The Hedge Fund Report: Picking a Winner

To participate in the hedge fund bonanza, you can manage a fund, run a fund of funds, or arrange financing for people you think can do it better.

That last approach -- providing seed capital to new managers without necessarily investing in their portfolio -- is the route SkyBridge Capital has chosen with a big-name partner, Michael Dell. The rewards in this semi-obscure line of work can be big, as seed-capital providers usually end up with a cut of a hedge fund's management fee.

SkyBridge Capital is a seeding firm created last year by Anthony Scaramucci, co-founder of Oscar Capital, a hedge fund acquired in 2001 by Neuberger Berman; and Andrew Klein, co-founder of Soleil Securities Group. The firm signed up its first two managers last week.

Dell participates in SkyBridge's business via his MSD Capital, which is to say, with his own money. With more than $10 billion under management, the eight-year-old MSD is not a rookie player in hedge fund investing. MSD is run by Glenn Fuhrman, former head of Goldman Sachs'(GS ) Special Investments Group, and by John Phelan, a former principal at Ed Lampert's ESL Partners. The wealth management shop has invested money with top-notch managers including ESL.

A classic example of a successful seeder is Julian Robertson, founder of Tiger Management, who discovered giant talents such as Maverick Capital's Lee Ainslee or Lone Pine Capital's Stephen Mandel, the so called "Tiger cubs" who used to work with him.

More modern types include FrontPoint Partners, said to be a potential acquisition target for Morgan Stanley(MS), and Paloma Partners, whose back-office operations have recently been acquired by JP Morgan(JPM). The fact that big investment banks eye these operations shows that they are a growing and significant part of the hedge fund landscape.