Amy Volas

I help SaaS startups hire executive Sales and CS leaders without the cringe ⋆ Personally closed $100MM+ ⋆ 2 Exits ⋆ LP ⋆ Strategic Advisor ⋆ Speaker ⋆ Writing My First Book

I don’t believe in guesswork hiring. And I don’t do transactional anything.

I work with founders, CEOs, and investors who are tired of wasting time, money, and trust on Sales and CS executive hires that don’t stick... or worse, do damage.

Because here's the thing:

A bad executive hire isn’t just a hiccup.
It’s a domino effect that fractures teams, tanks morale, stalls growth, and erodes boardroom credibility.

I’ve seen it all:

▸ CEOs and founders covering for a Sales leader who’s lost the room
▸ Execs spending more time firefighting than scaling
▸ Boards questioning if you can hire while the burn rate screams you can't
▸ Reacting to noise, chasing titles, and hiring before knowing what you’re actually solving for
▸ Watching progress stall, targets slip, and the trust in your decision-making fade

Sound familiar? You’re not alone. 
And, there’s a better way.

I'm Amy Volas, founder of Avenue Talent Partners (ATP).

Since 2015, I’ve helped tech founders and CEOs get executive GTM hiring right the first time, without the fluff, without the guesswork, and without the cleanup later.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗧𝗣:

𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵

Intentional, high-impact GTM hires that drive growth while sidestepping expensive missteps. 

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝗦™ 𝗯𝘆 𝗔𝗧𝗣

When a search isn’t needed, but clarity is. Our proven hiring system that structures hiring for scale, eliminates guesswork, and arms you with the clarity, data, and process your board expects.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲? 20%
𝗔𝗧𝗣 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀? 80%+ and a 98% interview-to-hire success rate

Because it’s not just about who you hire.
It’s about why the hire is happening, how the process is run, and whether it fuels the kind of team that scales, not stalls.

I’m not for everyone, and that’s okay.
The founders, CEOs, and investors who get the best results with me:

▸ Prioritize hiring as a core strategy
▸ Embrace real, open communication
▸ Value people over transactions
▸ Think beyond the next quarter
▸ Know asking for help is a strength, not a weakness

Hiring is hard.
It’s supposed to be.

But it’s also the highest-leverage move you’ll ever make.

Let’s make people strategy your secret weapon.

We partner with focused executives who know the best products don’t always win, but the best teams do.

Ready to build one? So are we.

Founder & CEO

Great executives aren't hired on guesswork.

And starting + scaling a business is no joke.

The odds are against you and the people you hire to grow your business can make or break your ability to defy those odds.

The dynamic world of sales in early- stage startups is complex, busy, and ever-changing.

Trying to uncover, engage, and hire the cream of the crop is challenging when your plate is already full and the average tenure is 19 months for a VP of Sales.

That's why Avenue Talent Partners was built…

We help startups hire the right executive revenue leaders to defy the turnover odds to truly grow and scale.

The best part? We do it without the cringe!

With a collective sales experience of 40+ years and $100MM+ in deals closed, ATP's team knows what it takes to win at startup sales.

We're the recruiting firm you should be working with if you...

▹ Want to defy the odds of hiring the right sales leader who will stick around for more than 19 months

▹ Want to hire a high-growth sales leader who will build/lead a team to drive growth for the long haul

▹ Want a recruiting partner who speaks the sales language fluently, knows how to vet the right person for your stage of business, and has the experience to back it up

▹ Want a recruiting partner who truly cares about your success, takes the time to understand what you need, and knows exactly how to help

▹ Want a recruiting partner that celebrates candidate experience while representing your brand well throughout the recruiting process regardless of the outcome

The depth and breadth of our sales and startup experience coupled with our second to none people-centric, process-driven approach is here to help you get sales hiring right the first time to avoid the painful effects of a mishire.

Nothing you do is more important than finding and hiring the right people; we work tirelessly to help you do just that.

Grow your investment boutique 📈 Founder / CEO @ Havener ⭐ $30B AUM for boutiques w/ The Billion Dollar Blueprint™ 💲 Story-led sales & marketing for founders, fund mgrs, and teams 🎤 Speaker ▪ Podcast Host

Hi, I’m Stacy - a blue-collar girl from the Berkshires who turned a way with words and love of numbers into a business that has raised billions for boutique asset managers.
 
I’ve raised $8B+ for new/undiscovered funds that led to $30B+ in follow-on AUM.

Being a female founder in the male-dominated investment industry at the age of 30 required a huge leap of faith in connecting two tribes: talented boutique asset managers and early adopter investors.

The leap of faith was spot on. 

