The Platform CEO

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About 11 minutes to read

Notes are grouped by the chapter or Note they belong to and numbered in the order they appear. Figures a firm reports about itself are marked as company-reported, and figures from a technology vendor as vendor-reported. Where the arithmetic is mine, the note says so.

Chapter 6: The Ladder

  1. “One of the biggest real estate investors in the world.” Blackstone reported $314.1 billion of real estate assets under management at 30 June 2026 (Blackstone, “Blackstone Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results,” 23 July 2026; company-reported). PERE’s 2026 PERE 100 ranking (PEI Media, 1 June 2026) places Blackstone first, with $52.2 billion raised for funds closed between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025, which supports “one of the biggest.” Its tenth flagship real estate fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners X, closed at $30.4 billion and was announced as the largest real estate drawdown fund ever raised (Blackstone, press release via Business Wire, 11 April 2023; company-reported). The first fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners I (1994), was under half a billion dollars: PitchBook lists $381 million, and the Wharton Real Estate Review gives $467 million (Joanne Douvas, “Twenty Years of Opportunistic Real Estate Investing,” Spring 2012). The sources differ and neither is a Blackstone figure (note 2). From the third flagship fund on, each fund was about 1.2 to 2.6 times the size of the one before (note 2), and the firm added a core-plus vehicle with a first close in 2014 and a REIT for individual investors in 2017 while it kept raising flagship funds (note 3). Back to text

A Note on Chapter Six

  1. Closed-end funds for about two decades. Blackstone Real Estate Partners flagship funds: BREP III (1999), $1.5 billion; BREP IV (April 2004), $2.05 billion; BREP V (June 2006), $5.25 billion; BREP VI (April 2008), $10.9 billion; BREP VII (October 2012), $13.3 billion; BREP VIII (October 2015), $15.8 billion; BREP IX (September 2019), $20.5 billion; BREP X (April 2023), $30.4 billion (Blackstone press releases of the dates shown; company-reported). The step from each fund to the next, about 1.2 to 2.6 times, is my arithmetic. BREP I (1994) was under half a billion dollars: PitchBook’s fund profile gives $381 million and the Wharton Real Estate Review gives $467 million (Joanne Douvas, “Twenty Years of Opportunistic Real Estate Investing,” Spring 2012). The two differ, and no Blackstone or PERE figure was found. BREP II (1996) was about $1.2 billion, from PitchBook’s fund profile alone; no second source was found. Back to text
  2. Vehicles with no end date. Blackstone dates Blackstone Property Partners, its core-plus vehicle, to 2013 in its results tables (second-quarter 2026 earnings release, 23 July 2026) and says in its Form 10-K for 2018 that it launched the business in 2013 (company-reported). The first close came in 2014: PERE reported on 17 July 2014 that Blackstone was targeting a first close for its debut core-plus vehicle later that year, and on 8 December 2014 that it had held a first closing of $1.7 billion (PERE, “EXCLUSIVE: Blackstone raises $1.7bn for core-plus fund”). No source gives a month. Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) launched in 2017 (same release; Sergei Klebnikov, “Blackstone’s $80 Trillion Opportunity,” Forbes, 5 February 2024). BREP IX (2019) and BREP X (2023) closed after both vehicles existed. Back to text
  3. “A full suite of open-ended funds.” Joan Solotar, head of Blackstone’s private wealth business, quoted in Sergei Klebnikov, “Blackstone’s $80 Trillion Opportunity,” Forbes, 5 February 2024. Back to text
  4. More than half of the capital in its real estate business. Perpetual capital of $170.5 billion within real estate assets under management of $314.1 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2026 (Blackstone, second-quarter 2026 earnings release, 23 July 2026; company-reported). The share, about 54 percent, is my arithmetic. Back to text
  5. Limits on withdrawals. BREIT limited share repurchases at the turn of 2023, after requests exceeded the limits in its documents of 2 percent of net asset value a month and 5 percent a quarter. BREIT launched in 2017 with those limits on redemptions (Klebnikov, Forbes, 5 February 2024). Back to text

