Joshua David Harlan

Joshua D. Harlan is the founder and managing partner of Harlan Capital Partners, a private credit manager he launched in 2010–2011 that focuses on uncorrelated, asset-based financing in media/IP, fintech/specialty finance, and real assets. He has more than 20 years of experience across private-market investing, portfolio management, and investment banking.

Before founding the firm, Harlan was a portfolio manager and a member of the investment committee at OPTrust Private Markets Group, which manages the private equity, private credit, and infrastructure allocations of one of Canada's largest public pension funds. Earlier in his career he was a director in the investment banking group at Allen & Company in New York, where he advised on mergers, acquisitions, and private placements across the media, entertainment, and technology sectors — a background that maps directly onto Harlan Capital's later focus on content, IP, and rights-based finance.

Harlan was educated at Harvard College (AB in Philosophy), Balliol College, Oxford (master's degree), and Yale Law School (JD). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is an active commentator, publishing opinion pieces in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and The Hill on topics including AI copyright risk, AI legal personhood, and consolidation in streaming/media.

• Invests in "private investments across inefficient and fragmented markets — where competition is limited, assets are misunderstood, and creative structuring makes the difference."
• Seeks "asymmetric risk-reward with downside protection and uncapped upside," typically backed by contractual claims on cash flow or predictable asset values.
• States its edge is in "structuring complexity and recognizing value before others do," targeting smaller, less standardized opportunities in the lower middle market that larger managers overlook.
• Three core verticals: (1) Media, Sports & IP; (2) Specialty Finance; (3) Real Assets — often at the "intersection of unbundling markets."
• Positions itself as founder-friendly and collaborative — named to Inc.'s 2024 list of Founder-Friendly Investors — implying hands-on partnership with portfolio companies rather than passive lending.