Redefining Fund Administration | Speaker | Podcast Host | Alternative Investments Innovator

I’ve spent over two decades in fund administration, helping managers across hedge funds, private equity, credit, real estate and digital assets navigate complexity, scale operations, and unlock efficiency.

Since 2015, I’ve worked on the front lines of digital asset fund services—supporting some of the industry's first crypto funds. My work has also included building Gen AI-powered workflows, launching investor portals, and designing fund ops infrastructure from the ground up.

Today, I serve as Managing Director, USA at The Ascent Group, a global fund administrator with $40B+ AUA and a clear vision: combine high-touch service with proprietary, tech-forward solutions that actually work for fund managers.

What excites me?
🔹 Helping GPs scale without sacrificing control
🔹 Supporting  traditional funds and tokenized and digital-native fund strategies
🔹 Collaborating with teams that want to push the space forward

Let’s connect if you're exploring new launches, rethinking your admin infrastructure, or just want to compare notes on where the industry’s headed.

Skyler Steinke

Looking at DIFC as your next expansion hub?

We’re hosting a private breakfast in South Beach on Wednesday, February 25, for traditional and digital asset fund managers exploring how funds are being structured to operate between the U.S. and Dubai — and positioned to access Middle East capital.

We’ll be talking about real cross-border architecture:

• Entering the DIFC ecosystem
 • Structuring US + DIFC funds
 • Institutional tokenization infrastructure
 • What allocators expect from modern fund vehicles

Breakfast is catered and seats are limited. The precise location in the Art Deco district of South Beach Miami will be shared upon confirmation of your RSVP.

Click the link in the comments below to register. 

👇 👇 

The Ascent Group Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP DIFC

Helping Fund Managers Launch, Scale & Modernize Fund Operations (Traditional, Digital & Tokenized)

Regulation is giving managers permission to innovate again.
 Operational engineering will determine who scales.

Great discussion last week in Miami, on U.S.–DIFC structuring and cross-border fund design.

What’s increasingly clear:

Whether launching a traditional hedge fund, adding a digital asset sleeve, or tokenizing a strategy — the real differentiator is infrastructure.

Cross-border expansion is no longer the hard part.

 Designing operating models that work seamlessly across jurisdictions is.
Administering traditional multi-jurisdictional funds and digital funds — including 32+ live tokenized vehicles globally — has shown us at The Ascent Group, that success depends on:

• Unified data architecture
 • Institutional-grade valuation and NAV governance
 • Custody integration across asset classes
 • Audit-ready controls built for multiple regulatory regimes

The next generation of fund platforms won’t just be innovative.
 They’ll be operationally engineered from day one.

If you’re considering expanding strategies across jurisdictions — digital or traditional — the infrastructure conversation should start earlier than most managers expect.

Thank you to my fellow panelists, John T. Araneo Esq. of Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP and Chris Cameron of DIFC, for sharing their insight! 

I really appreciated the thoughtful dialogue and the strong engagement from everyone in attendance.

If you’re thinking about activating a digital asset strategy or expanding into DIFC, the operational design conversation should happen earlier than most managers expect. 

Please feel free to reach out — always happy to compare notes.

#FundAdministration #DigitalAssets #Tokenization #AssetManagement #DIFC

KFin Technologies Ltd.

In our recent Alt Funds Network episode, with sat down with Holli Moeini, CPA about how buyers and sellers can reduce risk and maximize value in mergers and acquisitions. 

Holli shares her journey from audit to CFO and M&A advisory while unpacking the realities behind small business exits and deal readiness. 

She highlights why many businesses fail to sell, the capital waiting on the sidelines from private equity, and why companies must start preparing for an exit far earlier than most founders realize. 

The conversation dives into the financial and operational drivers that increase company value—from strong balance sheets and GAAP-based accounting to leadership depth, recurring revenue, and scalable systems. 

Holli also discusses how AI can improve profitability, the prevalence of fraud in small businesses, and the red flags buyers must watch for during due diligence. 

A must-watch for business owners, private equity professionals, and advisors navigating acquisitions, exits, and the evolving M&A landscape. 