A Note on Chapter Seven

  1. Blackstone’s move into Asian real estate. Two Asia real estate investments from 2006 through 2008; about $1.46 billion across 15 investments from 2010 to 2013; a dedicated team of 48 people in six offices before the first Asia fund (New Jersey Division of Investment, memo on its proposed investment in Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia). The start of investing in 2010 rests on the 2010 to 2013 window in that memo. The memo is the only source for the team size and for the deal window; no Blackstone or PERE source was found for either, and the headcount describes the Asia team ahead of that fund, not the early years of the real estate business. Back to text
  2. Its first fund for the region. Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia held a first closing of $1.5 billion on a $3.5 billion target; the New Jersey Division of Investment committed $500 million, its largest commitment to a private real estate fund (PERE, “Blackstone holds $1.5bn first closing for BREP Asia,” 2013). Back to text
  3. Hines. Hines Securities began operations in 2003 and passed $5 billion of capital raised in April 2014 (Hines, “Hines Securities tops $5 billion in capital raised,” press release, 16 April 2014; company-reported). Back to text
  4. Bridge Investment Group. Bridge started in 1991 as a multifamily investor, added in-house property management in 2000 and raised its first institutional fund, Bridge Multifamily Fund I, in 2009 (Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc., Form S-1/A, filed with the SEC in July 2021). Back to text

A Note on Chapter Eight

  1. Edgcomb Metals. In 1989 Blackstone bought Edgcomb Metals, a steel company, in a buyout of about $330 million; Edgcomb filed for bankruptcy in 1992. Blackstone invested about $38.9 million and lost about $32.5 million (AI-CIO, “The Disaster That Made Blackstone’s Schwarzman Who He Is Today,” 20 December 2019). The year and the size of the deal are also in Fox Business (“How Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman’s $330M mistake improved the company’s investment process,” 26 July 2020) and in Schwarzman’s own account, Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence (New York: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 2019), as excerpted in Forbes (“Stephen Schwarzman, What It Takes excerpt: Why There Are No Brave Old People In Finance,” 16 September 2019). Schwarzman’s “never again,” the question “If something goes wrong how wrong can it go?” and two fragments of his description of the firm’s first job, “our first job, sort of like a doctor, is do no harm” and “in the financial business that means don’t lose money,” are quoted in the AI-CIO article. The account of single-person decisions before 1989 follows the same article. The Forbes excerpt describes the process that followed: proposals written up and circulated at least two days ahead, and everyone expected to speak so that each decision is made collectively. The founding year, 1985, is from a 2015 resolution of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System. Back to text
  2. The review and Schwarzman’s quote. The three-part description (a written analysis of how money could be lost on every deal; every committee member speaks; the group owns the outcome) is a paraphrase of the article’s summary; only the quoted sentence is verbatim: “This depersonalizes decision-making, because if everyone is attacking you all the time, then no one is attacking you.” Knowledge at Wharton, “What’s Behind Blackstone’s Investment Success.” Back to text
  3. Which it dates to 1991. Blackstone press releases for BREP VIII (1 October 2015) and BREP IX (11 September 2019), each dating the real estate business to 1991 (company-reported). The start year is also in the investment-record table of Blackstone’s 2007 Form S-1 (Blackstone Group L.P., “real estate opportunity” funds, year of inception 1991) and on Blackstone’s real estate page, which says the business “began its real estate investing activities in 1991.” A few press accounts give 1992. Back to text
  4. One global investment committee. Blackstone Property Partners Europe Holdings, “Investor Presentation,” September 2026 (data as of 30 June 2026), page 3: “Blackstone has a centralized investment process. Generally, significant equity investments are evaluated by the Global Investment Committee and significant debt investments are evaluated by the BREDS Investment Committee” (company-reported). The presentation is for Blackstone’s European core-plus vehicle and describes the firm-wide process. Blackstone Inc., Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2024 (filed 28 February 2025), adds that investment professionals submit opportunities to a review committee or an investment committee, generally made up of senior leaders. A May 2022 overview presented to the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System described the same arrangement (“1 global investment committee”). Back to text
  5. When the cost of capital has gone up substantially. The cycle turned in 2025 and 2026, and the cost of capital was substantially higher as of September 2026. [VERIFY: the rate environment on a stated date in September 2026, with sources: the federal funds target range, the ten-year Treasury yield, and a dated measure of commercial real estate borrowing costs.] Back to text