10+ years later, Havener Capital Partners leads the industry in helping investment boutiques grow. We help clients in three ways: (1) Embedded as part of your sales and marketing team (2) Consulting on sales and marketing efforts with you (3) Coaching you and your team in our membership community

Whether it’s consulting and masterminds, expanding sales and marketing capabilities, or connecting to our network of RIAs and family offices, clients benefit from an expert team and a time-tested framework that has raised billions for boutiques.

If I can be of assistance, please reach out at stacy@havenercapital.com

A little more about me: 

I’m obsessed with all things old school – hip-hop music, classic cars, craft cocktails and vintage furniture. My best lessons in life were learned on the soccer field where I went from picking flowers at the age of 9, to playing on all-boy teams, to becoming an Academic All-American in college. 

Most days you will find me at our office in the city-by-the sea, Newport, RI, sitting next to my reggae-loving husband (who is also my business partner), with a Dunkin Donuts coffee in my hand, and our rescue pitbull at my feet. In addition to building a business together, Erik and I are raising a daughter which is by far my favorite adventure. 

At the heart of it all, there is one thing I believe in – underdogs. Doesn’t matter who we are or what industry we are in, we all start from the bottom; we have all been underdogs. This rebel spirit fuels me every day.

Stacy Havener

For years I believed hard work alone would expand my career.

What I’ve learned since is simpler and more difficult simul:

*Opportunity expands when you choose to be seen.*

(pausing to let that sink in for a minute)

Sounds simple but as we know simple doesn't mean easy 

-- Opportunity didn't happen for me when I was grinding quietly in the shadows

-- It didn't happen while I hid behind a curtain and waited for it to fall from the sky 

-- Opportunity happened when I stepped into the light

And anyone who has done this knows, it's not easy to own your story and your value, to show it, and to claim it. 

It can feel like self-promotion
I think that's what one of the most difficult things about visibility
It feels braggy or egotistical or something we don't want to be

It turns out that visibility is also generosity
It is inspirational 
It is impactful

My bravery to step out of the shadows and create opportunity helped others do the same

The Visibility Effect™ is a framework,  keynote speech, and practicum I am developing for 2026. 

It's the culmination not just of my work
But of my own experience

I am honored to be debuting this framework and keynote with a $50B asset manager in Q1 🙌💐

Can't wait to share more with you about The Visibility Effect. 

Visibility is not about chasing opportunity.

It's a script flip. 

It's becoming known for something valuable enough that opportunity starts chasing you.

And... it helps you create opportunity for others. 

This blue collar kid kicked her soccer ball to Wall Street and turned a way with words into billions of dollars. 

We can do hard things my friends. 
And we will.

(Gah. This post hits me right in the heart. I hope it inspires you too.)

I struggled with visibility for 20+ yrs. Here's what changed my mind (then changed my life)

It's hard for people to believe that I am an introvert bc I am out here on a beach talking to my phone (yes it's super weird)

or taking photos in a London tube station while people walk by me and I want to melt into my embarrassment (real talk this happened)

Here's what changed

and why I keep showing up despite the spoonfuls of awkward sauce 

(It's also the crux of The Visibility Effect™)

-- I got thank you notes in my DMs from people who related to my words 

-- I got phone calls from sweet and slightly nervous fund managers needing help

-- I got emails from founders who said I feel like you are talking to me

The most difficult thing about stepping into the light is how self-centered, braggy, me me me, it feels

But

Owning our story and sharing it helps other people. If we do it authenticaly, it's actually a give (pause, let that sink in)

It helps other people
It gives them hope 
It inspires them

Once I saw that impact, I vowed to work thru my own awkward issues

And then those gives turned into incredible gains professionally for my business and personally for my life 

It's a Give-Gain Flywheel

The ante is steep - putting ourselves out there

If you are feeling weird about it, that's so normal

Maybe tell yourself of this: 
be the person you needed

- when you were younger
- when you were starting out
- when you were struggling

Your authenticity is a give

We need your face and your voice and your words

It's not about you even tho it feels like it is all about you 🙌💐

Play thru it and let your inspiration of someone else inspire you

👉 Anyone else experience this Give Gain Flywheel effect? Tell us how you worked thru the awkwardneas of visibility.

Studies say that 7 vacations a year for 3-4 days is optimal. I completely disagree. 

More frequent shorter vacations might work for some. 
It's a total bust for me. 

I don’t take 7 vacations a year.
I take 2 to 3.
But they are over 7 days each. 

In fact, two weeks minimum.

Because here's what my research says:

• The first 3 days I’m still answering emails in my head (and on my laptop)

• By day 5, I stop checking my phone every hour.

• Around day 7 my mind finally exhales.

That’s when the real vacation starts.
That's where I am this morning (finally)

When I took shorter vacations, I'd never really rest or restore

I'd either still be in work mode
or 
I'd be partying like it was 1999 and need a vacation from my vacation when I got back

I have learned that I need time on my side and 14 days is my minimum

There is another added benefit of a 2 week break

Our team gets to step up without me as a safety net.

