Mar 27, 2025

Copy the “BAM” Strategy Like The stock market is terrifying right now. Last month alone, fears about global tariffs and a potential recession erased $4 trillion from the S&P 500. In times like this, it’s helpful to see what professional investors are doing — and if possible, copy them. So today, I’ll show you the surprising move a legendary investor just made… And then I’ll show you exactly how to copy it. BAM’s Big Move Balyasny Asset Management (BAM) is a $23 billion money manager. It employs over 2,000 professionals across more than 20 global locations. Founded in 2001, the firm is known for its data-driven approach and diversified investment strategies. This approach has helped it earn market-beating returns, even during turbulent times. Check out this chart of its recent performance (in red) against the S&P (in blue): It’s launching a $350 million venture-capital fund. In other words, it’s decided to invest in private startups. Specifically, it plans to invest in startups focused on AI, data infrastructure, health-tech, and cybersecurity — areas where adoption is accelerating and valuations are still competitive. But why exactly is a top money manager like BAM deciding to “forget stocks” and focus on the private venture market instead? A Strategy to “Juice Returns” As industry research company PitchBook reported: “Balyasny has long viewed venture as a place to find excess returns… Balyasny’s bet on VC reflects the long-held view of founder Dmitry Balyasny that the biggest hedge funds would eventually begin backing startups to juice returns.” In other words, it’s investing in startups so it can “juice” its returns and beat the stock market. The thing is, BAM is hardly alone… As PitchBook alludes to, BAM’s move follows a broader trend among major money managers to aggressively expand into the private markets. For example, mutual fund giant Fidelity — which has traditionally only invested in public companies — started investing in private startups. And Tiger Global, one of the most prominent funds in the world, pulled back on its stock investments so it could allocate more capital to the private markets. According to The Financial Times, it invested in about 230 startups before their IPOs, including Warby Parker, Peloton, and Spotify. What do BAM and Fidelity and Tiger know that we don’t? Let’s take a look. The Facts Year after year, decade after decade, regardless of what’s happening in the world, the private market continues to help turn small starting stakes into windfalls. The “secret” here is simple: historically, early-stage private investing has been the most profitable long-term asset class. For example, according to Cambridge Associates (a financial advisor with clients like the Rockefeller Foundation and Bill Gates), on average, for the past 25 years, these investments have returned roughly 55% per year. At 55% per year, in just 20 years, you could turn $250 into more than $1.6 million. So even if you took just a tiny piece of your nest egg and put it into the private markets, you could potentially multiply your total returns many times over. Now It’s Your Turn For the past 85 years or so, the U.S. government legally prohibited all but the wealthiest citizens from investing in startups. But because of a new set of laws called The JOBS Act, now anyone can invest in these young, private companies — and anyone can put themselves in position to “juice” their returns. This is why, about ten years ago, I launched Crowdability: my mission is to help individual investors like you make sense of, and profit from, this newly available market. It doesn’t take much capital to get started. You can start building a portfolio, just like a venture capitalist, with just a few hundred dollars. Here are two easy (and free) ways to get started: First, take a look at our weekly “Deals” email. We send this out every Monday at 11am EST, and it contains a handful of new startup deals for you to explore. Second, check out our  free white papers  like “ Tips from the Pros .” These easy-to-read reports will teach you how to separate the good deals from the bad. So get ready to copy the “BAM” strategy — And Happy Investing!