What You’ll Learn: 

► Why most small businesses never sell and what founders can do differently 
► The biggest myths buyers and sellers believe about M&A deals 
► Why GAAP financials and normalized EBITDA matter more than tax returns ► Key value drivers that increase valuation multiples 
► How AI can improve efficiency, margins, and operational performance 
► Common fraud risks in small businesses and how to detect red flags 
► What private equity firms look for in platform vs. bolt-on acquisitions

Click in the comments below to listen or watch the full episode.

👇 👇

Skyler Steinke Mike Schroeder, CFA

Codie A. Sanchez

Investing millions in Main St businesses & teaching you how to own the rest | HoldCo, VC fund, Founder

On a mission to create financially free and free-thinking humans.

I founded a advisory and investment company called Contrarian Thinking that helps owners buy and scale businesses.

Our newsletter has over 1M+ weekly readers, here → contrarianthinking.biz/li

Our community has taught 9,000+ members biz buying, biz growing, and doing deals. 

We value experience over degrees.
Betting on yourself over building someone else's dream.
Main Street over Wall Street.

My mission is less suits, more boots. Meaning: we the people holding the power… and the purse strings.

🔗Join 1M+ others who get our free newsletter: contrarianthinking.biz/li
🔗YouTube: @CodieSanchezCT
🔗Instagram: @codiesanchez
🔗Twitter: @Codie_Sanchez
🔗Weekly business-buying newsletter Main Street Minute: contrarianthinking.biz/minute-li

Founder

We help free minds and build bank accounts.

This is the real rich life. Don’t buy into the consumerism the world wants you to.

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contrarianthinking

unconventional-acquisitions

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strike-fire-productions

contrarian-thinking-capital

Investing millions in Main St businesses & teaching you how to own the rest | HoldCo, VC, Founder | NYT best-selling author

The best advice that no one follows:

- Wake up at 5:45am.
- Marriage done well is a huge superpower.
- Trust God.
- Be careful what you read, it becomes the way you think.
- No going out on a school night.
- If you have to drink to hang out with someone, you probably shouldn't be buds.

Feel free to share if you agree ♻️

I have no energy for hate. Love you, wish you well, or hope you heal. That's it.

You will make 10x more money if you present ideas like this to your clients or leaders.

Harsh truth:

Running a company is simply a game of prioritizing problems.

Here’s how to become the Chief Problem Solver in your business:

Want to know Elon Musk's "secret" to running Tesla, SpaceX, and 3+ other billion-dollar companies?

According to Marc Andreessen, it's simple:

"He shows up every week, identifies the biggest problem, fixes it, and does that 52 weeks in a row."

Most companies hide from problems:

• They reframe them as "challenges"
• They create layers of abstraction
• They delegate them into oblivion

But problems aren't biohazards—they're your biggest opportunities.

Bigger the problem? Bigger the potential.

There’s a reason SpaceX is able to send a 400-foot skyscraper into the sky knowing it might explode.

Because they want to know exactly what breaks, when, and why.

Every failure incapacitates dozens of future problems.

This approach works because running a company is simply prioritizing problems.

Your earnings directly reflect what you solve...

Big problems pay better.

Another great example of this is Brad Jacobs.

He built 7 billion-dollar companies in logistics, waste, and warehousing - industries most people find boring until they see his bank account.

Here’s how he evaluates risk vs reward on different deal sizes:

• Small, low-risk deals: exist but limited reward
• Small, high-risk deals: limited reward with high risk (avoid)
• Big, low-risk deals: unicorns (don't exist)
• Big, high-risk deals with solvable problems: "the bingo quadrant"

One of my favorite lines from his book is:

"If you want to win, you have to rearrange your brain to lean into those big, hairy problems and figure out how to cut off the hair and de-risk."

This is exactly what your job is as a CEO.

It’s simple: hire the smartest people in the world... and solve the problems they can't figure out.

That's it. That's the whole job.

Not avoiding problems, but identifying and selecting the right ones to solve.

Becoming a Chief Problem Solver requires you to create your own weekly problem-solving loop:

1. Identify your single biggest constraint
2. Focus all resources on solving it
3. Measure the result
4. Repeat next week

1 problem. 1 solution. 52 weeks in a row.

