The trade infrastructure problem behind private markets in wealth
- Jul 1
- 2 min read
Co-CEO Michael Gruener joins the Modern Capital Podcast
Private markets are opening up to private wealth, and the demand from wealth managers is real. The harder question is whether the operations can keep pace. On the latest episode of the Modern Capital Podcast, our Co-CEO Michael Gruener sits down with host Marc Andrew to explain why today's trade infrastructure was never built for this moment, and what it will take to fix it.
Why this conversation matters
Michael has watched this pattern play out before. He ran mutual fund distribution at Goldman Sachs and ETF distribution at BlackRock, where he led distribution across Eastern Europe and the Middle East through the decade iShares settled the market. Each of those products opened investing up to a wider audience. Each also needed technology and operations that did not exist when the product arrived.
Private markets are the next chapter, and the infrastructure gap is wider this time.
What Michael and Marc cover
The evergreen fund as the ETF of private markets. The semi-liquid evergreen structure is making private markets accessible to wealth portfolios in a way closed-end funds never could. But the operational rails underneath it are not ready for that scale.
"Know your client, know your trade". Today's trade infrastructure was built to do the opposite of what this product needs. Michael explains why the existing rails struggle with the logic private markets demand.
What scale actually breaks. When a single model portfolio rebalance can trigger 100,000 trades in one day, an 8% not-in-good-order rate stops being a back-office detail and becomes a structural problem.
Why the fix is closer than people think. Michael makes the case that the solution is more tractable than the industry assumes, and that it comes down to a surprisingly small number of names.
Where public and private markets are heading. The conversation closes on how the boundaries between the two are shifting, and the one condition that has to be met first.
In Michael's words
"That trade infrastructure was not built for this product. It was built for the industry as it existed in 1996, when I started at Goldman. Nobody went back and rebuilt it."
How Titanbay fits
Titanbay is the only firm that structures, launches, runs, and trades private markets funds in one place, on purpose-built technology that didn't exist until Titanbay built it.
Asset managers use Titanbay to bring private markets funds to market and run them at scale. Wealth managers access those funds and trade them through the systems they already have. Titanbay's tech and regulatory infrastructure connects both sides, automating the operational complexity that traditionally fragments the industry.
It is exactly the layer Michael describes in the episode: connecting to distributors in whatever format they already have, applying private markets logic, and handing back a trade in good order.
Listen to the episode
The full conversation is available now on the Modern Capital Podcast.
About the guest
Michael Gruener is Co-CEO of Titanbay. He previously held senior distribution roles at Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, with deep experience across European and DACH institutional markets.
