Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.
We sat down with Mike Trihy, Head of Portfolio Management for the Venture Growth Evergreen strategy at Wellington Management.
We were live from Berlin, which becomes the “capital of private capital” in June as private equity industry leaders make the annual pilgrimage to the city for one of the marquee private equity conferences, SuperReturn Berlin.
With Prosek Partners and former Bloomberg TV journalist Deirdre Bolton as my producer, along with her team, we took over a Tiny Space cabin to hold big conversations with some of the industry’s leading alternative asset managers.
Wellington Management has a rich heritage as an independently owned asset manager. The firm, which has taken a research-driven approach and long-term thinking to active management in public markets and, increasingly, in private markets, is nearing its 100-year anniversary. Wellington has grown to over $1.3T in AUM and is the largest sub-advisor in the world.
Mike joined from Bow River Capital to run Wellington’s Venture Growth Evergreen strategy, which will focus on direct growth and venture investments, secondaries, and select fund investments. Mike brings deep expertise in the evergreen fund management space, co-founding and scaling Bow River’s evergreen private markets platform and working as a portfolio manager at evergreen pioneer Partners Group.
Mike and I had a fascinating discussion about the current state of evergreen funds and the venture and growth investing market. We covered:
- The evolution of evergreen private markets funds.
- The convergence of public and private investing.
- Lessons learned from building and managing evergreen funds at Partners Group and Bow River.
- The importance of portfolio construction, liquidity planning, and evergreen fund operations.
- Which firms are well-positioned to run and manage evergreen funds?
- Partnerships in asset management.
- How the market may shake out and why structure must match the asset, the client, and the liquidity terms.
- LP composition, evergreens vs. drawdowns across wealth and institutions, and the role of partnerships.
- What the potential wave of mega IPOs could mean for DPI, exits, and private market fundraising.
Bio
As lead portfolio manager for the Venture Growth Evergreen (“VGE”) strategy, Mike is responsible for overall portfolio construction and allocation of capital across direct growth and venture investments, secondaries, and select fund investments. He also oversees risk management, liquidity management, and cash flow forecasting for the evergreen fund.
Prior to joining Wellington Management in 2025 Mike was a portfolio manager at Bow River Capital, where he co-founded and scaled their evergreen private markets platform while overseeing the fund’s investment activity across multiple private markets asset classes. Prior to Bow River, he was a portfolio manager at Partners Group where he was responsible for portfolio construction and asset allocation for evergreen products and custom separate account mandates. He started his investment career at wealth-focused listed private equity firm Red Rocks Capital.
Mike graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in finance, and he is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.
Thanks, Mike, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and perspectives on private markets and evergreen funds.
Show Notes
00:00 Live from SuperReturn Berlin
00:12 Meet Mike Trihy
02:06 Defining the Perfect Evergreen
02:27 Evergreen vs Drawdown DNA
02:42 Deal Flow Isn’t Everything
03:01 Portfolio Construction Focus
03:20 Cashflow Planning Mindset
03:33 Operations and Valuations
03:47 Sales and Flow Forecasting
04:03 Regulation and Complexity
04:11 Fiduciary Growth Discipline
04:46 Do Firms Have the Toolkit
05:20 Scale vs Boutique Nuances
05:42 When Bottom Up Fails
06:18 The Deal Flow Constraint
06:44 Should There Be More
07:00 Shakeout and Quality Wins
08:07 No One Best Wrapper
08:28 Matching Assets and Clients
09:43 LP Mix and Herding Risk
11:34 Evergreens Future in Wealth
13:21 Public Markets DNA Advantage
14:56 Partnerships and Mega IPOs
17:07 Private Markets Stay Private
18:52 DPI and Exit Wave Impact
20:17 Public vs Private Valuations
22:21 What Happens Faster Slower
24:08 Closing