Chapter 10: Proof on Demand

  1. New rules on artificial intelligence in Europe. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of 13 June 2024 (the Artificial Intelligence Act), published in the Official Journal on 12 July 2024 and in force from 1 August 2024, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of 8 July 2026 (the Digital Omnibus on AI), in force from 27 July 2026. The amendment postponed the obligations for high-risk systems in the areas listed in Annex III from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027, and for AI embedded in regulated products (Annex I) from 2 August 2027 to 2 August 2028. Annex III areas include employment, access to essential services (including creditworthiness assessment of natural persons) and education. From those dates, high-risk systems carry requirements for risk management, technical documentation, logging, human oversight, conformity assessment and registration. The obligations fall mainly on providers, and on deployers in the European Union; the chapter makes no claim that they bind a US sponsor operating US properties. Back to text

A Note on Chapter Ten

  1. The marketing rule and the anti-fraud rule. Rule 206(4)-1(a)(2) under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the marketing rule; compliance date 4 November 2022) bars an advertisement that includes “a material statement of fact that the adviser does not have a reasonable basis for believing it will be able to substantiate upon demand by the Commission” (17 CFR 275.206(4)-1). Rule 206(4)-8 prohibits untrue statements of material fact, and misleading omissions, to investors and prospective investors in a pooled investment vehicle (17 CFR 275.206(4)-8). Whether a particular letter to existing investors is an advertisement depends on what it offers. Under 17 CFR 275.206(4)-1(e)(1), a communication to current investors in a private fund is an advertisement if it offers new investment advisory services, and the adopting release says the same (SEC, Investment Adviser Marketing, Release No. IA-5653, 22 December 2020; 86 Fed. Reg. 13024, 5 March 2021). A year-end letter that only reports on existing funds is not an advertisement on that test; it becomes one if it offers new advisory services or a new fund. The second rule applies either way. Back to text
  2. Settled cases on statements about AI. SEC, “SEC Charges Two Investment Advisers with Making False and Misleading Statements About Their Use of Artificial Intelligence,” press release 2024-36, 18 March 2024. The two settled orders, both dated 18 March 2024: In the Matter of Delphia (USA) Inc., Investment Advisers Act Release No. 6573, civil penalty $225,000; In the Matter of Global Predictions Inc., Investment Advisers Act Release No. 6574, civil penalty $175,000. Advisers are named here only, never in the text. Back to text
  3. Gross and net. Rule 206(4)-1(d)(1) bars an advertisement from presenting gross performance unless it also presents net performance with at least equal prominence, calculated over the same period and using the same methodology. Rule 206(4)-1(e)(8) defines hypothetical performance to include “targeted or projected performance returns with respect to any portfolio or to the investment advisory services,” so target and projected returns carry the conditions in paragraph (d)(6): policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure the performance is relevant to the audience, and disclosure of the criteria, assumptions and risks (17 CFR 275.206(4)-1). The adopting release discusses targets and projections shown to private fund investors (SEC, Release No. IA-5653). The SEC staff’s Marketing Compliance Frequently Asked Questions do not address target returns. Back to text

