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: the capital network, the mandates we originate against, the raises and exits we advise, the firms we time into the market, and the Desk that reads for all of them. Operators, specialist partners and back-office functions are brought inside as the work requires. Every part of the work runs through him, he answers for what it produces, and nothing is handed to an account manager.
Sayed on LinkedInCapital and companies do not find each other.
An investor sees a hundred raises a year and takes a meeting with a handful. A founder raises once and knows ten names. Between the two sits everything that decides the outcome: who is deploying this quarter, at what size, on what terms, and who can put you in the room. That gap is where we work.
Our network is not a list. It is family offices, funds and banks that come to us for deal flow, and the founders and firms we put in front of them. A name from us arrives with our read attached, which is why the door opens. Where we believe in a business, we invest beside it. That is where this is going: a crossing where capital deploys, not only where it is introduced.
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.
- One Principal.
One person answers for the work. Sayed sits in every meeting, reads every request and carries every engagement, 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 the capital sits.
The seat is in Toronto, and so are many of the relationships. The rest run across every region the capital sits in.
What the Desk has published.
One piece a week, measured on the filings the Desk reads. 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, one letter a week.
The Dispatch
One letter a week from Sayed: a piece we have verified, with its numbers and where they come from. Unsubscribe any time.
The conversation is confidential from the first word. Tell us the situation, and we will say which door is yours, and whether one is.
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