The best entrepreneurs don't just "think differently" about problems. They actively build muscles for problem identification and execution.

Then they do it again and again.
Fair warning though, this isn't glamorous work. It means:

• Living inside friction
• Facing uncomfortable truths
• Fixing things no one else wants to touch

But it's where all the leverage is.

If your business is stuck, your unlock is often solving ONE big problem.

Maybe you know exactly what it is, but don't know how to solve it. Or maybe you're not sure what the problem is yet...

P.S. If you want to see how we think about solving these problems for our own businesses, you might want to check this out: https://lnkd.in/enaBvipE

Underrated quality of awful leaders:

They try to please everyone & lead by committee.

The hardest parts about leadership:

• Telling truths people don’t want to hear
• Watching decisions people will regret
• But you can’t force mentorship
• No one cares about your business as much as you do
• Micromanaging means YOU hired wrong

Doesn't mean you have to be a jerk.

But often trying to please everyone is the worst thing you can do for your people.

What do you think?

A reminder to myself and you this Saturday...

It’s really just you against the mirror. You vs you. No one else can win at a game of one. I know it’s hard not to get distracted, race horses wear blinders for a reason. Your lane you’re game. LFG.

Codie Sanchez

How to be unrecognizable in 90 days:

1. Be obsessed

Every outsized outcome I’ve seen came from people who genuinely enjoy the pressure. Not motivated people. Obsessed people. It’s almost impossible to compete with someone who treats the thing you dread as fun.

2. Clean out your closet

Get rid of anything that doesn’t fit the person you’re becoming. Cluttered space creates cluttered thinking, and cluttered thinkers don’t make money. Changing how you show up physically is one of the fastest ways to change how you behave.

3. Clarify your ONE thing

Not five ideas. One. Put a number on it and give yourself 90 days to get there. You have to prove to yourself that you keep your word.

4. Tell a better story about yourself

Not a vision board. Write down the words. If your life were a book, what’s supposed to happen next? What goes wrong and how do you react to it? When challenges show up, it’s much easier to keep going if you already decided they were part of the plot.

5. Start a not-to-do list

Becoming elite means cutting distractions aggressively and doing fewer things better.

6. Eliminate distractions

Most distraction is optional so make it harder to waste time and easier to focus. Small changes here create outsized results.

7. Outwork people

If you wake up earlier, protect the first part of your day, and eliminate distractions, you will get ahead faster than you think. Because most people just aren’t willing to work hard.

8. Move in silence

When you’re actually changing your life, you don’t need an audience. Do cool shit. Then talk after the result.

Do this for 90 days and your life will look different.

Because you WILL be different.

Is talking about vanity superficial? Maybe.

Is it effective? Absolutely.

Being well-dressed and well-groomed is a massive edge in any negotiation. It’s hard to push back on someone who looks like they’ve already won. Own your 2026 look.

Harsh truth on scaling businesses: 

Your goal as CEO is to build a team that runs your entire company better than you.

5 other lessons I’ve learned the hard way from 15+ years of being an owner:

1. Operating Systems Win

The difference between McDonald's and your local burger joint isn't the food.

It's that any 16-year-old can run McDonald's because of their systems.

If your business needs you to be the hero every day, you own a job, not a business.

No systems = Everything breaks when you aren’t there

The most effective systems I’ve seen all had the same four features.

I call it the PEIC framework:

1. Proven (battle tested)
2. Explicit Processes
3. Implementation
4. Continuous Improvement

Apply them across your core functions and your business will pretty much run on autopilot:

2. Your Revenue Is A Reflection Of Your Vision Distributed

Every time you say your employees don’t care about your business, you're admitting you failed at distributing your vision.

When your team can't see where you're going, they can't help you get there.

Your business needs two guiding metrics. 

At Contrarian Thinking, we call them “Oars.”

One needs to be quantitative and one qualitative. These act as our north stars to drive prioritization and resource allocation. 

Our left oar? Revenue. Our right? Followers. 

Everything flows downstream from those two numbers. 

