A fund is such a fascinating business to build
I think a lot these days about hiring: the roles we need, the kind of people I want for them, how much they'll cost
Here is my current thinking:
Current team:
Fund Operations: A former banker, the fund ops manager awesome and is doing a little bit of everything based on our current stage of the business
Asset Manager: She's a real estate pro with a bunch of varied experience. She oversees the property management partner and associated decision making
So, said differently, we have someone overseeing the fund and the houses now
2025 hires
Senior Staff Accountant & AP: Scholastic has two different accounting firms. There is still more accounting work to do.
An experience accountant to quarterback those two relationships, handle AP, and help close books faster would be incredible
Head of Finance: Ideally this person spent time at Big4 Accounting firm, real estate practice, and then ran FP&A for a business doing ~$20M/year top line
I am "OK" at finance. I think we need "exceptional" in the finance role
VP of investor relations: This person ideally has investor relations experience in PE, with deep experience working with High Net Worths and RIA's
Scholastic exists because of, and for, our investors.
I think I am "OK" at investor relations and have a personal SLA of <1 hour responses to our investors during the work week
However, I think this is another area where we need exceptional
Go Forward
If these hires come to fruition, that's 5 people full time next year
Every SFR fund I've benchmarked in the ~$250M-$500M AUM mark has 7-12 full time employees
With these 5, we are about half of the way there.
For that reason, we only want to hire exceptional and when we really need people
This is my current thinking and could be totally wrong, so please feel free to poke holes in this!
Non-executive director. Finance, risk, climate change. Trusted strategic partner. Energetic, enthusiastic, driven.
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