From investor-ready to allocation.
Capital formation and investor relations for boutique investment managers and startups. I help you set up and run the marketing and investor-relations work between a first introduction and an allocation, and CapitalFormation.ai builds your investor materials.
After our first conversation, I’m happy to review your current deck and fund fact sheet at no charge.
Two ways to work with me.
Some managers want to set up their own marketing effort, and develop their investor materials on CapitalFormation.ai. Others prefer direct support through setup of the whole capital formation process.
Catalyst, working with me directly
Managers actively raising who want positioning, materials, a qualified investor pipeline and investor relations handled with them.
I set your positioning, build your materials, research and work your investor pipeline, and run the investor-relations work between a first meeting and an allocation.
Everything the platform produces, plus the investor pipeline, meeting preparation and follow-up, due diligence coordination and monthly performance reporting.
CapitalFormation.ai
Managers who want to build their own investor materials, at their own pace.
A guided interview gathers what is specific to your strategy, process and firm. The platform builds your materials from the answers, and first drafts arrive in minutes.
Pitch decks and investor presentations, fund fact sheets, investor letters and quarterly commentary, website copy and video scripts.
When you work with me directly, your materials are built on the same platform, from the same guided interview.
Your capital formation function.
Capital formation is an ongoing function inside your firm, and it depends on process as much as on materials. I help you build each of the four parts below as a documented process, so anyone on your team can manage it and the work stays consistent from one investor to the next.
Together, the four parts make up the Catalyst Marketing & Investor Relations (IR) System.
Before any outreach, your counsel sets the compliance perimeter: the offering approach, who may be approached, through which channels, and who approves materials. Your website, LinkedIn activity and outreach are designed around those rules.
Your story and your investor materials
Your brand identity, if you don’t already have one, your positioning (particularly vs. your peers), then your pitch deck and fund fact sheet, written in language that holds up under compliance review.
A qualified investor pipeline
The specific firms and people who can evaluate your strategy at your size, researched, prioritized and worked in a consistent rhythm.
The investor-relations function that runs alongside both
Meeting preparation, follow-up, due diligence questionnaire responses, monthly performance reporting, and a record of every conversation.
The marketing operations underneath all three
The CRM of record, and an organized file structure for promotional materials, due diligence documents and fund documents. A well-kept system saves time every week and supports your regulatory recordkeeping requirements.
These four parts stay the same as your firm grows. The volume in each part changes.
Your CapitalFormation.ai seat is included in every ongoing engagement.
Parts II and III of the 2026 Marketing Playbook set out the same work in order. Read the Playbook →
Where we start.
- Step 1In-depth interview
We start with an in-depth interview, so I understand you, your operation and your offering. CapitalFormation.ai starts the same way, with an in-depth guided interview. In both cases, your answers are the foundation of your entire marketing effort.
- Step 2Brand (if needed)
If your firm needs a brand identity, it comes next: logo development, your firm’s color palette, typography and the overall look your materials will share.
- Step 3Positioning
Positioning answers the question an allocator puts to every manager: Why this strategy? Why you? We work out what you see in the market, why the opportunity exists, and how your process captures it. Your positioning then shapes your materials, your outreach and every investor conversation.
- Step 4Pitch deck
Built on your positioning and other points from your interview. A fund pitch deck usually runs about 20 slides, more with an appendix for supporting detail. A startup deck is shorter, around 15 slides.
- Step 5Fund fact sheet / One-pager
Repurposed from your deck. Working in this order means each document says the same thing in a different register, and you start from a blank page only once. Usually 2 pages and consistent with the information in your deck, yet more concise. More performance-oriented and visual.
The investors who fit your fund or offering.
The right investor list depends on your strategy, your assets and the length of your record.
Under $100 million
The list usually starts with:
- Single-family offices with an allocator who understands your strategy
- Emerging-manager and seeding platforms, whose business is writing an early institutional ticket
- Funds of funds that consider smaller managers
- First-loss investment firms
$100 million to $250 million
The list widens to larger family offices, multi-family offices, funds of funds, consultants and OCIO platforms, and the work shifts toward consultant due diligence, database profiles and institutional questionnaires. Pension funds and endowments generally consider managers above $250 million, so this stage is about building the assets, record and infrastructure that pension funds and endowments will ask for.
Raising from early investors
The list usually starts with angel investors and angel networks, seed and early-stage venture funds, family offices that invest directly, and strategic investors in your industry.
How each firm is scored
At every stage, each firm on the list is scored for fit: experience with your strategy type, appetite for managers at your size, probable ticket size, jurisdiction and eligibility, and the right decision maker. I keep this list current as your assets and record grow.
