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Epic Funds
Epic Funds, spun out of a $5B multi-family office in 2021, curates niche private-market fund-of-funds for allocators seeking capacity-constrained...
Epic Funds
Epic Funds was established in 2021 after incubating inside IWP Family Office, a $5 billion multi-family office. Co-founders Michael Fitzpatrick and Jimmy Hirschmann designed the firm to solve a specific problem they observed from the allocator side: legacy institutional portfolios often overlook smaller, capacity-constrained private-market strategies that can deliver genuine diversification. Fitzpatrick brought operating and corporate development experience from Uber and PwC, while Hirschmann had worked on deploying IWP's first fund, Epic Fund I, giving the pair direct exposure to the sourcing and underwriting friction that outsiders face. The firm operates as a boutique fund-of-funds manager, constructing vehicles that commit to underlying general partners across specialty finance, real estate, transportation, private equity, and venture capital. On the credit side, confirmed strategy partnerships include government contract financing, lower-middle-market direct lending, and asset-backed lending, all dated 2024 on the firm's website. Real-asset exposure spans inland marine leasing (2020) and single-family rental development (2021). In private equity, the firm backs communications and digital infrastructure (2018 vintage) and ed-tech buyouts (2023), while venture allocations target early-stage tech and consumer (2021) and early-to-late-stage biotech (2022). The firm does not disclose aggregate deployment, but its partnership roster shows concentrated exposure to domestic US strategies, with a preference for manager relationships built around domain-expert operators rather than broad-platform funds. The firm publicly names five professionals, with investment sourcing led by Hirschmann, finance operations by John Battipaglia (joined 2022), and growth and investor relations headed by Olivia Nguyen (joined October 2025). In October 2025, the firm appointed Olivia Nguyen as Head of Growth, tasking her with scaling institutional and private-investor relationships from a base that traces back to the IWP family-office ecosystem. Epic Funds' structural distinction is its origin inside a multi-family office rather than as a standalone asset-gatherer. Every fund it builds is effectively a curated sleeve that a large single-family office or multi-family office would design for its own balance sheet — then opened to external allocators. That inside-out model shapes how the firm evaluates capacity constraints and strategy overlap, giving it a governance posture closer to an outsourced CIO than to a traditional fund-of-funds aggregator.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
2021
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Austin
Corporate office
Austin, TX, United States
Principals
Michael Fitzpatrick
Managing Partner
Jimmy Hirschmann
Chief Investment Officer
John Battipaglia
Head of Finance
Alyssa Kubiak
Investment Associate
Olivia Nguyen
Head of Growth
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How is Epic Funds related to IWP Family Office?
Epic Funds was incubated inside IWP Family Office, a multi-family office managing roughly $5 billion. Co-founder Jimmy Hirschmann helped deploy IWP's first fund, Epic Fund I, before spinning out the firm with Michael Fitzpatrick in 2021. The firm now operates independently but retains a structural lineage: its fund-of-funds vehicles are built with the same concentration and capacity sensitivity that a large single-family office would apply to its own private-market allocations.
Who runs investment decisions at Epic Funds?
Jimmy Hirschmann serves as Chief Investment Officer and oversees sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio management. He also sits on the investment committee alongside Managing Partner Michael Fitzpatrick. Hirschmann's background blends credit trading, lower-middle-market investment banking at Envisage Equity, and direct investing as President of Sicily Family Office.
Does Epic Funds make direct investments or only fund commitments?
Epic Funds primarily constructs fund-of-funds vehicles that commit to external general partners. While the firm emphasizes curated fund selection, Hirschmann also makes primary and direct investments in his capacity as President of Sicily Family Office — a separate entity. The firm's own marketing focuses exclusively on differentiated fund strategies rather than direct deal-by-deal investing.
What strategies does Epic Funds explicitly target for its funds?
The firm pursues capacity-constrained, often overlooked private-market strategies. Confirmed allocations span specialty finance (government contract financing, asset-backed lending, lower-middle-market direct lending), real assets (inland marine leasing, single-family rental development), private equity (communications infrastructure, ed-tech buyouts), and venture capital (early-stage tech and consumer, biotech). The common thread is manager specialization: Epic partners with domain-expert operators rather than large generalist platforms.
How does Epic source the managers it backs?
Epic's founding team builds sourcing relationships from two distinct networks. Fitzpatrick maintains ties to the ex-Uber alumni community — composed largely of venture investors and startup founders — while Hirschmann's path through Envisage Equity and IWP Family Office connects the firm to lower-middle-market operators and family-office deal flow. The firm describes its underwriting as combining qualitative operator assessment with data-driven analysis, but does not publicly disclose a proprietary origination platform or database.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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