Family office

An organisation that manages the investments and often the wider financial affairs of one wealthy family or a small group of families.

Example

A family office co-investing directly in a growth-stage company alongside a fund.

Structures range from professional teams to a single decision-maker, so behaviour varies widely.

Institutional investor — An organisation that invests large pools of money on behalf of others or for a long-lived purpose, such as a pension fund, endowment, insurer or sovereign wealth fund.
Limited partner (LP) — An investor in a private fund structured as a limited partnership, who commits capital, has limited liability and generally has little control over investment decisions.

Pensions, endowments and family offices invest on different clocks — Institutional investors and family offices manage large pools of capital with specific obligations and time horizons, which determine what they buy, how long they hold and how they behave in a crisis. (10 min)
Knowing what each investor needs back tells you how they will behave — Every investor type has a different definition of a good outcome. Mapping those needs explains most disagreements on a cap table before they happen. (10 min)