Playbook section 09 maps who allocates at each size, from friends and family to institutions. Read section 09 →
Systems for the research and production. My (human) judgment for the rest.
Most of the work in a capital formation program goes into research, document production and administration. Research, documents and administration are largely systematized in my practice. For you, the result is speed: research and documents arrive faster, and my attention goes to the parts that need human judgment.
- How to tell your story
- Which firms are worth your time
- The conversations, the introductions, and deciding when an allocator’s interest is real
- The handoff to your counsel and compliance advisers
- Accountability for whether the process is working
How we work together.
I recommend your positioning, write your content, and oversee the design and production of your materials. I also set up the processes that run the rest of your marketing effort: lead generation, outreach and follow-up, investor relations, due diligence requests, pipeline management, PR and events. When a project needs outside design, web or video specialists, I bring in people I have worked with and manage the work through to delivery.
I work with a limited number of firms at a time. Here is what working together looks like.
We begin with a guided interview on CapitalFormation.ai about your strategy, process and firm. Your positioning and first materials are built from your answers.
A working session to review the pipeline, upcoming meetings and anything waiting on your approval.
A capital formation report showing where each investor conversation stands, along with your updated fund fact sheet and performance update once the month-end numbers are in.
One CRM and one organized file structure, so you can see every conversation, document and next step.
Reach me by phone, text or email, whichever suits you. I usually reply right away, or within a couple of hours.
Everything investor-facing goes through your review first
I work closely with your team, including legal and compliance, and write compliance-aware copy for the standards that apply to your firm, including the SEC Marketing Rule and NFA requirements for promotional material. No investor material, performance presentation, outreach or public post goes out without your approval.
I am not a third-party marketer or a placement agent. I take no transaction-based compensation for introducing investors, and my fees are not tied to your assets under management or to capital raised. No engagement can guarantee an investor meeting, a commitment or asset growth; the work covers the parts of capital formation you control.
Let’s get started.
- 01Book a call
Set up a time to talk about your fund and what you need.
- 02A complimentary review
Send me your current deck and fund fact sheet. After our first conversation, I’m happy to review them at no charge. I’ll send you written feedback: what I would change or add and why. The review is yours to use, whatever you decide.
- 03The Catalyst Overview
Engagements are scoped to your firm’s stage and needs. The Catalyst Overview sets out the options and pricing. Request a copy and I’ll send it to you within one business day.
About me.
Jennifer Bruno is the founder of Catalyst Hedge Fund Marketing, which she launched in 2017, and of the sister platform CapitalFormation.ai. She has more than 20 years in investment marketing and asset raising and holds the Series 3 (NFA). She most recently led marketing and investor relations inside a commodities multi-strategy firm.
My core philosophy: relationships come first, and the capital follows.
I founded Catalyst to help fund managers implement best practices to help form lasting relationships with allocators. I built CapitalFormation.ai so the investor materials development side of that work takes days instead of months.
Meet Capital Formation Intelligence.
CapitalFormation.ai helps boutique investment managers go from not ready for allocator meetings to investor-ready in a matter of minutes or days instead of weeks or months. A guided interview gathers what is specific to your strategy, and the platform builds your materials from the answers.
- Pitch decks and investor presentations
- Fund fact sheets
- Investor letters and quarterly commentary
- Website copy
- Video scripts
How access works
- Step 1Apply
Tell us about your firm, your stage and what you’re raising. Every application is reviewed personally.
- Step 2Complete your interview
A patent-pending guided interview of roughly 100 questions tailored to your strategy, structure and audience. A few hours to a few days, at your pace.
- Step 3Review your drafts
Your answers become drafts of your deck, fund fact sheet and investor communications. First drafts arrive in minutes, and you refine them inside the platform.
Create your full set of investor materials, not just one deck or a fixed number of documents.
Continue creating, refining and updating your investor materials. No minimum ongoing commitment.
For firms creating and maintaining investor materials across multiple funds, strategies or offerings.
All plans require an approved application. Full features and current pricing are on the platform.
Want your investor pipeline, outreach and reporting set up with you? See Consulting. Questions about the platform: jen@capitalformation.aiBuilt for the full range of capital raisers.
Catalyst and the platform serve firms that need to tell a clear story to sophisticated investors: asset managers raising across alternatives, wealth managers and RIAs building client-facing practices, and startups raising capital.
Hedge funds
Launch messaging, investor letters and capital raise systems.
CTAs and managed futures funds
Program narratives, performance reporting and allocator-ready positioning.
Venture capital funds
Thesis-first positioning and LP updates for emerging and established managers.
Digital asset funds
Clear narratives that explain novel strategies to institutional investors.
Private equity and real estate funds
Fund narratives, due diligence questionnaires and LP communications.
