In September 2026, McGuireWoods held the inaugural McGuireWoods Emerging Manager Conference — Beyond Buyouts, convening emerging managers and limited partners across growth equity, venture capital, private credit, real assets, and other non-buyout strategies for two days of meaningful networking and insightful discussions on the evolving emerging manager landscape. Through dedicated one-on-one speed-networking meetings and conversations with leading industry voices, attendees explored the market dynamics, opportunities and challenges shaping today’s fundraising and investment environment across the capital stack.
Several key themes emerged throughout the conference. While limited partners remain receptive to high-potential emerging managers, capital is being allocated more selectively amid increasingly rigorous due diligence standards. Discussions emphasized that building meaningful relationships requires sustained, authentic engagement extending well beyond the fundraising process, with managers who prioritize these connections better positioned to translate initial interest into lasting partnerships. Speakers also highlighted the importance of disciplined strategy execution, creative deal structuring and adaptability in navigating evolving market conditions and building durable investment platforms across non-buyout strategies.
The conference offered actionable insights into LP engagement, investment opportunities, firm building and relationship management. Read on for key takeaways and perspectives from each panel on navigating today’s evolving emerging manager landscape.
The 2026 LP Allocation Environment: What Gets an Emerging Manager Funded Today?
The LP allocation environment has shown signs of stabilization following the challenging 2022–2023 period, when public market declines triggered denominator effects and prompted many institutional investors to reduce private market commitments. A recovering IPO market and increased M&A activity are helping improve distributions, while new wealth creation, particularly among family offices, continues to introduce fresh sources of capital. Nevertheless, a pronounced flight to quality persists globally.
For LPs focused on emerging managers, including endowments, foundations and family offices, the market remains active for managers demonstrating strong potential. Several panelists noted that their institutions have maintained consistent commitment pacing and continue to seek new managers, with some allocating 75% or more of their private markets portfolios to funds in the second through fourth vintage range. At the same time, larger institutional investors are increasingly active in the lower middle market, creating competitive dynamics that can disrupt fundraising timelines and require smaller allocators to pay closer attention to LP composition within their target funds.
The message for emerging managers is clear: the market remains open, but selectivity is paramount. Capital is available to managers who can articulate a differentiated strategy, demonstrate conviction through personal commitment and provide early evidence of disciplined execution.
Across strategies, LPs evaluate emerging managers through a consistent lens that begins with track record but extends well beyond performance metrics. Panelists emphasized that while a strong track record is foundational, equally important is a manager’s ability to explain how those results were achieved, their specific contribution to value creation and how their background, experience and network provide a competitive advantage in their target market. LPs also want to understand what makes that approach repeatable over time.
Panelists acknowledged that emerging managers often have limited track records that may be difficult to isolate or fully attribute, particularly when spinning out of larger platforms. As a result, LPs increasingly take a forward-looking approach to evaluating prior performance, focusing on how managers sourced opportunities, structured investments and created value in previous roles. References, both on-list and off-list, remain critical to validating these claims, with much of the substantive diligence taking place through informal conversations with former colleagues, portfolio company executives and other market participants.
Culture is another important differentiator that LPs assess through in-person meetings, team dynamics, transparency in communication and interpersonal interactions. A manager’s willingness to speak candidly about mistakes, lessons learned and outcomes that did not go as planned reflects intellectual curiosity and self-awareness, qualities that help establish credibility and trust.
Institutional readiness also remains a key consideration. While LPs do not expect first-time fund managers to have a fully developed infrastructure, they do expect a thoughtful plan for building it. Established service providers, a clear vision for back-office operations and, for managers seeking international capital, an appropriate offshore fund structure all demonstrate a commitment to building a sustainable platform.
Anchor and seed arrangements are becoming increasingly common, and LPs often view them favorably when structured appropriately. However, panelists cautioned managers to carefully consider the long-term implications of giving up economics or governance rights early in a firm’s lifecycle, particularly when arrangements extend beyond the first fund. The central question is whether these partnerships accelerate a manager’s ability to execute and grow or introduce structural constraints that could complicate future fundraising efforts.
What We Wish We Knew Before Fund One
Panelists who successfully launched and closed blind pool funds shared firsthand lessons on the realities of building an investment firm. A recurring theme was the breadth of responsibilities involved in launching a fund, with several managers acknowledging that they significantly underestimated the time and resources required for non-investment activities, from establishing office operations and compliance infrastructure to managing teams and LP reporting.
On fundraising, the message was consistent: the process often takes longer than anticipated, market conditions can shift considerably and assumptions about LP commitments must be continually reassessed. Several panelists reflected on raising capital during the challenging 2022–2023 period, when denominator effects, geopolitical uncertainty and a pronounced flight to quality complicated early closes and extended fundraising timelines. Their advice was to prepare for a prolonged downturn, assuming fundraising will be more difficult than projected and structuring teams and budgets accordingly.
Strategic adaptability emerged as another important lesson. One panelist described launching in 2023 with a strategy evenly split between buyouts and growth equity, only to encounter unrealistic seller expectations around valuation multiples. In response, the team pivoted toward highly structured senior equity investments with strong downside protection, generating what the panelist characterized as some of the strongest risk-adjusted returns of his career. Transparency with LPs proved essential, as investors understood the market dynamics and favored disciplined adaptation over rigid adherence to a strategy that had become less attractive.
On fund economics, panelists underscored the importance of protecting management fees, which provide the essential revenue needed to attract and retain talent and build a sustainable firm. While tiered carried interest structures and other concessions may be appropriate to secure anchor investors, managers were cautioned against sacrificing economics that could compromise their ability to execute. Research on emerging manager performance suggests that reducing management fees too aggressively can negatively affect returns by diverting managers’ attention from their core investment responsibilities.
