Ghostwriting for hedge funds, buy-side and fintech
Your edge,
in writing.
You have views worth publishing and no time to write them. We turn one conversation a week into posts on X, LinkedIn and Substack that feed each other, in your voice. You approve every word.
Book an intro call ↗
Written for
The red pen
Your best ideas come out in conversation.
You explain it perfectly to LPs, clients and your team, and then it never gets written down. We record the conversation, cross out the filler and keep the lines worth publishing.
Mostly red ink
Words in the voice note, in order
Crossed out, 29
Kept, 16
Source: the voice note on this page, word by word
A portfolio manager’s voice note, transcribed / illustrative
So, um, the thing I keep telling people on calls is,everyone asks about last year’s returns,and honestly that’s kind of the wrong question, becausewhat matters is what we did when it went badly,that’s where you actually see the process, anyway, yeah.
filler. cut it.
the hook → X
the point → LinkedIn, and next week’s essay
chart this: the bad year, and what we did next
↓ becomes a LinkedIn post, a thread on X and next week’s essay
Your name
Portfolio manager
Just now
+ Follow
Everyone asks about last year’s returns.
Wrong question.
Ask what we did when it went badly. That’s where you
…see more
Like
Comment
Repost
Send
From a 30-minute call · approved by you before posting
Illustrative. The best line in a call is often buried in a sentence like this one. We dig it out, shape it for each channel, and you approve it before it goes out under your name.
Where it goes
One conversation. Three channels.
Each channel does a different job. X is fast, and it’s where finance talks in real time. LinkedIn is where your clients and allocators already are. Substack is the audience you own, and Notes bring new readers to it.
One conversation
Thirty minutes a week · your words
Notes from the desk
What we did when it went badly
Why last year’s return is the least useful number in a pitch.
Your name
Subscribe
Substack and Notes
The full argument, in inboxes you own. Notes put each essay in front of new readers inside Substack.
Your name
Portfolio manager
Everyone asks about last year’s returns. Wrong question.
…see more
Like
Comment
Repost
Send
LinkedIn posts
Where allocators, clients and peers already scroll, and where they look you up.
Your name
@yourname
1/4 Everyone asks about last year’s returns. Wrong question.
2/4 Ask what we did when it went badly. That’s where you see the process.
Show this thread
X posts and threads
The fastest way to get an idea in front of the right people in finance.
The flywheel
Three channels, one system.
An essay on Substack becomes a thread on X and a post on LinkedIn. Notes put it in front of new readers. The replies tell us what to write next, and people who find you on one channel follow you to the others. Run together, each channel feeds the rest.
What counts as the network
Readers who subscribe from inside Substack, through Notes, recommendations from other writers and the Substack app, rather than from a link somewhere else.
Half of new readers find you inside Substack
Share of new Substack subscriptions that came from Substack’s own network, %
Source: Substack, on.substack.com (mid-2022, Dec 2022) and Substack on X (Feb 2024). The 2022 figures are shares of new free subscriptions; the Feb 2024 figure covers all new subscriptions, so it is shown on its own. Mid-2022 was given as “more than 30%”, and its date is approximate. Grey: paid subscriptions.
From the notebook
Every post starts as a sketch.
Before we write, we draw: the argument, who it’s for and the chart that makes the point. Three pages from ours.
the flywheelp. 04
how long a post livesp. 11
one in fiftyp. 17
How it works
01
You talk.
Thirty minutes a week on a call, or a voice note between meetings. Your views, your stories, your read on the market.
02
We cross things out.
We keep the sharpest ideas and write them up for Substack, LinkedIn and X, in your voice, with a chart when it makes the point.
03
You sign off.
Nothing goes out without your approval. It’s your name, so it’s your call.
Your side of it: thirty minutes a week.
Everything else is on us: drafting, editing, charts, scheduling and the monthly numbers. You read, tweak and approve.
The maths of posting
You can’t pick the post that breaks out. You can pick how many you take.
Reach is lopsided on every platform: a handful of posts do most of the work, and nobody knows in advance which ones. So the plan is statistical. A steady volume of good posts, across channels, for long enough to catch the tail.
A few posts do most of the work
100 posts ranked by impressions, relative to the median post
Source: Stryde. 100 evenly spaced quantiles of a Pareto distribution, α = 1.5. Illustrative, not client data.
Take more shots
Chance of at least one breakout post, by number of posts
P = 1 − (1 − p)ⁿ, where p is the chance a single post breaks out and n is the number of posts. Assumes posts are independent; p values are illustrative.
Why publish at all
The people you want to reach are reading.
Allocators, clients and partners look you up before they take the call. What you’ve written is what they find.
Worth the ink
B2B decision-makers who say they…, %, 2024
0
25
50
75
100
…are likely to be more receptive to outreach from firms with good thought leadership
…researched a product or service they weren’t considering after reading some
…rate strong research and data as a mark of quality
…spend an hour or more a week reading it
90
75
55
52
…are likely to be more receptive to outreach from firms with good thought leadership
90
…researched a product or service they weren’t considering after reading some
75
…rate strong research and data as a mark of quality
55
…spend an hour or more a week reading it
52
Source: Edelman and LinkedIn, 2024 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report. Top two bars include C-suite executives.
Where investors do their research
How important each platform is for researching an equity, mean score from 1 to 10, institutional investors, 2023
Source: Brunswick Group, Digital Investor Survey 2023, 257 buy-side investors and sell-side analysts. 10 of the 18 platforms rated are shown. Stryde’s channels in red.
Who’s on the other end of the call
You won’t spend the first call explaining what you do.
Stryde is run by a former quant analyst with a master’s in quantitative finance, who has built and traded systematic strategies. We speak fund and fintech, and we think in distributions, so calls stay short and the charts hold up.
Hedge funds · Buy-side · Fintech · Statistics
Every month
The numbers, done properly.
Once a month you get one page: what went out, what it did and what we’ll change. Medians and ranges, not the one lucky post, and the things that matter: subscribers, replies from people you’d want to hear from, and calls booked.
Monthly report · examplePage 1 of 1
What a typical post did
Impressions per post this month, log scale: median (red), middle half (box) and range
Example report. Numbers are made up for illustration.
next month:
more threads on X, fewer one-liners
essay: why we sold early, with the chart
drop Saturday Notes, nobody’s up
What we trackSubstack subscribersReplies from people worth hearing fromIntro calls booked
Pricing
One desk. Scoped to you.
We keep the list short so every client gets the same senior writer, every week. And we only take on people whose work we’d read anyway.
The desk
Monthly
From$5,000a month
A typical month might include
4Thirty-minute conversations, one a week
1–2Substack essays
8–12Substack Notes
8–12LinkedIn posts
15–20X posts, including threads
2–4Original charts, in this style
1Monthly numbers report
+Topic planning, and a revision round on every piece
Scope is set together on our first call.
A typical month
Pieces per month, as a range, coloured by where they’re published
Source: Stryde. Ranges, not quotas: scope is set on our first call.