In 3 days, stuff can wait til the "boss" is back
In 14 days, the team is the boss

Will things break? Sure. 

But then we can work together to fix 'em
and for every one thing that might break, 10 others will shine bright and run without me.

A break doesn't mean broken. I have found it's healthy for me and for our team to get some real space.

14 days is my magic number
Day 7 is game on

👉 Maybe a longer vacation is a founder thing or is it just a me thing? Are you team more but shorter hols or less but longer ones??

Some people go on vacation to get away. I go to get back. 

I go to remember.

Writing this from the most magical fishing village in Jamaica where I will be for the next 2 weeks. 

For 15 years, these two weeks in Jamaica are my "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" - the business version.

Here's what I mean:

1️⃣ Escaping the mental load

Founder.
Mom.
Wife.
Daughter.
CEO of all the things.

At home, the decisions never stop.

What’s for dinner.
Who needs what.
What did I forget.
What’s the plan for the next weekend, the birthday party, the biz for next quarter.

At the villa?

No grocery lists or meal plans.
No laundry or chores.
No calendar gymnastics.

Having help means I’m not making 47 micro-decisions before 9am.

Space.
Breath.

Mental capacity vs mental (over) load

2️⃣ Trading doing for dreaming

There is something about an endless line of blue sea meeting blue sky.

No edges.
No ceilings.
No inbox.

Just horizon.

When I stare at the ocean long enough, my mind goes from managing to imagining.

I try to remember why I built this business in the first place.

Not just for clients.
Not just for the team.
For me. Why am I doing this.
And I refuse to fall into the trap of feeling that is selfish. (been there many times. not today.)

It doesn't happen instantly btw. Right now my mind is still very much popcorning. Like it's looking for something to swirl on or solve.

3️⃣ Living in my body, not my brain

Running in the heat.
Salt on my skin.
Toes in the sand.
Swimming until my thoughts dissolve.

I spend most of my life in my head.

Strategy.
Margins.
Offers. 

Putting out fires, fixing things. 

I have to remind myself that clarity isn't found by thinking harder. No matter how much I want to think my way out of a problem. The whole idea of a clarity break is stopping that spiral. 

Here I find clarity by moving.

Moving my feet on a beach walk (or run).

From sweating.

From feeling alive again.

Yes, we need time off.
We also need time back.

(all the levels to that)

Back to vision.
Back to energy.
Back to myself.

I will be on LI but not at my desk. 
It's a gift

I am grateful to our team for holding it down so I can get up and out of the weeds. ❤️💐🙏

👉 Where do you go to get your groove back? 🌊

Off for a run with Monica in my earbuds. Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days) 🎶

A fund mgr said this to me a few weeks ago (and it's so wrong that I am still thinking about it.)


"LinkedIn is only for retail investors."


He thought LinkedIn was beneath him.

The premise being that institutional allocators, asset owners, CIOs, analysts aren't on LinkedIn. 

Bc they aren't people?
Bc they don't have cell phones?
Bc they don't scroll social media just like everybody else?

I started to try to convince him otherwise
And then I realized... Nope.
It won't work bc his thinking is stuck in 1980, it's status quo

No challenger mindset 
Wants to do all the same same
Suit and tie out of central casting, differentiators that aren't different, 
1 million+ combined years of experience
🙄

By virtue of the fact you are reading this post, you probs don't need proof that institutional investors are people and they are on LinkedIn, but in case a reminder would help check this:

One of our clients, $4B specialist shop, goes into a finals presentation

Serious track record.
Serious pedigree.
Serious investors.

On the way out of the finals one of the trustees pulls the fund manager and biz dev person aside 

“I follow you on LinkedIn. Love what you you are doing.”

🎤⬇️

Want a massive reframe?

Visibility used to be about going viral but that's so yesterday. 
(put it in the bin with 6-7 iykyk)

Now visibility is about going "familiar" 

We don’t post to impress the masses.

We post so the right few feel like they already know us.

Because when someone has read our thinking

• The meeting is warmer
• The questions are deeper
• The trust curve is shorter

Ain't nothing retail about your reputation.

The biggest managers in the world are building media arms.

Why would boutiques opt out of the one channel that lets them compete on narrative instead of scale?

(I am not here to convince you. If you didn't get the memo, the people who did will eat your lunch)

Nutshell: institutional investors are on LinkedIn

That's not the issue
The issue is... are you???

(okay that sounded like a supa burn. not meant to. but just gonna keep it right there anyway)

Rant over. 

PS Anyone else tired of haters hating on LinkedIn?

PPS You can get our LI playbook for fund mgrs if you want some free (and fantastic) help getting started 

https://lnkd.in/eg4MQeys

Your story is money - don't believe me?  

