The three curves

1. Trust in you. The people, the team, the firm.
2. Trust in the industry or strategy. Does the allocator understand how this kind of fund makes money and how it loses it?
3. Closeness to the opportunity. Proximity, local knowledge or a direct connection to the asset.

If an endowment is high on all three, a quality fund usually gets funded. If it is at zero on all three, you are wasting both your time and theirs.

What this means with endowments

Endowment staff often sit high on curve two for mainstream strategies. They know buyout funds and long/short equity well. They may be near zero on a niche strategy. And they almost always start near zero on you.

So most managers pitching endowments are really working on curve one, and sometimes curve two for something unusual.

Move one or two curves per meeting, not three

Every meeting and every document should move the allocator up one or two curves. Not all three at once. Know which curve you are working on before you walk into the room or open the video call.

• Curve one work. References from other institutional clients. Audited track record. Team stability. Clean operations. A clear answer on what went wrong once.
• Curve two work. Plain-English explanations of how the strategy earns returns and how it loses. Data on the asset class over full cycles.
• Curve three work. Show your local or sector access. Why you see deals others don't.

A practical habit

Before each meeting, write one line. "Today I am moving them up curve ___ by showing ___." Then build the meeting around it.

Does that make sense for your raise?

If you are pitching endowments and getting polite meetings with no follow-up, you are probably trying to climb all three curves at once.