Leadership
The person the capital is entrusted to.
Who runs the fund, where the judgement came from, and how the fund is governed.
Michael Olaiya
General Partner
Michael Olaiya is the General Partner of Conqord Capital. He sets the fund's strategy, leads acquisitions and underwriting, and invests his own capital alongside limited partners in every position.
He came to real estate through operations rather than finance. He spent the first decade of his career running multi-site businesses, at one point responsible for sixteen locations, roughly ten million dollars in assets and a staff of fifty. It is where the fund's habits come from: the budget is set before the work starts, and the standard does not move with the deal.
Before the fund he bought, rehabilitated and financed houses in metro Atlanta, first through a redevelopment company that became a private lender, then through Tectonic Developments. Lending taught him how deals fail, which is most of what underwriting is. He began building Conqord Capital in 2023 and formed the fund with counsel the following year, to do that work at fund scale around a thesis he had watched play out block by block: a family that can afford to stay in its home keeps its children in the same school, and a portfolio built on that is both more stable and more useful than one built on flips.
He is a founding board member of a public charter school in Atlanta, and the founder of WealthWise Kids, an education company. The fund's thesis is not a marketing exercise. He grew up in Section 8 housing and changed ZIP codes four times in six years, and he has since watched children withdraw from the school he helped found in the middle of a school year because the housing underneath their families moved. He has seen this from both sides of it. Why this fund exists →
The route here
Four rooms, one lesson each.
A first-time fund manager is asking for trust he has not yet earned in this format. The honest answer is not a resume. It is what each of these actually taught, and whether it applies to holding somebody else's money.
-
01
Multi-site operations
Sixteen locations, fifty people, ten million in assets
Running multi-site operations where the inventory is regulated and the margin is thin. Budgets set before the work starts. A standard that does not move because a week went badly.
What it taught — the plan is written before the money moves, or it is not a plan.
-
02
Residential redevelopment
Buying, rehabilitating and selling houses in metro Atlanta
Acquisition, scope, contractors, draws, permits, inspections, sale. The full cycle on real buildings with real defects, including the ones nobody finds until they own the house.
What it taught — the expensive mistake is always the one you find after closing.
-
03
Private lending
Underwriting other people's deals, and watching some of them fail
Transactional, bridge and syndication loans. Sitting on the other side of the table from the borrower, pricing the downside rather than the pitch.
What it taught — lending is a study in how deals break. That is most of what underwriting is.
-
04
Conqord Capital · from 2023
The same work, at fund scale, with other people's capital in it
A Delaware limited partnership formed with fund counsel, built around a thesis watched play out block by block: a family that can afford to stay keeps its children in the same school.
What changes — the capital is no longer only his, and the standard goes up accordingly.
Carter & Olay Investment Group, LLC and Tectonic Developments, LLC are separate entities of the principal and are not affiliates of the fund. They are described here as experience, not as a track record of Conqord Capital, LP. See the Disclosures.
Governance
How the fund is run.
How the fund is governed
- Decision-making
- The General Partner makes acquisition, financing and disposition decisions within the criteria set out in the limited partnership agreement. Anything outside those criteria requires the consent described in that agreement.
- Alignment
- The General Partner invests his own capital in every position on the same terms as limited partners, and is compensated as disclosed in the offering documents.
- Counsel and banking
- Fund formation and offering documents by Savvi Legal. Fund banking at Mercury, with separate accounts for the fund and the management company.
- Reporting
- Quarterly reports, an annual review, and Schedule K-1s. The General Partner answers limited-partner questions directly.
- Conflicts
- The principal's other real estate activity is disclosed in the offering documents, and related-party transactions are permitted only on disclosed, approved terms.
Conqord Capital · Private real estate investment fund, Atlanta
Back to the homepage →