My story has earned me millions of dollars:  

⤷ Get scholarships  
⤷ Score a new job 
⤷ Earn a promotion 
⤷ Land board seats
⤷ Secure speaking spots 
⤷ Launch my own biz 
⤷ Find great clients
⤷ Hire a great team 
⤷ Pivot my biz 
⤷ Make friends  

(that last one is priceless 💐)  

Doesn't matter what industry we're in 
People do business with people in them all  

Is it uncomfortable to share your story? 
Yes  

It's taken me years to get there and I still struggle 

Do it anyway  

Your story is money™
Literally and figuratively  

📌 How has owning your story helped you in life/biz?  

Need a sign? This is it.  
 
Need help? DM me.  

=  
➜ We help investment firms use their words to get more dollars  
➜ It starts with strong stories and sharp differentiators
➜ If you feel successful, but stuck, we got you

5 mistakes I see fund managers make with their commentaries & letters

(which means btw we have a great opportunity for quick wins here)

Fund managers are super smart and their letters reflect that intellect

Interesting challenges
Thoughtful insights and...
Completely under-leveraged

Here’s what holds these letters back 👇

---

1. Commentaries are "one and done"

• One long piece of content
• Chock-full of insight
• One shot for it to land

We write the “magic letter” quarterly or even monthly … Click send or post, then let it disappear into the archives.

No shorts
No excerpts
No second life repurposing 

We don't need more content, we need to do more with the content we have.

---

2. Hiding our insights in PDFs

• Uploaded to a website as a PDF
• Lacks searchability
• Misses AI or Google credit

If the thinking matters, it belongs on your website itself not in a PDF. Zero-click style.

And if it’s truly premium?
Add a simple form
Capture who’s reading

Right now, most firms are in purgatory using neither strategy.

---

3. Sending letters to clients only (not prospects)

Letters go out
But only to people who already said yes.

Why not prospects?

Let them see: 

• How you think differently
• What it feels like to be a client
• The caliber of your perspective

Great thought leadership should invite people into the story, not keep them outside the velvet rope.

(insert all those 90s hedge fund "club" vibes right here)

---

4. Using our pens but not our voices 

Our industry loves the safety of a letter: 

• Written behind a computer screen
• No interaction
• No questions
• No conversation

What if we opened it up?

• A client call
• A webinar
• A podcast
• Even a short Q&A sesh

Same ideas with more space and different mediums to get a convo going

---

5. Writing for compliance, not connection

(ooh ouch)

So many letters are: 

• Technically correct
• Perfectly polished
• Emotionally vacant

They explain what happened but not what it means or why it matters

No point of view
No conviction
No human behind the words

And that’s the biggest miss of all

---

Fund managers don't need more content. You have loads of it if you actually look closer.

The opportunity here is to make the content you already write work harder, travel farther, and connect deeper. 

👉 What else can we improve in letters and commentaries? Hit me.

I am part of a friendly takeover next week. 5 days. 0 rules. 1 brave team (+ a leadership lesson)

Next week I’m handing over my LinkedIn.

Completely.

No rules.
No previews.
No edits from me.

Just loads of trust and bushels of talent.

Here’s why this is one of my favorite weeks of the year:

Havener's squad is stacked 

→ We have talented creatives.
→ We have wicked smart people.
→ We have cry laugh funny people.
→ We have gifted storytellers.
→ We have glue hands operators who quietly make dreams real not just for me... also for our clients.

And most of LinkedIn never gets to meet them.

That changes next week.

Because this isn’t just a “fun takeover.”

(here is the leadership lesson)

It’s employee advocacy in action.

And not the corporate, copy-paste, share-the-company-post kind.

The real kind.

The kind where leadership is democratized.

Where we believe:

→ Everyone has a unique power.
→ Visibility isn’t reserved for the founder.
→ Authority can be distributed.

Inside The Visibility Effect, we talk about 3 pillars of choosing to be seen:

Own it
Show it
Claim it

This takeover is part of that movement.

We don’t build personal brands so one person shines.

We build them so the whole hive glows.

(High five to the Queen Bees 🐝)

If our work is about story-led sales and marketing strategies

Then our team should be living proof.

We are walking the talk.
Follow along next week.

Get to know the other amazing humans @ Havener.

And if you’re a founder or exec still holding the mic too tightly and layering compliance and corporate rules around everything...

Maybe this is your nudge.

Leadership isn’t diminished when it’s shared. It multiplies.

Stay seen, stay storied.

And watch this page for what I am sure will be a week of treats 🍿

👉 Who thinks my beach walk and talks are going to get made fun of... 🙋

PS I will be in the comments bc I can't miss this 🙌

Hard work creates expertise. Visibility creates opportunity. (I struggle with this. Let's unpack it at a Jamaica beach.)

