This week on Swimming with Allocators, Alexa and I welcome Mike Kakenmaster, Director of Investments at Loyola University Chicago, for a conversation about what it really looks like to build a modern private capital and venture program inside a smaller endowment.
Mike brings a wide lens to the allocator seat. Before Loyola, he spent time across hedge funds, a family office, and multiple asset classes, which now shapes how he evaluates risk, opportunity, and cycles. That generalist perspective matters, especially in a market where LP attention keeps shifting between private markets, hedge funds, credit, buyout, and venture.
We get into how Loyola doubled its private capital allocation, why the team moved deliberately into venture instead of chasing brand-name access, and how Mike thinks about early-stage track records, manager quality, reserves, portfolio construction, access, networks, and the underlying quality of founders and companies.
One theme I appreciated: smaller and emerging managers can be compelling, but only when the strategy, discipline, and judgment are real.
We also hear from Chuck Daly of Sidley on what first-time fund managers need to understand about building operational and governance infrastructure from the beginning. That includes disclosures, conflicts of interest, LP communication, and the basic but important work of treating the firm like a real business before the market forces you to.
A sharp conversation for anyone thinking seriously about how endowments build venture exposure, how emerging managers earn trust, and how institutional discipline shows up long before a fund is “institutional.”
Check it out. - earn