Sayed B Wayzi
Sayed built Vector Asylum on one conviction: in private capital, the advantage belongs to whoever sees the whole field and holds the relationships inside it. He runs the firm from Toronto. He takes each mandate himself, speaks with every founder before an introduction is made, and stays on the deal until it closes. Operators and specialist partners are brought inside as the work requires. He answers for what the work produces, and nothing is handed to an account manager.
Sayed on LinkedInCapital and companies do not find each other.
The companies worth buying or backing have no banker, no listing and no filing that says they are open to a conversation. The firms that want them see the same lists as everyone else. That gap is where we work.
We find the founders who fit a firm's mandate, speak with each one ourselves, and bring the two to one table. Where we believe in a business, we invest beside it.
The rules we hold on every engagement.
They do not change with the client.
- Discretion.
We do not name who we work with. No logo wall, no case list, no client name in a pitch. If you hear a name from us, the person it belongs to said we could. Being our client is not a disclosable event.
- Confidentiality.
What you tell us stays inside the engagement. Your numbers, your cap table and your intent to sell leave our hands only when you say so, and only to the people you have agreed to meet.
- Transparency.
You see the whole picture we see. Every figure we put in front of you carries its source. We say what we know and what we do not, and you are never handed a number we cannot show the working for.
- Senior Work.
The person you speak with is the person who does the work. Our managing partner sits in every meeting and reads every request, with operators brought inside when the work calls for them.
- Alignment.
Fee, equity, or both. Never debt, never interest. Where we believe in the business, we invest alongside you.
The investment standard behind it
Where we work.
We work from Toronto. The firms we work with sit across North America, Europe, the GCC and Asia.
What the Desk has published.
Pieces measured on the public record. Every number shows its working.
What a placement agent actually charges
Median commission by revenue band, from every Form D since 2015. A company with no revenue pays 7.0%; a company above $100M pays 3.7%.
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Three in four companies will not say what they earn
75.8% of the 238,684 operating companies that filed a Form D since 2015 declined to state a revenue band. The larger the raise, the more often they decline.
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What an audited mark says a private company is worth
Public credit funds carry their equity stakes in private companies at a median 9.9x EBITDA, under audit. 4,014 disclosures, and the reason it is an upper bound.
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Family offices cannot be searched for, and that is the law
A single-family office is excluded from SEC registration and files nothing. Every directory is built from scraps. What the scraps actually contain, counted.
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One in twelve private funds changes its administrator each year
8.6% of 104,034 fund-years, from Form ADV. And 43% of the switches you would count are one provider buying another.
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The newest quarter is always wrong
A quarter read the day it closes shows 70–95% of the money it will eventually show. Why every fresh 'raises are down' headline is manufactured, and the fix.
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The capacity gap
$124T changes hands through 2048 while advisor headcount grows 0.2% a decade. The shortfall, followed down to the $5M–$50M band.
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The $24.5T nobody manages
Muslim-held private wealth is roughly $27.2T. About $2.7T of it is managed Shariah-compliant. Why the gap sits on the supply side.
Read the pieceEvery piece the Desk has published
Every essay with its sources, and the Dispatch.
The Dispatch
Letters from Sayed: a piece we have verified, with its numbers and where they come from. Unsubscribe any time.
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