The Visibility Effect has three pillars
Own your story / value
Show it
Claim it

Each aspect has some courage baked in
but that second one

Ugh. 

We were told not to be a show off, not to brag, not to want the spotlight. 

That's v real and also true on some levels 

But if we don't embrace the power of visibility and show others what we are doing, what we are uniquely good at, the value we are creating, we will remain in the shadows. We will be overlooked.

There's a line in the F1 movie that I can't stop thinking about. 
"Sonny Hayes isn't a has been, he's a never was."

A Never Was. 

(gawd that breaks my heart)

I don't want that for any of us. 

I don't want you to be the best kept secret.

And I am right here with you on the journey.

Let's go.

I (almost) can't believe what I am about to say. 180 new investor prospects on our client's funnel from an old school marketing campaign. 

Webinars

(insert crickets chirping)

I know. 
Same.

Here are things that went thru my mind:

-- 1998 called and wants their strategy back
-- Please send that report to me via fax
-- Can you ring my Blackberry to discuss

🤣

But here's the deal

It works

When done well a webinar is one of the most successful, underutilized marketing, sales, and IR tools in all the land. 

It's like the 6th man of comms.

Call me a value investor but I'd trade all the AI newfangled whirligigs for a laptop, an Internet connection, and WebEx. 

(just kidding people. there's a new thing called Zoom)

Sometimes old school beats new school

(old school new school need to learn tho burn baby burn like a disco inferno 🎶 - just in case you doubted that my mind thinks in 90s rap lyrics)

While you contemplate what it'd be like to get $180 - $360 million in new pipeline from a webinar (and that's at very conservative avg allocations) 

I will be here anxiously awaiting all your digs. Go ahead. Drop gems on my renewed love of webinars. 

Signed, 90s chick

👉 (what did I have for breakfast today. this post is off the rails. maybe I had a McGriddle. 🤣🤣 'member that... I can't)

My first 2 mandates as a third-party capital raiser were for European managers who wanted to tap the U.S. market.

They were big brands in their home countries.

Stateside?

No one knew them.

Half the time people couldn’t even pronounce their names. (Those two dots over the “a” were tricky if you weren’t used to it. 😉)

One of those 2 became one of my greatest success stories.

And introduced me to some of my favorite people in this industry - many of whom I’m still friends with 20 years later. (run thru a wall for anyone in that OG crew)

When we started:

• $17 million in the fund
• Horrible performance
• New leadership team
• Legacy PMs fired
• A young analyst promoted to lead

On paper?

It should have failed.

We went on to raise billions.
Alongside a super awesome internal biz dev team.

That first fund closed around $20B.
Firm AUM peaked near $60B.

The U.S. institutional and wealth markets worked for them.

Early.
And often.

Here’s why:

→ Specialists in an asset class that benefited from a non-U.S. perspective

→ Smart, talented, fun people who cared deeply about each other and their clients and believed in their mission

→ It was different. The philosophy. The process. The accents.

(Don’t laugh. That last one resonates more than you think.)

And yet…

For every story like that, there are 20 non-U.S. boutiques who never make the leap.

Not because they can’t compete.

But because they assume:

→ “The U.S. is too competitive.”
→ “We don’t know the gatekeepers.”
→ “Our brand won’t translate.”
→ “We’re too different.”

But different is the point.

The U.S. market doesn’t need another copy-paste manager.

It rewards:

• Clear specialization
• Conviction
• Cultural edge
• A perspective that feels fresh

The firms who win don’t try to sound American.

They learn how to translate their edge into a narrative U.S. allocators understand.

That’s distribution but not just in the bodies knocking on doors kind of way 

It's positioning.
It's story.
Those build confidence.

So I'm pondering 2 things:

1. Why don’t more non-U.S. boutiques come to the States?

2. Could we help them own what makes them different and bring them here the right way?

🤔

And if you’re a specialist manager sitting across the Atlantic wondering if the U.S. market could work for you…

It just might.

👉 Why don't more non US managers make the leap? What's in their way?

How to go viral... and here's what I think.

Without even realizing it, I've been reverse-engineering content since I was handed a phone.

TikTok, Instagram, whatever app you haven't heard of yet (I'm easily persuaded when it comes to those things). But I was never just scrolling. I was studying.

Every day, I'd watch something go viral and dissect it: Why did I stop scrolling? Why did I care? Why did this random person's unfiltered take get 2 million views while a brand's perfectly polished ad got ignored? How many times have I seen this same advertisement on my screen?

In a world drowning in content, I became obsessed with one question: what makes people actually pay attention?

Four months into my first post-graduation job, with no financial background, just a degree in marketing, I'm starting to see the answer more clearly.

Authenticity wins—even when it's imperfect. Actually, it connects better because it's not perfect.

