Mike Silva is an Investment Manager at CalPERS, where he has spent more than a decade leading the institution’s Emerging Manager Program across private equity, private debt, and real estate. He focuses on sourcing, evaluating, and advocating for emerging managers internally while helping shape CalPERS’ broader approach to middle-market and venture investing.

Topics:

Where Emerging Managers Should Focus First
Nailing the 30-Minute First Meeting
Timeline from First Meeting to Commitment
Seeding vs. Staking vs. Direct Investment

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

If you can’t explain your firm in 2 minutes, LPs will move on. Emerging Managers need to quickly distill their team, strategy, and differentiator into a narrative that sticks. LPs like Mike are meeting hundreds of managers a year. Long-winded explanations don't just waste time but signal a lack of clarity. The managers who cut through can clearly explain four things: who they are, what they invest in, why they're differentiated, and why it matters to that LP specifically.

LPs value predictability as much as performance. Mike made the point that trust starts forming well before capital is committed. LPs are watching whether managers actually execute what they said they would do: hiring the right people, closing the deals they discussed, and staying consistent with the strategy they pitched. Every update becomes proof of credibility.

Your IC dynamics matter more than you think. Mike shared that when evaluating Emerging Managers, he spends significant time understanding team dynamics: how long the partners have worked together, how investment committee decisions are made, whether there’s healthy debate, and how disagreement is handled. Strong track records matter, but LPs are also underwriting the decision-making culture that produced them.

About CalPERS

CalPERS is one of the largest public pension funds in the world, managing retirement and health benefits for California public employees, retirees, and their families. Through its Emerging Manager Program, CalPERS invests across private equity, private debt, and real estate, backing smaller and differentiated managers it believes can generate long-term outperformance and expand access to overlooked areas of the market.