Episode summary
Advisory Boards & LPACs: A Complete Masterclass for GPs
How I Invest With David Weisburd
· · Hosts: David Weisburd · Guests: Matt Curtolo
Summary
Matt Curtolo argues that advisory structures only work when the GP defines the job first: LP advisory committees, boards of advisors, and independent advisors serve different purposes, and too many firms blur them into vague prestige signals. He says the real gap is usually not talent but clarity, because many GPs build these groups to look credible instead of deciding whether they need governance, strategic counsel, fundraising help, or objective truth.
He makes a sharp distinction between a functional advisor and a full-time hire, saying the answer depends on cadence, expectations, and compensation. For LPACs and advisors, he favors small groups, explicit roles, and compensation structures that test alignment before paying out carry, often with a cliff and then linear vesting. He also argues that the best advisory relationships are flexible and should age out naturally as firms and networks evolve.
On LPAC construction, Matt Curtolo says diversity of investor type matters, but only if the committee stays tight enough to be useful. He sees the strongest committees as transparent rooms where GPs bring real problems early, turning LPs into long-term advocates rather than passive overseers.
Key takeaways
- Matt Curtolo says GPs should define the purpose of an advisory structure before choosing people, because function comes before optics.
- He says the best independent advisors are unconlicted people who can give objective truth, even when the firm already has strong internal talent.
- For compensation, Matt Curtolo favors carry-based alignment for advisors, often with a cliff before vesting, rather than paying for attendance alone.
- He says LPACs work best when they are small, often around five or six people, because large committees become hard to manage and less candid.
- Matt Curtolo argues that diversity of LP type matters because pensions, insurers, OCIOs, and taxable investors see risk and governance differently.
- He says the strongest LPACs become advocates when GPs are transparent and bring “dirty laundry” into the room early.
Notable quotes
“advisor means a lot of different things to a lot of different people”
“you have to design it with I I say purpose and clarity right so what do we want to achieve by putting this group of people together”
“someone who's really there to tell you the objective truth”
“the tighter the better, I think, on the advisory committees”
How the episode opens
So Matt, you've sat on more advisory boards and L packs than nearly anyone I've ever met. You've also been involved in entities that invest in over 600 GPS, not even funds, but GPS. So you've seen everything across the gambit.
What's the biggest gap between GPS in terms of what they think they want from their adviserss and their boards and what they really need? First and foremost, it's this advisor means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So, I think it's defining it.
So, you have your your LP advisory committee. That's sort of governance for the fund, oversight of a particular um entity or investment vehicle. Then you have a board of adviserss, right?
That can be independent folks. That can be industry folks. They're oftent times more firm level, strategy level, uh maybe helping out portfolio companies, helping in different areas of firm and fund management.
And then you have sort of the advi the general advisor, which may be someone who has functional expertise that gets piloted into different parts of a portfolio, helping out a company, could be doing a lot of different things, but tends to be a bit more specific on that on that end. So as you think about advisory boards, we'll kind of cover all of those, but they are what you make of them. So GPS sometimes go in thinking that this is um I have to show credibility by the people that are involved around the table.
So I use the word performative a lot of sometimes these boards end up being looking and feeling u not necessarily that functional but really are put together with the expectation that people would be impressed by it to put it blunt.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- advisory boards
- lp advisory committees
- advisor compensation
- advisor selection
- private market governance
Watch the episode
Watch “Advisory Boards & LPACs: A Complete Masterclass for GPs” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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How I Invest With David Weisburd, this episode and its artwork belong to David Weisburd. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