For example, TikTok—the most powerful content algorithm ever built—doesn't reward the most polished videos. It rewards the most real ones. A shaky camera. An unscripted pause. A creator talking to you from their car. Authenticity builds trust faster than any production budget ever could.

So walking into an industry I knew nothing about four months ago was intimidating. Still is, honestly.

But here's the one thing I know for sure: post that video. Share those ideas. Put your thoughts out there—even when they feel random, half-formed, or imperfect.

Because the imperfect stuff? That's the stuff that actually connects.

•••••••••

Stacy’s out and trusted her team at Havener Capital Partners with her LinkedIn this week. Bold move.

I’m Kendall Walsh, and I help investment boutiques tell their story authentically.

I am not boring. But for years, I brought my boring-est self to work.

Might as well have called it The Boring Blueprint. I was executing it perfectly. 

I believed, like many people, that authenticity / personal brand somehow takes away from professionalism. 

That's why we put on the armor of boring and generic before we go to work. 

I did it for years. 

- Hair pulled back in a low pony
- Brooks Brothers suits (purchased in the boys section to save a few bucks)
- Minimal make-up bc too pretty somehow meant not too smart 
- I sat still, stayed quiet, took notes
- I smiled but not too much
- I chuckled at the appropriate times but never cry-laughed 
- I did what I was told and what was expected of me

Then I realized I wasn't me anymore and the story I was living wasn't my own.

I started to feel like my life was for rent and I listened to that Dido song on repeat

Until one day I sat there as the founder of a business that was almost 10 years old, raising a shitton of money, telling other people's stories... and realizing I never told my own. 

So, with some brave friends and colleagues by my side. I stopped hiding.

I chose to be seen. 

And my business and my world changed. 

Today I am delivering a presentation on The Visibility Effect with a $50B asset manager to help their team do the same. 

So bear with me while I flashback to my own journey and my first photo shoot where I literally had rap music playing and tequila in my glass. 

Bc that is me. 

I have Dunkin coffee in my cup r n and  rap music on now (Dax iykyk that YouTube vid still dre omg the beat and the lyrics 🔥)

Here's to being successful professionals and real people at the same time.  

Those 2 things are not mutually exclusive. 

LFG.

I will help 250,000+ people this decade. (You can too. Here's how + math + 💐)

We are each sitting on a gold mine of positive impact. 

I know because of the notes I get in my DMs, the conversations I have with people who know me from LinkedIn, or heard me on a podcast, or saw me speak

Visibility creates opportunities for us

and also for others 

Let's get to the mathing:

Think about this

If we inspire just 10 people a day to be more authentic, more excellent, more themselves

-- That’s roughly 300 people in a month

-- Over 3,000 in a year

-- Over 30,000 in a decade

And if each of them influences just 10 more people?

Now we’re talking about 300,000+ lives touched.

(That's the math with 10
you can put a few turns of leverage on it, wow, the positive impact we can create)

🤯

That’s the compounding power of visible leadership.

This is The Visibility Effect.

When we:

• Own our story and our value
• Show it with courage 
• Claim our seat at the table

Opportunities expand for us.

But when we layer in The Give → Gain Flywheel the visibility compounds for others

When we lead with generosity
When we share lessons, not just wins
When we shine in a way that lights the path for others

When we use our story to help people get in touch with their own

The impact multiplies

Our visibility does something for others

It’s about caring
It’s about contribution
It’s about compounding human potential

Leadership is getting democratized. The Visibility Effect helps every one of us become a leader at our work and inside our lives 

Friday Flowers 💐

🌸 To the leaders who go first and positive
🌸 To the founders who model courage
🌸 To the once quiet experts who decide their voice matters

We don’t need millions of followers.

We need courage to own our story and value, show it consistently, and claim the power that is lying dormant inside everyone of us.

We need that 
And 10 people a day

👉 Have you influenced others by showing up here? Tell me. 💐🙌

3 common mistakes I see in fund intro emails (and some easy fixes)


We review a lot of intro outreach emails from fund houses. 

Real talk: They typically aren't great. 😬

(Please know I write this with peace and love ❤️ bc I want us to do better)

Here are 3 patterns we see 👇

---

1️⃣ Too many words

Trying to explain everything about us 
(That's a double whammy btw iykyk)

Who we are
What our strategy is

Plus 

The track record
The pedigree
The stats

That takes a lot of paragraphs 

Which means a lot of work for the allocator

If it takes 3 scrolls to understand what this email is about, we’ve already lost them.

💡Studies show we have < 8 seconds to make someone care in an intro email 

Easy fix:

→ 50 to 125 words 
→ 5 sentences

(Did you just spit out your coffee? Sorry but it's true)

Think: curiosity > completeness.

---

2️⃣ Too many attachments

"Here's 5 paragraphs plus every single piece of collateral we have."

