
What a placement agent actually charges
The SEC asks every issuer what it paid its placement agent, and almost nobody adds it up. This piece does, band by band, from 28,029 equity filings: the company with no revenue pays a median 7.0%, the company above $100M pays 3.7%, and most raises pay nobody at all.
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Three in four companies will not say what they earn
Every private-market benchmark is built on the companies that chose to answer one optional question. This piece measures who answers: 22.8% of 238,684 filers, falling every year since 2015, and only one in ten of those who raised $25M or more.
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What an audited mark says a private company is worth
Nobody publishes private-company multiples, except the SEC, by accident. Business development companies must disclose the valuation inputs behind every position they hold. This piece reads the equity stakes only: 4,014 disclosures, median 9.9x, and what the population does to the number.
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Family offices cannot be searched for, and that is the law
The Family Office Rule takes single-family offices out of the adviser register entirely, so no clean list exists anywhere. This piece counts what the public record does hold — 115 self-named firms on the adviser register, 922 mentions in 13F filings, a commercial directory with 8 email addresses — and says what that means for anyone who needs to reach them.
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One in twelve private funds changes its administrator each year
The SEC's adviser filings name the administrator of every private fund, year after year. Diffed, they give a switching rate nobody publishes — 8.6% a year — and a trap: 43% of the apparent switches were acquisitions, one of them 2,038 funds in a single year. This piece gives the rate, the filter, and the limits.
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The newest quarter is always wrong
A Form D is filed at first sale and amended for years afterwards with the running total, so the newest quarter is complete in count and incomplete in money. Measured on five quarters: 70–95% of the total visible at close. This piece shows the gap, the sign it flips, and the comparison that does not lie.
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The capacity gap
$124T changes hands through 2048 while advisor headcount grows 0.2% a decade. The piece follows that shortfall down to the $5M–$50M band, and names the widely quoted figures we refuse on quality grounds.
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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. The piece sources both figures, shows why the shortfall sits on the supply side, and sets out where we stand.
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