2025 Year In Review
To our Partners + Capital investors, friends, and supporters,
Each year, we write an annual letter to capture what we researched, what we’ve learned, and what we’re carrying forward across markets, across deals, and across the messy human part of building anything meaningful.
Partners + Capital was built (nearly ten years ago) on a simple idea: seek real assets, real cash flow, and real underwriting then do it with discipline.
Not hype. Not narratives. Not “maybe someday” math.
And yes, results matter.
In 2025, our focus on disciplined alternative investing delivered strong performance for many of our LPs and Investment Partners, while staying grounded in what we care about most: principal protection and predictable monthly returns whenever the structure allows for it. (As always: markets change, and past performance is not a promise.)
What 2025 reinforced
2025 felt like a year where the market stopped pretending.
Cheap money is no longer the default setting. Capital became more selective.
Projects relying on “perfect conditions” got exposed. And the deals that worked best were the ones built on fundamentals:
• Cash flow over charisma
• Structure over stories
• Downside protection over upside fantasies
When you live in alternatives, you learn quickly: the goal isn’t to be the loudest in the room. It’s to be the last one standing.
The throughline: first principles and repeatable edges
Over time, our portfolio has evolved, but our mindset hasn’t.
We don’t fall in love with categories. We fall in love with repeatable edges:
• knowing how to source
• knowing how to underwrite
• knowing how to structure
• knowing how to protect downside
• knowing when to say “no” quickly
It’s why our core focus continues to be the three categories that built this firm:
1) Private Credit: boring, beautiful, and back in fashion
Private credit remains one of the cleanest ways to align incentives: define the risk, price it appropriately, secure it when possible, and get paid for being early and decisive when banks can’t (or won’t) move.
Our job is not to “chase yield.” Our job is to create intelligent certainty with clear covenants, clear collateral (when available), and clear repayment expectations.
2) Real Estate: reality won
Real estate in 2025 demanded realism. Operating costs stayed stubborn. Insurance didn’t magically get cheaper.
Construction still required humility. And the winners weren’t the best PowerPoints they were the best operators.
We continue to prioritize projects with:
• durable demand
• thoughtful basis
• realistic rent assumptions
• clear execution paths
• and sponsors who have actually done the work before
3) Oil & Gas: misunderstood, cash-flowing, and still essential
In the world of soundbites, energy investing is often discussed like a moral debate instead of an economic one.
We prefer ground truth.
Energy demand is real. Production matters. And well-structured oil & gas opportunities can offer what many portfolios are missing: cash flow, tax advantages (where applicable), and diversification that doesn’t depend on Wall Street’s mood.
What we learned (again)
1) Great deals are designed, not discovered.
The best outcomes come from structure—alignment, protections, clarity, and incentives that don’t collapse under pressure.
2) Risk doesn’t disappear. It just changes costumes.
In a hype cycle, risk looks like optimism. In a downturn, risk looks like panic. Our edge is staying rational in both.
3) Your calendar predicts your outcomes.
The strongest operators we know are obsessive about priorities, execution, and follow-through. Not motivation. Systems.
Looking ahead to 2026
We’re heading into 2026 with confidence along with a healthy level of skepticism.
We plan to stay disciplined in our core categories (private credit, real estate, oil & gas) while selectively expanding into a few alternative areas where we believe the market is inefficient and the ownership experience is compelling.
Art & collectibles, race horse ownership, and other niche categories that are often poorly underwritten and poorly accessed.
But let me be very clear:
We are not expanding to be “interesting.”
We are expanding only where we believe we can be excellent; with the same underwriting mindset and the same respect for downside.
A note to builders and operators
If you’re building a company, a project, or a portfolio in this environment: craftsmanship matters again.
• Build things people actually want.
• Keep standards high.
• Protect your balance sheet like it’s fucking oxygen.
• Be rational and ruthless with capital allocation.
• Don’t confuse “busy” with “effective.”
This is a Darwinian business. You either improve with the moment or the moment improves without you.
Thank you.
We don’t take your trust lightly. Not once. Not ever.
Thank you for letting Partners + Capital be part of your financial story. As a boutique firm focused on alternatives, we’re definitely the black sheep in the industry.
However, we are grateful for the confidence you’ve placed in us and we’re excited about what we’re building next.
If you’d like to review year-end planning items, portfolio updates, or discuss where you want your alternatives exposure to be in 2026, please reach out. We’re always happy to help.
With gratitude,
David Hunegnaw
Partners + Capital