Pitchbook
Fact sheet
Quarterly letter
Case study

We basically PDF all over them before they’ve even said Hi.

Not only do attachments scream
“You do the work.”

But we've literally played every . single . card . in our hand. 

There's no build up. No strategic thought to what we share when. 

Easy fix:

→ Ideally 0 - 1 attachments in an intro email
→ 2 attachment limit on all emails

Think: Do they need all these PDFs to say yes to a convo

---

3️⃣ Too many asks

"Can we schedule 30 minutes next week?"
"Are you allocating to this space?"
"Here's some info for you to review."

(That last one is a hidden ask btw)

Three asks in one email = zero clarity.

When everything is important… nothing is.

Easy fix:

→ One ask
→ One calendar suggestion or soft CTA
→ Make it low pressure

Think: would this convo not only be interesting and useful but.. fun. 

(Yes. I said fun.)

---

Ask yourself: What's the goal of my intro email?

Not about closing a deal.
It's about opening a convo. 
It's about making a friend.

We don’t need to prove everything.
We need to earn the next step.

The fund teams who master this don't just get more meetings, they get better ones.

👉 What would you add to the list of intro email don'ts (or hit us with some dos!)

= 
+ if you feel seen in this email bc you are making some of these mistakes, it's ok.
+ you know where to find us

“Hello… it’s me.”

Adele turned a phone call into a global anthem.

Meanwhile, most of us avoid making one.

We scroll. We read. We react. But we rarely call.

Americans spend an average of 5.5 hours a day on their phones. Less than 15 minutes of that is spent making voice calls.

Somewhere along the way, the phone became everything except a phone.

Voice calls now sit somewhere between handwritten thank-you notes and balanced checkbooks on the list of lost arts.

And yet — here’s Stacy, dialing anyway. 📞 
Old-school. Wired. Curly cord and all. (If you’re under 35, this may require a quick Google.)

We are more connected than ever. And yet we rarely speak to each other.

We default to:
→ Email 
→ Text 
→ Zoom

All incredibly efficient. But efficiency isn’t the same as connection.

When you call someone, you hear tone and intention. You can sense alignment — or misalignment — in real time. And you can respond in real time.

For founders growing their business, these nuances are important. 

Conversations are how relationships are built. And relationships ARE the business.

So here’s a small experiment for the day:
Call one colleague. 
Call one client. 
Call your business partner. 
Call your mom.

Don’t schedule it. 
Just dial.

If you get voicemail, leave one. (Another lost art.)

And if you feel slightly awkward?
Good.
You’re probably doing something human.

Stay seen. Stay heard. Start dialing. ☎️ 

👉 Got any pro tips for out-of-practice phoners? Share them!

•••••••••

Stacy’s out and trusted her team at Havener Capital Partners with her LinkedIn this week. Bold move.

I’m Emily Boyle and I help boutique asset managers spark connections with clients through targeted content.

Before investors read your numbers, they read you.

Stacy’s on vacation this week, so I’ve got the mic. While she’s away, let’s elevate the standard and give her something exciting to come back to.

In finance, you are judged before you are fully understood.

Before anyone reads your philosophy, they read your signals.

Your deck.
Your website.
Your fact sheet.
Your charts.
Your typography.

When your materials look refined, you look refined.
When your branding feels cohesive, your strategy feels cohesive.

Legitimacy is visual.

Polish is not vanity. It is reinforcement.

We have seen what a strategic makeover can do. A firm that once felt small suddenly feels institutional. A story that felt cautious suddenly feels confident.

The numbers did not change.

The presence did.

And that changes everything.

Believable firms invest in how they show up.

If you are ready for a serious visual upgrade, let’s talk about your makeover.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

•••••••••

Stacy’s out and trusted her team at Havener Capital Partners with her LinkedIn this week. Bold move.

I’m Erika Hutchings and I help boutique asset managers with branding and visual storytelling.

Client Makeovers

Here’s a 5-minute test to know if your website sucks.

And, I say that with love. ❤️

If you’re a boutique fund manager, your website should not be a brochure. It’s a tool to help position you with authority and credibility. You’re a thought leader, and it should position you that way.

Run this quick test:

1. Is it instantly clear who you help and what you do?

When I land on your homepage, can I tell in 5 seconds what you actually manage and for whom? Or do I see vague language about disciplined processes and long-term value creation? 

Not only is that not clear, but it’s boring. Next, please!

Remember: Clarity converts. Cleverness confuses.

2. Does it talk about your investor or just about you?

Count the number of times you say “we” versus “you.”
Your site shouldn’t read like a resume.

Allocators are not looking for your life story. They’re looking for differentiation and quick answers to their specific objective. Give them what they want.

3. Is your differentiation obvious?

Are you disciplined, research-driven, and long-term focused? Yeah, so is every other manager. That is NOT a strategy, it should be a given.

