David Conrod

David L. Conrod is the co-founder and CEO of FocusPoint Private Capital Group (legally FPCG, LLC), an independent private-capital placement and advisory firm he launched in 2010 alongside former Guggenheim Partners colleagues, including Robert Mortimer. FocusPoint specializes in raising institutional capital across private equity, growth, venture capital, credit, distressed, real estate, real assets, sale-leaseback, income and hospitality strategies, as well as direct transactions. Since inception the firm has closed on more than $4 billion for third-party general-partner clients and has worked on 20-plus first-time funds, operating out of offices in New York and London. Conrod is also CEO of LandC Investment, LLC, an affiliated vehicle that acquires ownership stakes in direct transactions and private funds sourced through FocusPoint's capital-raising business.

Conrod is a veteran fund-placement executive with more than 25 years of experience raising capital and building financial-services businesses. From 2000 to 2010 he was a Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, joining at the broker/dealer's inception. There he led global institutional distribution, played a central role in sourcing and growing six Guggenheim-sponsored asset-management entities that collectively raised roughly $6 billion of limited-partnership commitments, and established the firm's Private Fund Group, which secured over $7 billion of fund allocations for external general partners.

Earlier in his career, Conrod began in the software industry selling banking application software (at Intelligent Bank Management / InBank), then moved into asset management after business school. At HSBC's asset-management arm in the Americas (roughly 1992–1999) he distributed private-equity and long-only Asian equity products, built relationships with pension funds and state and local governments, and spearheaded fundraises including an early-1990s ~$250 million Asian private-equity fund and later India- and Asia-focused funds.

Conrod holds an A.B. (History) from Kenyon College and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School (Columbia Graduate School of Business, 1990–1992). He grew up between Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Boston and Chappaqua, New York, and in 1997 married Nina Garcia, editor-in-chief of *Elle* and longtime *Project Runway* judge; they have two sons.

• Core business is institutional placement, not classic startup angel investing. FocusPoint raises private capital for GPs across buyout, growth, venture, credit, distressed, real estate, real assets and opportunistic/direct strategies — meaning his "yes" is usually about a fund manager's differentiation, track record and fundability, not a single startup.
• Backs first-time and emerging managers. FocusPoint has raised capital for 20-plus first-time funds, reflecting a willingness to underwrite newer GPs who have a credible edge.
• Personal/principal investing via LandC Investment, LLC. Conrod personally takes ownership stakes in direct transactions and private funds sourced through FocusPoint's pipeline; this is the vehicle behind his "angel/seed" classification in investor databases.
• Believes fundraising decisions are emotional. In his own words, investor decisions are "largely emotional" — he compares raising capital to a consumer buying a car — and he cites "patience and perseverance" as the essential traits for winning allocations.
• Sector breadth over single-sector specialization: private equity, private credit, real assets, real estate and income-related strategies dominate; venture and growth are included but within a broader alternatives mandate.