13 ways emerging managers can make their own luck 
What allocators actually remember after your pitch 
And why being honest, even when it’s uncomfortable, is the real differentiator 
This is Billion Dollar Backstory: Encore, because some conversations are just too good not to bring back.

About Simon Evan-Cook: 
Simon Evan-Cook is an award-winning multi-asset fund manager. In 2022 he joined Downing to set up and manage the Downing Fox range of funds. Before that he built his reputation at Premier Asset Management from 2006, where he was a senior member of their highly successful multi-asset team. He began his career with Fidelity in the late 90s, before joining Rothschild Asset Management and then Gartmore. 

Simon also writes on investment (and beyond), including a monthly column for Citywire Magazine and his investment blog on Medium.com. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family and dog, devouring movies and books, and superficially damaging European golf courses. 

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

Waiting for LinkedIn leads to fall from the sky, land in your DMs, and show up in your funnel? You might be waiting a while.
Posting matters. But there's a missing piece between the post and the people who engage with it, and that's where you go from random strangers to actual rapport (and maybe even grabbing coffee IRL). 
Stacy Havener has a weekly habit to help you fill the gap, and it's not a heavy lift.
In this Story Snack, she's sharing:
The habit she calls "clearing the deck," and why responding days late still counts
What she DMs people who engage, without asking for a single thing
How she follows up when a commenter isn't in her network yet
Why a lot of the power of LinkedIn is in the shadows, with the people who never comment
The note she sends profile viewers, and the one question that gets them talking
If your LinkedIn strategy is basically post and pray, this one's for you. You’ll walk away with quick tips that’ll help you stop waiting around for leads and start going after them (without feeling spammy or weird). 
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