3. Successful People Make Quick Decisions

Not only that but they move fast, in the right direction.

It always sounds simple but it comes down to knowing exactly what you want and having systems to execute on it.

That’s where planning in layers comes in:

Annual → Quarterly → Monthly → Weekly

Once you're clear on direction, decisions become obvious.

All that’s left is to track:

- What team
- What goal
- Who
- Percentage Done
- Status

 Keep an eye on all five and you’ll always have a pulse on what’s going on in your biz.

4. Successful People Hang Out With Other Successful People

Your success as an owner is determined by who you surround yourself with.

If you're the smartest person in your business, you're doing something wrong.

Your goal should be to build a team that runs your company better than you do.

5. Find 1-1 Mentors To Hold Your Hands

I used to turn my nose at masterminds.

But then I realized my only other option was to figure sh*t out with years of expensive mistakes.

That’s why I have coaches for everything now.

Most wealthy people got rich by paying for shortcuts whenever they saw one.

There’s no shame in stealing someone else’s 10,000 hours.

Time is the only thing you can't buy more of.

Get in rooms with people who've already solved what you're facing.

↓↓↓

I'm running a masterclass this week on how to grow any business faster. 

Sign up here to reserve your seat: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

Why most people get married – & divorced.

Petri Dish Effect:

The main reason most people get married is they start out as two petri dishes with the same inputs going into them. School, geography, career. Like likes like.

Then as you grow, your husband joins new clubs, you start a business he doesn’t, your hobbies split and before you know it... what you each have grown in your petri dish is completely different.

You’ve lost compatibility.

That’s why my husband and I do work together, are in the same groups together, read and share what is inspiring us, try to never be apart more than 1 week at a time.

Easier to grow together than apart.

That's just us, you do you.

Only 6% of Americans own a business.

And of that, less than 1% ever hit $1,000,000 in revenue.

After investing in businesses for 15 years, here are three reasons why 99% of businesses never scale past 7-figures: 

1. Organizational Challenges

There are a ton of sub-catagories here but today we’re going to unpack “Executive Vision.”

Most owners think their problems stem from poor strategy, when it’s typically poor execution.

You can have the best plan in the world, but if your team can’t understand it... you're not going anywhere. 

You need to have a clear vision that every person in your business believes in and wants to fight for.

The best CEOs think in years, then translate this vision in plain english to their team.

Make it stupid simple: everybody needs to know where the biz is going, what their contribution is, and why they are important.

When done right, it creates a flywheel:

• Executive vision gets translated into specific quarterly goals
• Goals become daily/weekly metrics on dashboards
• Dashboards drive structured team communication
• Communication reinforces the culture you're building 
(…which makes scaling almost inevitable).

When you nail this sequence, your team starts executing your vision without you having to micromanage every decision. 

2. Finances & Future Casting

The worst thing you can do is manage your business like a personal checking account.

Sadly, that’s what 99% of owners do.

They look at what's in the bank today and make decisions based on that number.

There’s a reason why that never ends well… 

Because revenue is vanity and cash flow is sanity. That’s not just to make a cute rhyme.

If your business lost all revenue tomorrow, how long would you survive?

You need to know this number.

That’s why we tell all our owners to have a rolling 90-day view of expected cash inflows & outflows.

With this data, you know:

• When to hire
• When to invest
• When to hold back on a big purchase

Scaling a business is hard enough, keep a little sanity in your life by keeping a pulse on collections, obligations, and cash reserves. 

3. Avatar Defintion

When owners say people can’t afford their product…

99% of the time, it's not a pricing problem. It's an avatar problem.

Most businesses chase anyone with a pulse and a credit card.

As a result, they end up selling snow to Eskimos instead of hot chocolate to skiers. 

Compare that with owners who get obsessed with ONE specific customer type.

And I’m not just talking about demographics…I mean knowing their pain points, what podcast they listen to, where they go on vacation…

I have yet to find a business that can’t scale to $10M focusing on one person.

↓ ↓ ↓

Come to my masterclass to learn how to scale your business farther than you may think you can push it.

More info here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

I asked my mom & dad for advice recently from raising me and my brother...

