Key Takeaways
- • Sample Gates Management, Indiana University's student-managed real estate private equity fund, closed Fund II at $7.83 million, exceeding its $6 million fundraising target and bringing total capital under management to approximately $12 million across two funds.
- • The fund has deployed $4.2 million across 12 real estate investments nationwide, demonstrating active deal execution and portfolio construction at the undergraduate level.
- • Blake Albert, a 21-year-old senior and president of Sample Gates, is leading fundraising and investor relations directly, engaging institutional capital providers in real-world due diligence and capital allocation conversations typically reserved for experienced professionals.
- • Sample Gates operates as the nation's largest undergraduate-managed real estate private equity platform, providing students with exposure to deal sourcing, underwriting, investor management, and portfolio management—experience typically acquired only after entry into professional finance roles.
- • The fund's three-year trajectory from inception to Fund II closure demonstrates sustained investor confidence in the student-managed model and validates the educational framework within Indiana University's Kelley School of Business for practical deal execution.
Summary
Indiana University's Kelley School of Business has scaled its student-managed real estate private equity platform to institutional scale. Sample Gates Management, a student-led fund operating within the university's curriculum, recently closed its second fund at $7.83 million—surpassing its $6 million target and accumulating approximately $12 million in total assets under management across two funds since inception three years prior. The fund has actively deployed $4.2 million across 12 real estate investments distributed nationally.
The fund's leadership structure places undergraduate students directly in capital-raising and portfolio management roles traditionally held by junior professionals with advanced degrees. Blake Albert, a 21-year-old senior and Sample Gates president, conducts investor pitches and manages institutional relationships. According to Albert's account, investor conversations mirror those conducted with professional fund managers—45-minute due diligence calls, probing questions on deal mechanics, and expectations that fund leadership can answer substantive questions on underwriting, risks, and exit strategies or commit to sourcing answers. This real-money exposure contrasts sharply with case-study curricula, forcing students to confront the operational realities of private equity management: answering investor calls requires either immediate knowledge or credibility-building transparency about knowledge gaps.
Sample Gates operates under faculty supervision, with Tom Peck serving as faculty advisor to the 2025–2026 cohort of the Sample Gates Management class. The fund's documented sourcing, underwriting, and capital management activities indicate it functions as an operational private equity platform rather than a simulation or teaching exercise, with real investors, real deal risk, and real portfolio outcomes. The positioning as the nation's largest undergraduate real estate private equity platform reflects both the scale of capital raised and the scope of investment activity—metrics that distinguish it from peer institutional investment clubs or paper-trading programs.
The fund's fundraising success across two closings signals sustained institutional investor confidence in the model and the underlying thesis that students can execute real estate private equity transactions under appropriate supervision. For institutional investors and family offices evaluating emerging manager talent pipelines or university partnerships, Sample Gates represents a documented case study in undergraduate-level deal execution capability and could inform discussions around early-career hiring, fellowship programs, or investment committee participation for talent identification.
The fund's leadership structure places undergraduate students directly in capital-raising and portfolio management roles traditionally held by junior professionals with advanced degrees. Blake Albert, a 21-year-old senior and Sample Gates president, conducts investor pitches and manages institutional relationships. According to Albert's account, investor conversations mirror those conducted with professional fund managers—45-minute due diligence calls, probing questions on deal mechanics, and expectations that fund leadership can answer substantive questions on underwriting, risks, and exit strategies or commit to sourcing answers. This real-money exposure contrasts sharply with case-study curricula, forcing students to confront the operational realities of private equity management: answering investor calls requires either immediate knowledge or credibility-building transparency about knowledge gaps.
Sample Gates operates under faculty supervision, with Tom Peck serving as faculty advisor to the 2025–2026 cohort of the Sample Gates Management class. The fund's documented sourcing, underwriting, and capital management activities indicate it functions as an operational private equity platform rather than a simulation or teaching exercise, with real investors, real deal risk, and real portfolio outcomes. The positioning as the nation's largest undergraduate real estate private equity platform reflects both the scale of capital raised and the scope of investment activity—metrics that distinguish it from peer institutional investment clubs or paper-trading programs.
The fund's fundraising success across two closings signals sustained institutional investor confidence in the model and the underlying thesis that students can execute real estate private equity transactions under appropriate supervision. For institutional investors and family offices evaluating emerging manager talent pipelines or university partnerships, Sample Gates represents a documented case study in undergraduate-level deal execution capability and could inform discussions around early-career hiring, fellowship programs, or investment committee participation for talent identification.
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