What post-liquidity founders ask first
The first questions are almost never about returns. Advisors who work with founders in the 90 days after a sale or IPO lockup report a remarkably consistent order of inquiry. First: how do I not feel like an idiot at dinner when someone mentions private credit, exchange funds, or a family office? Second: who can I actually trust, and how do I tell. Third: what do I tell my parents, my siblings, and my partner without permanently changing those relationships. Only fourth, sometimes fifth, does portfolio construction enter the conversation. The founders who navigate this window well treat the first three questions as the actual work and spend real time on them, usually inside a peer group, occasionally with a single trusted generalist advisor. The ones who start with asset allocation tend to revisit it painfully a year or two later. The vocabulary matters. The relationships matter more.
The first questions are almost never about returns. Advisors who work with founders in the 90 days after a sale or IPO lockup report a remarkably consistent order of inquiry.
First: how do I not feel like an idiot at dinner when someone mentions private credit, exchange funds, or a family office? Second: who can I actually trust, and how do I tell. Third: what do I tell my parents, my siblings, and my partner without permanently changing those relationships.
Only fourth, sometimes fifth, does portfolio construction enter the conversation. The founders who navigate this window well treat the first three questions as the actual work and spend real time on them, usually inside a peer group, occasionally with a single trusted generalist advisor. The ones who start with asset allocation tend to revisit it painfully a year or two later. The vocabulary matters. The relationships matter more.