This is what they told me, maybe you’ll find it useful too:

1. Your kids are not your friends. They’re yours to safeguard and support, but set rules. Biggest problem with most kids in our generation, their parents wanted to be liked not respected.

2. Psy ops are underrated. My mom had this line for whenever I got into trouble. She’d say, “When I ask you a question like this, I already know the answer. I am giving you a chance to come clean...” At which point I’d sing like a canary because I’m a scaredy cat. I found out today she rarely knew the answers. Brilliant and maniacal.

3. Always on the same page. My mom and dad rarely fought in front of my brother and I. They would never go back on the word of the other. United front to deal with us mini terrorists.

4. Make time. My dad had this silly line that is actually not silly: “You can make money, you can make a cake, but you can’t make time.” So they made allllll the time for us.

5. Four chairs. We have these four chairs in our living room, no tv. Growing up, we’d sit and debate and talk for hours. Politics. Opinions. Our days. Only thing not allowed was an opinion you couldn’t defend unemotionally. We still do this today.

6. Mi Sangre mi siempre. They’d always say, blood comes first. They meant it. I hired my brother, my dad, my mom, my cousin at times. We stick together and we may fight like hell but never in front of others.

7. Once you decide, you don’t quit. We could play any sport or instrument BUT if we committed we had to play the full year all out. No 3 lessons and quit. Taught us to choose thoughtfully and keep going even when it hurt.

8. Always call. They still pick up the phone nearly every time it’s family. My dad in a meeting will pause to answer my mom. My husband taught me this too, and I try to do the same. If they’re your first priority this is an easy way to prove it.

9. You’re not a princess, you’re a president. My dad always used to say that line. He told me this week that I lived up to it. Gutted me. He taught us we didn’t need to be saved, instead we could save ourselves and help others.

10. Hug often and seriously. If you’ve ever hugged my parents, they mean it when they do it. Such a simple, free gesture. My mom always gives you a hug and says vaya con dios… go with God. How can you not do big things with parents that hold you like that?

Just some Lessons from the Road from parents I happen to think are some of the best in the world.

Moms and dads everywhere, I’m in awe of you.

Hardest job I’ve ever seen.

*This is one of my favorite pics of me and my dad. Doesn’t get old.

The #1 killer of businesses is bad cashflow.

15 other harsh business truths for you:

1. The greatest muscle you can build is urgency. Bureaucracy is business poison.

2. Decrease the time between having an idea and getting it done. Everything changes.

3. Never sacrifice reputation in the name of business. You can always start another company. You can never create a new reputation.

4. Long-term games and long-term people compound. Resist shiny objects.

5. Hire smart people, pay them well, set them up for success... Then leave them the hell alone.

6. “There’s nothing worse than being sick, fat, tired and trying to run your business.” - Dana White

7. The highest ROI investment founders & owners can make is in themselves. Health shapes mindset. Mindset shapes action.

8. You're better off learning negotiation than financial modeling. Business is less spreadsheets than words.

9. The best business of all time has only you, a computer, and the send button.

10. Every additional employee increases complexity. Hiring is a last resort.

11. The best advice comes from those just a couple steps ahead of you. These people still vividly remember the problems you're facing today.

12. Sell painkillers, not vitamins. There's more money in needs than wants.

13. No discounts. Compete on value, not price. Any biz with $$$ can enter your market and bleed you out. Differentiate beyond commodity.

14. A happy customer is the most powerful marketing. Prioritize reviews. Humans are social animals.

15. If no one thinks you’re crazy, you’re too late. If everyone thinks your idea is good? Even worse. Outsized returns lie in non-conformism.

↓ ↓ ↓

Come to my masterclass tomorrow to learn how to grow your revenue & profit. 

It's 90 minutes + fully remote. 

Details here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

Everyone should be obsessed with chasing their first $500k.

Capitalism has pulled more people out of poverty than any system ever created.

Stop pretending it’s evil.

↓↓↓

And one of the most important skills to learn to hit your first $500k? 

Sales. 

Read this to learn why now is the perfect time to get great at sales: https://lnkd.in/eqESyABe

The surprising truth about stocks and getting seriously wealthy:

99% of people will not get wealthy from it... you need money first. 

