BUY-SIDE ADVISORY | PRIVATE AND PUBLIC MARKETS
Operator-led buy-side advisory for GPs, LPs and institutional investors
Buy-side advice from investors who have owned the outcome
Arete Ventures advises investors in private and public markets on fund strategy, frontier technology diligence and portfolio performance. We have sat on investment committees and in the operating seat.
16 years
Operating partner, San Francisco PE firm
$60M to $575M
Range of transactions advised
3 of 9
Diligence engagements where we advised against proceeding
20 years
On the buy side, since 2006
Where conventional diligence stops
Diligence reports usually end at signing. We have carried plans other people wrote, in companies we did not build, and that shapes what we test.
01
Whether the technical milestone being reported is the one that actually gates revenue
02
Whether the current management team can deliver the plan, and how long replacing them would take
03
Whether the exit multiple being underwritten has ever been paid in the public market
04
What the business looks like when its largest customers renegotiate at once
Diligence
01
Whether the technical milestone being reported is the one that actually gates revenue
02
Whether the current management team can deliver the plan, and how long replacing them would take
03
Whether the exit multiple being underwritten has ever been paid in the public market
04
What the business looks like when its largest customers renegotiate at once
Three practices, each run by an operator
Reported plant utilization of 80% restated to 62% before the growth plan was funded.
Underwritten exit multiple revised down 0.3x before signing, after rebuilding the public comparable set.
Practices
01
Fund & Portfolio Strategy
Investment advisory for GPs and LPs in AI, quantum, blockchain, life sciences and energy transition.
Fund thesis and portfolio construction
Technical diligence on new and follow-on rounds
Portfolio triage and the path to self-funding
Exit readiness, 18 to 24 months out
02
Buy-side M&A Advisory
Diligence written from the owner's side, for US transactions including cross-border deals.
Commercial, operational and technical diligence
Exit multiples tested against public comparables
Distressed and underperforming targets
100-day plan built during diligence
03
Performance Improvement
Free cash flow and capital discipline across technology, energy and industrial portfolios.
Capacity and capital spending discipline
Working capital and cash conversion
Platform consolidation after bolt-ons
Turnarounds of underperforming assets
Who we advise
We work as an independent advisor to institutional investors. Clients have included global asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and long-only and hedge funds, alongside private equity and venture capital firms.
VC and PE general partners
Deploying into sectors where the financial model depends on a technical question the deal team cannot answer alone.
LPs and family offices
Allocating to frontier technology managers, and underwriting co-investments on a short clock without an in-house technical bench.
Sovereign and institutional funds
Large direct and cross-border positions where the structure sits in one jurisdiction and the execution risk sits in another.
Hedge funds and long-only managers
Positions where the open question is whether the market is pricing the underlying technology correctly. One example: a technical read on a US-listed energy infrastructure holding for a long-only manager.
Portfolio company boards
An independent read on whether the plan, the leadership or the original thesis is what's failing.
The questions our clients bring us
VC and PE general partners
Deploying into sectors where the financial model depends on a technical question the deal team cannot answer alone.
LPs and family offices
Allocating to frontier technology managers, and underwriting co-investments on a short clock without an in-house technical bench.
Sovereign and institutional funds
Large direct and cross-border positions where the structure sits in one jurisdiction and the execution risk sits in another.
Hedge funds and long-only managers
Positions where the open question is whether the market is pricing the underlying technology correctly. One example: a technical read on a US-listed energy infrastructure holding for a long-only manager.
Portfolio company boards
An independent read on whether the plan, the leadership or the original thesis is what's failing.
Managing Partner
Gaurav Shah
Sixteen years as an operating partner at a San Francisco private equity firm. Investment committee member at VC, PE and hedge funds, voting on deals in robotics, deep tech and life sciences. Chemical engineer (M.S., University of Southern California) with six US patents in energy technology.
How we work
Buy side only. We take a small number of mandates at a time and work them senior only. If a mandate is not a fit, we say so on the first call.
Insights
Insights
Frontier technology
Institutional Diligence in Frontier Tech: A Buy-Side Playbook
Gaurav Shah · 10 min read
Asset allocators
Capital Stack Diagnostics: A Framework for Asset Allocators
Gaurav Shah · 9 min read
Fund strategy
Rethinking Fund Strategy: Operator-Led vs. Consultant-Led Approaches
Gaurav Shah · 6 min read