The Five Investors You’ll Meet as a Real Estate Sponsor
The Five Investors You’ll Meet as a Real Estate Sponsor
And the roles they all play in Thesis Driven’s newest course
On June 19-20th we’re hosting Thesis Driven’s newest course, “Fundamentals of Capital Raising” at 3 WTC in NYC.
It provides new and emerging real estate entrepreneurs with a playbook to raise capital from individuals, family offices and institutional investors—alongside a community of peers to network, collaborate and share wins along the way. More info here.
The course will take a case-based learning approach around a fundraise for Washington Place, a fictional 20-unit multifamily project in an up-and-coming neighborhood in “Big Apple City”.
The course will follow the trials and tribulations of Sam—the sponsor buying the property—as he identifies, markets to, and eventually raises money from five different types of investors:
Allie, the Accredited Investor
Fred, the Family Office Investor
Ralph, the Real Estate Private Equity Investor
Hazel, the Hedge Fund Investor
Philip, the Pension Fund Investor
Disclaimer: all characters, companies and events in this course are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
Welcome to Washington Place!
Washington Place is a 20-unit multifamily building in Big Apple City that has been family-owned and operated for three generations but is now coming on the market for sale for $20 million.
Sam–who owns a multifamily management company that specializes in providing tenants flexible and furnished accommodations–is planning to acquire the building, refresh the units, and operate it with his management company.
To do so, he will need to successfully raise equity capital for the project in a challenging market environment, so will be forced to explore multiple sources of investment and structures from each of the five investor types in order to increase his chances of success.
Meet the Investors
Allie, the Accredited Investor
Allie, 42, is currently the CMO of a fintech company and manages the personal investment portfolio of her and her husband.
Allie views real estate investments as an opportunity to diversify her portfolio and is seeking unique or niche opportunities that can provide substantial above market returns in the “high teens to low 20s”. She is able to make quick decisions, has a relatively flexible hold period (5-10 years), and is happy to be a passive investor.
But her check size is $500k to $1 million, so her investment will have to be pooled with other limited partners in order to capitalize Washington Place (unless she invests as a co-GP).
Fred, the Family Office Investor
Fred, 38, worked in investment banking out of college and then went to a quant trading firm in his early 30s, making enough money to retire comfortably at 34. He spent a year as a ski bum but quickly got bored and decided to run the family office for a Texas oil billionaire.
Fred seeks value-add opportunities and distressed assets that can offer significant appreciation, aiming for solid returns in the “low teens to high teens” range. Fred has a long-term investment horizon (often 10+ years) and prefers investments that align with intergenerational wealth transfer goals, i.e., money for the grandkids.
While Fred can provide substantial capital to Sam (up to $20 million) and has a deep understanding of the Big Apple real estate market, his decision-making process can be very slow as he needs to get approval from multiple family members.
Ralph, the Real Estate Private Equity Investor
Ralph, 34, graduated at the top of his class from Wharton’s real estate program and went directly into real estate private equity as an analyst at a global PE firm. He recently left to follow his former boss to his new firm as a junior partner, where they just raised their first $700 million closed-end fund.
Ralph is primarily focused on structuring strategic joint ventures with sponsors and is focused on value-add and opportunistic strategies. He aims for returns in the “high teens to low 20s” and is very “hands-on” to ensure maximum value is created and nothing slips between the cracks.
Ralph has a medium-term investment horizon (typically 5-7 years), driven by the fund lifecycle and the need to return capital to investors.
Ralph brings significant expertise and up to $100mm in equity capital (he will only do this deal with Sam if it is programmatic, i.e., this is part of multiple deals), but he will require significant controls over the projects and take aggressive fees.
Hazel, the Hedge Fund Investor
Hazel, 50, earned her undergrad and MBA from Stanford, then quickly climbed the ranks at a large private debt fund before becoming the head of real assets at a Miami-based hedge fund.
Hazel is focused on identifying real estate and infrastructure investments that offer potential for rapid appreciation, aiming for returns in the “low 20s to high 20s” range. Unlike Ralph, Hazel’s hedge fund approach utilizes significant leverage to amplify returns. She prefers shorter holding periods (typically 3-5 years) to realize quick gains and reallocate capital efficiently.
Hazel can provide up to $50 million in equity capital, likely via a programmatic structure. However, her approach can be highly volatile and driven by short-term performance metrics, leading to potentially higher turnover.
Philip, the Pension Fund Investor
Philip, 55, graduated from The Ohio State and since has dedicated the last 30 years to investing in real estate for his state’s pension fund.
Philip prioritizes stable, long-term returns and focuses on core and core-plus investments that offer steady income and capital preservation. He aims for returns in the “mid to high single digits,” reflecting a lower risk tolerance compared to more aggressive investors. Philip’s investment horizon is very long-term (often 10-20 years or more), aligning with the pension fund’s goal of meeting future liabilities.
Philip can provide up to $200 million in equity capital, but his conservative approach and bureaucratic decision-making process can limit flexibility and responsiveness to more opportunistic investments.
The Thesis Driven course will cover a detailed “insider’s view” of Sam’s capital raising experience from this diverse crowd of investors, including:
Understanding and identifying each investor profile,
Comparing investment structures and legal frameworks for the different investor types,
Preparing marketing and underwriting materials,
Running the outreach process, and
Negotiating term sheets and closing documents.
At the end of the course there will be an applied learning exercise, where students will put what they’ve learned over the two days into practice–presenting their own capital raising pitch to the group.
Course attendees will come away with a fundamental understanding of the capital raising process for each investor type as well as best practices for marketing, outreach and negotiating LP/GP equity terms. Most importantly, they will be connected to a community of peers with whom they can share their real life capital raising journeys going forward!
Spots are mostly filled, but we’re still accepting applications. Sign up here.
—Paul Stanton and Brad Hargreaves
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