Your edge should be unmistakable. It should set you apart and make you stand out in a sea of sameness.

4. Does it make the next step easy?

Is it obvious what to do next?
Download a fact sheet. Subscribe to emails. Request information. Contact IR.

I don’t have time to go hunting through links trying to figure out how to engage with you, and neither does your prospect.

Confused people do nothing. They’ll click away out of frustration and go invest with the one who makes it easy.

5. Does it feel current and credible?

Outdated commentary. Old press mentions. Broken links. A blog that hasn’t been updated in a year or more.
It’s stagnant, and it’s hurting your reputation.

In this business, perception matters. Your online presence is part of your due diligence trail. It’s the first place prospects go to learn about you and take the next step.

If your website is not reinforcing your narrative, it’s working against you.

And most firms have no idea it’s hurting them in that way.

Take 5 mins to audit your website. Are you making any of these crucial mistakes, and how can you fix them?

•••••••••

Stacy’s out and trusted her team at Havener Capital Partners with her LinkedIn this week. Bold move.

I’m Steph Russell, and I help boutiques get visible online.

4 reasons challenger brands will win in financial services (and what I got wrong)

The bigs keep getting bigger
The middle is getting squeezed
The boutiques get overlooked

It's challenger mindsets across these tiers that will win. 

Here’s what Challenger brands embrace:

→ 1. A point of view (not just a product)

Challenger brands don’t say:

“We do SMID growth with a disciplined process.”

They say:

“The market is mispricing complexity.”

Or

“Mass overallocation to one market segment has created opportunity for the contrarian thinkers.”

They challenge an assumption.

In a world dominated by firms like BlackRock and Vanguard, a challenger cannot out-scale.

But we can out-think.

---

→ 2. A clearly defined enemy (not a competitor)

A belief
A behavior
A blind spot

Maybe it’s closet indexing.
Maybe it’s career risk.
Maybe it’s over-diversification that dilutes conviction.

Challenger brands pour arsenic in our coffee.  
They pattern interrupt. 
They are clear and uncommon. 

Asset owners and allocators lean in because that type of clarity takes courage.

There is room for refreshing
There is room for different

Bc different is better than better

---

→ 3. Story-led differentiation

Performance is table stakes.
Process is typical 
(funnel to show screening the universe anyone?)

Philosophy is where the Challenger magic hides.

Challenger brands articulate:

• Why this strategy exists
• Why the thinking is unique
• Why we are the people to deliver it

Challengers know that the biggest status quo buster is showing up with courage to own our story, show it, and claim it.

The Visibility Effect shines here 
When a brand puts people first

On podcasts
On panels
On LinkedIn

Because visibility compounds our capital.

---

→ 4. Conviction that can handle pushback

If everyone agrees with us, we are not a challenger.

If we do what everyone else does, we are using a playbook that wasn't built for us. Not a challenger.

Challenger brands are willing to:

• Lose some prospects
• Polarize a little
• Say what others won’t

And paradoxically?
That’s what builds trust.

Challengers challenge.
(The clue is in the name.)

---

💡 Now, here’s where I was wrong:

The old narrative says a Challenger is the scrappy underdog fighting the market leader.

I have met boutiques who are status quo.
And bigs who are challengers. 

AUM is not a characteristic of challenger brands

The ability to act as a Challenger isn’t reserved for small boutiques.

It’s a mindset.

Brands of all sizes, whatever their AUM, heritage, or history, can adopt it.

If we want ambitious growth
If we want to make the impact we say we desire
We need to challenge the norms. 

👉 What's 1 thing you see from Challenger brand?

I shared this in my prez to an inspiring group at a $50B asset management firm this week. 

As an example of The Visibility Effect in action.

📽️ Olympic freestyle skier Eileen Gu’s response when a reporter asked her if she lost 2 gold medals or gained 2 silvers. 

😶

First, she laughed. (might be my fave part of her respectful yet powerful clap back)

Then she flipped the narrative instantly.

-- She owned her story - her unique expertise and her value.

-- She showed it - the most decorated female freestyle skier in history. Not bragging, facting.

-- She claimed it - she took up space not just with her words but also her behavior:  I deserve to be here, in this seat, at this table

(and she closed her comment with grace and gratitude)

That’s the Visibility Effect in action.

Each of those 3 steps are difficult and require bravery. 

Videos like this from people like Eileen Gu don't just show us how it's done but also let us borrow their courage. 

We can be it, if we don't see it. 

Flowers to every person who chooses to be seen. You inspire us. 💐

And flowers to the incredible people at Polen Capital who practiced visibility with courage this week. Proud to be your partner. 🙌😁💐

Vid credit: AccessHollywood

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The Battle

Amy Volas

Stacy Havener

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The Battle

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