Early investment in operations and financial infrastructure was also identified as one of the most important, yet frequently underestimated, priorities. Panelists stressed that hiring for cultural alignment is non-negotiable, particularly in smaller organizations where a poor hiring decision can have a disproportionate impact. Successful firms take a deliberate approach to hiring, prioritize culture over expediency and build teams united by a shared sense of purpose.
Relationships That Compound: Winning LPs, Co-Investors and Strategic Partners
Cold introductions and warm referrals may open doors, but earning trust and ultimately securing commitments from LPs, co-investors and strategic partners requires a thoughtful, long-term approach that extends well beyond the fundraising cycle. In a discussion led by McGuireWoods partner Abdul-Rahman Lediju, panelists characterized the LP allocation process as one of exclusion rather than inclusion. Institutional allocators typically approach the market with a defined set of investment criteria, making a manager’s first priority to avoid being screened out. This requires polished materials, a clearly articulated investment strategy and a compelling presentation that gives LPs no immediate reason to decline.
The most effective relationship-building strategies center on understanding the LP’s business, mandate and decision-making process. Panelists stressed the importance of asking direct questions — “Why did you take this meeting?”; “What is your process?”; “What does your portfolio need?” — and then listening carefully to the responses. Capturing those insights systematically in a CRM and using them to deliver relevant, timely content over months and years is what separates managers who build lasting relationships from those who are simply staying in touch.
Co-investment has become an increasingly valuable tool for strengthening LP conviction and maintaining engagement between fundraises. When LPs can observe a manager’s investment approach in real time, rather than simply hearing about it, the relationship evolves from a fundraising pitch into a partnership. Panelists also highlighted secondary sales, SPVs and other creative structures as opportunities to deepen alignment and create additional touchpoints with prospective and existing investors.
Content and events are also important components of the engagement toolkit, but panelists cautioned against lengthy quarterly letters that often go unread. Concise, compelling communications, including multimedia updates and brief video summaries, tend to resonate more effectively than traditional white papers. Smaller, curated gatherings that bring together operators, founders and investors for meaningful dialogue were also described as generating higher conversion rates than larger, more formal events.
LPs, in turn, emphasized the importance of open, two-way communication. Building relationships across multiple levels of an organization, rather than focusing solely on senior decision-makers, fosters stronger institutional connections. When an LP declines a fund commitment or co-investment opportunity, responding graciously and maintaining the relationship can often lay the foundation for a future partnership.
Across the Capital Stack: Where Are the Best Opportunities Today?
Beyond fundraising and relationship building, the conference explored compelling investment opportunities across non-buyout strategies. In a discussion led by McGuireWoods partner Jason Griffith, panelists emphasized leveraging their core strengths rather than simply seeking undervalued or overlooked businesses. Their focus was on pursuing investments where their competitive advantages, structural edge or distinct capabilities could create opportunities for enhanced returns.
When asked how to identify value in an increasingly competitive market where valuations remain elevated, panelists reframed the discussion. Rather than focusing solely on securing lower entry prices, each shared distinct approaches to pursuing attractive, well-performing businesses. Instead of seeking opportunities overlooked by other investors, they emphasized competing for and securing investments in the highest-quality businesses.
Panelists highlighted creative deal structures and investment terms, while also emphasizing the value of bringing commercial relationships and deep sector expertise to their investments. They encouraged managers to find ways to secure attractive deals without relying on discounted pricing, then support business growth to deliver compelling risk-adjusted returns to LPs. This approach is particularly relevant in the current environment, where traditional growth equity valuations remain elevated and founders are willing to offer structural protections in exchange for retaining control and securing higher headline valuations.
AI is shaping the investment landscape in two distinct categories. AI-agnostic businesses, with strong competitive moats and limited exposure to AI disruption, offer durable customer bases and opportunities to expand existing platforms. AI-enhanced businesses can leverage AI to improve profitability, develop new products and access new markets. Managers with the expertise and relationships to help portfolio companies capitalize on these AI-driven opportunities are positioned to create meaningful value.
Deep tech and dual-use investing continue to attract significant capital, although panelists cautioned against frothy valuations in certain sectors. Opportunities are particularly compelling among companies that have moved beyond proof of concept and demonstrated the ability to scale production profitably. AI-enabling infrastructure, including data center efficiency, photonic chips and energy-efficient data transmission, was highlighted as an attractive area.
Sports investing continues to mature as an asset class, offering compelling growth potential, recession resilience, high barriers to entry and limited correlation with other asset classes. Women’s sports, in particular, are at an inflection point, as sustained growth in fan engagement increasingly translates into commercial opportunities through sponsorships and media rights. Panelists also highlighted opportunities to build platforms across fragmented sports-adjacent industries, including technology, media, entertainment and ancillary services, which offer attractive risk-adjusted returns with more conventional underwriting than direct team ownership.
Conclusion
Discussions throughout the conference underscored a shared set of priorities among LPs and GPs: disciplined execution, authentic relationships, creative deal structuring and long-term alignment. While opportunities across non-buyout strategies continue to expand and evolve, LP expectations remain high. For emerging managers, success requires more than a compelling investment thesis; it demands the operational infrastructure, strong team culture and lasting relationships needed to build a sustainable institutional platform.
These insights reinforce the mission of the McGuireWoods Emerging Manager Program to support emerging managers through meaningful connections, thought leadership and engagement with institutional capital providers.
SAVE THE DATE
Join us for the 5th Annual McGuireWoods Emerging Manager Conference — Buyouts, taking place April 6–7, 2027, in Dallas. The conference will convene emerging managers and limited partners focused on buyout strategies.
Be part of the conversation.