A Note on Chapter Eleven

  1. Tony James and the successor. In 2003 Tony James, then Blackstone’s chief operating officer, told Stephen Schwarzman he planned to retire at seventy and suggested they quietly pick and groom a successor (Institutional Investor, “How Blackstone Chose Its Heir Apparent Without the Usual Hunger Games”). James joined Blackstone in 2002 as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer and took the title of President in 2006, on the retirement of co-founder Peter G. Peterson. Blackstone named Jon Gray President and Chief Operating Officer and Tony James Executive Vice Chairman on 13 February 2018 (Blackstone, “Jon Gray Named President and Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone; Tony James Named Executive Vice Chairman,” press release, 13 February 2018, also filed as Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K; company-reported). Back to text
  2. Gray’s start. Gray joined Blackstone in 1992 and moved to the new real estate group in 1993 (Blackstone press release, 13 February 2018; “Jonathan D. Gray,” Wikipedia). Back to text
  3. The stages. Gray joined Blackstone’s eight-person management committee in 2006 and began attending management meetings across its businesses in 2013 (Institutional Investor, as in note 20); he became President and Chief Operating Officer in February 2018 (Blackstone press release, 13 February 2018; company-reported). Back to text
  4. “No other heirs apparent in sight.” Both quotations from Schwarzman are from Institutional Investor, as in note 20. Back to text
  5. Two global co-heads. The same announcement named Ken Caplan and Kathleen McCarthy global co-heads of Blackstone Real Estate and described real estate as about half of the firm’s earnings in prior years (Blackstone press release, 13 February 2018; company-reported). Back to text

A Note on Chapter Thirteen

  1. The key-person clause. On a key-person event, a closed-end fund’s investment period is typically suspended, and it resumes or ends by a vote of the investors or the advisory committee. Institutional Limited Partners Association, ILPA Principles 3.0 (June 2019), section on key-person provisions. Back to text
  2. Published figures for what buyers pay. The sources are thin, and the two kinds of buyer they describe should not be read as one range. For minority stakes in private real estate managers, Paul Stanton, “The Real Estate GP Investment Landscape,” Thesis Driven (newsletter), 13 November 2025, reports 8 to 12 times fee-related earnings in institutional GP-stake transactions. For listed alternative managers, Goldman Sachs Research applies 13 to 30 times fee-related earnings, averaging 22, as reported in Brett Hillard, “Understanding General Partner (GP) Stakes Investing,” GLASfunds, 25 January 2024 (the Goldman note itself is not dated in the article); that is a public-market ceiling. The same article says buyers are likely to pay more for larger, diversified managers with more of their earnings from perpetual funds. Read together, reported figures run from the high single digits to the low twenties, with the top of the range set by listed firms; the reconciliation is mine. A transaction point is in the next note. I found no dated GP-stakes survey from a placement agent, bank or law firm. Back to text
  3. Apollo and Bridge. Apollo agreed on 24 February 2025 to buy Bridge Investment Group in an all-stock transaction with an equity value of about $1.5 billion (Apollo, press release, 24 February 2025). Bridge reported fee-related earnings to the operating company of $136.6 million for 2024 (Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc., “Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results,” 24 February 2025, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1; company-reported). The multiples are my arithmetic. On equity value, $1.5 billion divided by $136.6 million is about eleven times. Counting Bridge’s net debt at 31 December 2024 ($447.3 million of notes payable less $90.6 million of cash, or $356.7 million), enterprise value is about $1.86 billion and the multiple about thirteen and a half times. The equity value is a headline figure for an all-stock deal and moves with Apollo’s share price; fee-related earnings are before tax; and the net debt figure leaves out fund-level debt and the tax receivable agreement. Bridge was public and far larger than the firms in this book. Back to text

Afterword

  1. How will you measure your life. Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth and Karen Dillon, How Will You Measure Your Life? (New York: Harper Business, 2012). Back to text
  2. Halftime. Bob Buford, Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), the updated and expanded edition; the first edition, titled Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance, was published by Zondervan in 1994. Back to text

You are reading the working draft of 2 October 2026. Corrections and comments are welcome at chi@chiraghathiramani.com.