Hedge Fund Nation: Partnership Between IdeaGeneration And Harvest Exchange Leads to Exciting New Platform For Hedge Funds

 In SCN Blog

By Pablo Erbar

Craig Kaufman, CEO of IdeaGeneration Group, and Jeff Dorman, COO of Harvest Exchange, came together last month to announce the creation of Hedge Fund Nation, a new entity within SCN Corporate Connect tasked with providing video production services to hedge funds. As explained by Kaufman in a recent interview, the newly created financial marketing company aims to help other firms engage with existing and potential investors by using professionally scripted, HD quality videos to convey important fund updates to a selected audience.

The role played by Harvest Exchange is crucial to the partnership, as it offers a network for funds and asset managers to distribute information to the largest investor audience. As indicated by Mr. Dorman, hedge funds still have to generate their own content, which is where IdeaGeneration comes into the picture. The company will be in charge of the production of high-quality videos for funds, generating content which can then be distributed through Harvest Exchange’s platform.

Although it might seem obvious to some, video is a great medium to communicate a message, especially when considering the growth of the internet and the proliferation of online content. As indicated by Kaufman: “we all consume media and news on our mobile devices and the best way to learn about something is through video”. The statistics regarding this issue clearly support the CEO’s statement, as around 90% of target audiences consume news via mobile devices. Nevertheless, hedge funds seem unaware of this trend, relying on the use of PowerPoints and fact sheets to present content rather than focusing on video as a far more effective means of communication. Naturally video cannot replace other tools completely, “but if you’re trying to get that first date with an allocator you need to have video content out in front of people and you need to have it in front of the right people”, added Kaufman.

Hence, Hedge Fund Nation not only intends to help funds produce video content, but also guarantees that the content will be directed to the right audience. Yet generating and distributing content is only half of the story. As indicated by Dorman, the use of analytics is also highly relevant to the process: “seeing who is reading or engaging with this content or who is watching this video and that’s really powerful for an industry that has historically been very binary”. Instead of simply focusing on whether a company made money or not, analytics offers far more information regarding the target audiences, their preferences and the way the content resonates with them.

Getting the message across more efficiently not only helps hedge funds attract new investors, but can also shorten sales cycles significantly. Kaufman believes video content can save funds valuable time by providing information in advance, instead of spending a great deal of time presenting a company at the first meeting with a potential investor. Fund managers on the other hand can prepare themselves more efficiently, acquiring knowledge regarding a firm in a compact and visually attractive manner.

Disclosures: The author, Pablo Erbar, holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned above.

SCN Corporate Connect and Hedge Fund Nation are affiliated entities.

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