Case Study: Aligned Ventures
Every few weeks, I’m going to do a case study on a firm that’s doing it right, in terms of attracting LPs. Typically, I focus on firms that not only have great top-of-funnel marketing to attract LPs, but are also running a really solid sales playbook.
Aligned Ventures, a New York firm in the real estate sector, is led by Arnold Olshanesky. He hosts "Winning In Real Estate" podcast, where he discusses various aspects of real estate investment, including strategies for achieving financial independence through passive investing, navigating tax laws, and exploring different investment vehicles such as self-storage.
The podcast features industry experts sharing their insights and experiences, aiming to inspire listeners to succeed in the real estate market. The firm’s really dialed in to generating passive income through strategic property acquisitions, reflecting a broader trend in the real estate sector towards value-add opportunities.
The firm's success in content strategy can be attributed to about 6 key factors:
1. Relevance and Expertise: Aligned Ventures showcases a deep understanding of the real estate industry by addressing current trends, challenges, and opportunities. This is further enriched by featuring interviews with industry experts like Lee Yoder, Bronson Hill, Matt Bontrager, and Jim Pfeifer adding credibility and diverse insights to their content.
2. Focus on Financial Independence: The firm emphasizes achieving financial independence through passive investing, resonating with investors at various stages, from retail to accredited, seeking to diversify their income streams.
3. Strategic Use of Digital Platforms: By leveraging podcasts and social media, Aligned Ventures effectively reaches and engages a wider audience, making its content accessible and convenient for consumption. You can listen to their content on any podcast platform, like Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, where it has a 5-star rating. These kinds of things are important!
4. Consistency and Quality: Regular content delivery of high quality establishes trust and keeps the audience informed and engaged over time, building a reliable relationship with investors.
5. Transparent Portfolio Presentation: Unlike many investment firms, Aligned Ventures excels in presenting its portfolio on its website with exceptional clarity. Each property is detailed with key metrics such as unit counts, targeted financial metrics like Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Cash on Cash (CoC) return, and Equity Multiple (EM), demonstrating the firm's commitment to transparency and providing potential investors with the necessary information to make informed decisions.
6. Make Booking Discovery Calls Easy: Frankly, I often only see this on a few investment firms websites. I recall that my former client Aspen Funds did a great job of this. Aligned makes booking discovery calls easy and prominently places the Book A Call button on their site in a number of places.
One thing to remember - running a great LP pipeline isn’t just about creating great content on a regular basis, but also about (1) sharing and syndicating this content very widely, (2) keeping and nurturing a huge store of curated LP data and (3) managing an enormous LP pipeline.