Wealth managers and RIAs
Practice positioning, client communications and growth systems.
Startups
Pitch decks, investor narratives and a fundraising process for founders raising capital.
The 2026 Marketing Playbook for Boutique Investment Firms.
A step-by-step plan for emerging fund managers: build a viable firm, get ready to market, and run a capital raise on relationships that last.
Enter your email and I’ll send you the PDF and the Year 1 worksheet.
- Part IA Viable Firm
Makes sure the firm underneath the marketing is viable: economics, seed strategy, foundation.
- 01The mindset: capital follows connection
- 02The economics of survival: break-even, working capital, and viability
- 03Seed capital and the launch ladder, to $100M and beyond
- 04The foundation build: counsel, providers, structure, fine print
- Part IIReady to Market
Gets you ready to market: the story, the materials library, diligence readiness and a go / no-go gate.
- 05The story and positioning: your story, your edge, your process
- 06The investor materials library: every document you need
- 07Diligence readiness: the data room or folder, built before they ask
- 08The readiness gate: go / no-go
- Part IIIThe Plan
Who you’ll approach, how you’ll build each relationship, and the system that keeps it moving.
- 09Map your investor universe: who allocates at your size
- 10Building the relationship: trust, suitability, and expectations
- 11Channels: warm outbound, referrals, borrowed audiences
- 12Capital introduction and third-party marketers
- 13The meeting craft: the first meeting’s job is getting the second meeting
- 14The cadence system: the rhythm that raises
- Part IVThe Long Game
Mistakes to avoid, what 2026 changes, and a first-year operating plan.
- 15Mistakes to avoid
- 162026 changes: new rules, new tools, same relationships
- 17The first-year operating plan
If you’re mid-raise already, start at the readiness gate. It will tell you what to fix first.
The first diligence question: “Will you be here in year three?”
Allocators underwrite the business as well as the strategy. A forced wind-down means a redemption at a bad moment and an awkward conversation with their committee, so they look at revenue, costs, and runway. Do that math before they do.
01The break-even reality
A lean, outsourced launch (fund-specialist counsel, administrator, audit and tax, outsourced compliance, technology and data, insurance) commonly runs into the mid-six figures a year before anyone takes a salary. Add even a small team and the real number moves toward and past $1M.
Now run the revenue side at today’s fee levels:
| Fund AUM | Management fee revenue at 1.5% / at 1.25% | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| $10M | $150K / $125K | Covers a fraction of a real operating budget. The firm runs on working capital. |
| $25M | $375K / $312K | Still short of lean break-even, with no salaries and no cushion. |
| $50M | $750K / $625K | A disciplined shop can approach break-even. A team strains it. |
| $100M | $1.5M / $1.25M | The firm stands on its own, which is one of several reasons $100M is the threshold that matters. |
Illustrative ranges rather than quotes. Your counsel, administrator, and service agreements set your real numbers.
Run this table with them before you run it for an allocator.
02The 3-5 year working-capital standard
Sophisticated allocators expect a new firm to demonstrate it can operate for three to five years without management fees covering costs, whether from personal capital, partners’ capital, or a seed arrangement.
Operational due diligence will often ask for management-company financials, and an undercapitalized firm is a common reason for a decline.
Capital runway is also negotiating power: the manager with three years of working capital isn’t desperate and can pick the ‘right’ investor relationships.
03Design the fees so the math works
Two-and-twenty is no longer the default. A clean 1.5-and-20, or 1.25-and-17.5, or 1.5-and-15, is closer to what new managers are launching with today. Managers with strong prior track records, capacity-constrained strategies, or institutional seeding can still push toward 2-and-20, but for a first fund it is now the exception.
At a small launch AUM, 1.5% may not cover operating expenses; at other launches it prices you out of your first investors before the runway ends.
Model it like a founder: what must fees cover, at what asset level, and by when?
Founder share classes with reduced fees for early capital are standard practice now, and the design tells an allocator you’ve done the math on your own survival.
This guide is educational material. Nothing in it is legal, compliance, tax, or investment advice, and no part of it should be treated as a substitute for qualified fund counsel or your compliance provider. Disclosure language for your documents must come from your counsel, never from a template and never from a generative tool. Dollar figures shown are illustrative industry ranges rather than quotes.
Resources for fund marketing and investor relations.
Practical guides for setting up marketing and investor relations at a boutique investment firm, starting with the 2026 Marketing Playbook. Articles on investor materials come from the sister site, CapitalFormation.ai.
Two ways to start.
Book a call to talk about your fund and what you need. Send me your current deck and fund fact sheet, and after our first conversation I’ll send you a high-level review at no charge. If you prefer to build your own materials, start at capitalformation.ai.