Let me break down an unsexy but effective path to wealth that I call Evolutionary Wealth Theory.

There are 4 levels to the theory:

Level 1: FEEL

Your money mindset is programmed early.

Most of us inherit beliefs that become self-fulfilling prophecies:

- Finances are stressful
- Money is always scarce
- Never enough to go around
- Hold onto every penny
- Don't spend too much 

If you hate money, you'll never attract it.

If you never feel that you COULD be wealthy, you never will be.

Get your money beliefs right first.

Level 2: WALK

Performance is contagious.

To build wealth, you must:

- Go where the game is played
- Be ruthless about who surrounds you
- Level up your environment as you grow

Hard truth: Your current friends might hold you back. They love the old you. They fear the new you. 

Level 3: SPEAK

This is the next plateau people hit.

They do their affirmations, they level up the people around them... But then they never truly learn the game.

You must learn the language of money. 

The real game is understanding:

- Business fundamentals
- Deal structures
- Contracts

But most people never learn these because they're too busy gambling. 

The correct order:

1. Earn first - negotiate a higher salary
2. Learn the mechanics - how to invest
3. Invest intelligently - now that you have the $$$ and the knowledge

Level 4: MASTERY

The wealthy have a different goal than most:

Ownership.

Look at the world's quietest billionaires:
- Bernard Arnault (LVMH) worth $171B
- Charles Koch worth $67B
- Carlos Slim worth $81B

All worth that much because of the businesses they own.

The final step of wealth-building isn't a trick or a hack. It’s simply, owning.

That’s what the entire framework is about:

The slow, uphill grind until you can intelligently own assets. Then you let those assets gain value over time.

Most people rent their whole lives:

- Rent their time to employers
- Rent their apartments
- Never own real assets

This is your sign to stop trading time for money and start gaining ownership...

Come to my masterclass this week to learn how to get started: https://lnkd.in/g3V6NrTZ

What no one tells you about being a CEO:

1. If you want to be the boss, first be the top performer where you are.

2. At the start, CEO is Chief Salesperson. Your entire job is cashflow.

3. Your goal is to build a company that runs better without you.

4. If you’re growing fast, your number one job as CEO is to replace yourself every 3 months.

5. You can usually tell if a startup will win or lose by one thing... Do they ship product fast? The best CEOs push for action.

6. You are no longer paid to "do things." You're paid to hire smarter doers, while creating a dream so big it overwhelms theirs..

7. Get over the title of CEO. How do you own your business instead of it owning you? Let your specialists run the show.

8. You really just become a recruiter for a living.

9. Understand your employees. A CEO is a psychologist. It's all about carrots and sticks.

10. Big vision = top talent. Can you get smarter people than you to believe YOU are a bet worth taking?

11. Being able to actively look for a sale is the greatest sign of health for your biz.

12. Your fastest way to millions is hiring the right people.

13. Your fastest way to misery is hiring the wrong people.

14. Pick a goal, and repeat it constantly. You must be comfortable repeating yourself over & over.

15. As a CEO you have to be a surgeon. Cancers will pop up... bad workers, terrible deals... Cut them out, fast..

16. Do what is required, not what is desired. "You can't show me a task that is beneath me."

17. Working harder always leads to money is a beautiful lie.

18. You will have to work irrationally hard and ALSO learn what to work on before you make real money.

19. It's all a who problem past your first $1 million.

20. You win in business doing the boring things: hiring well, spending little, selling often, and obsessing on customers.

21. You are always one hire away from a better, happier, more stress-free life.

↓↓↓

If you own a business and want to grow your profit this year...clear your schedule March 11th @ 10 am CT. 

I'm hosting a masterclass on how to grow any business faster (using my "Profit Multiplier" method).

Grab your spot here: https://lnkd.in/eJcGFHnN

We put a lot of pressure on interviews.

Here's what to ask to get more out of them:

↓ ↓ ↓

Want my full hiring method?

Download the system + matrix template here: → https://lnkd.in/euywp8w7

Job Interview Questions

The average person thinks having a job is safer than starting a company.

They're wrong:

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