Henri Pierre-Jacques, Managing Partner of Harlem Capital, explains how TPG served as the anchor LP for Fund 1 and helped introduce and endorse Harlem Capital to institutional investors.
“TPG was our anchor in fund one. Right. So one of our high net worths introduced us to TPG November of, Ninth, November of 18, and we had a bunch of conversations. We were doing this for five, six months back and forth, met probably 45 partners. It was a six-month process, and TPG ended up being the anchor for our fund, and once we had them, like, they actually were really big advocates for us, right? So we did a big press release on in the Wall Street Journal. We had fundraising meetings, like, we literally went to Boston, I remember, and they had one of their fundraising team members come with us in the car, and we drove to every institution, and we went to Brandeis, went to Harvard, went to a couple family offices, and like, They had a rep like next to us who was supporting us and we would do our pitch. And then if they ask any questions about TPG, the rep would say, Hey, this is why TPG is supporting them. So that was really helpful. And we got two of our other six institutions from TPG. So three of our six came directly from the TPG relationship which was super powerful, man.”
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Opinion
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PredictionNot checkable as stated
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Insight
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AssertionPartly supported
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AssertionSupported
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