# Harris Preston & Partners

Harris Preston & Partners is a Fund of Funds Manager based in Austin, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Fund of Funds Manager
- **Headquarters:** Austin, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Austin, TX, United States
- **Founded:** 2006
- **Assets under management:** $500M–$600M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** harrispreston.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/harrispreston

## Regulatory record

- **CRD number:** 160068
- **SEC file number:** 801-74433
- **Registration status:** Registered
- **Reports private funds:** Yes
- **IAPD record:** https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/160068

## About

Harris Preston & Partners launched in 2006 when James Harris and Michael Preston established a platform to access the fragmented lower middle market. The firm, headquartered in Austin, Texas, operates as a private equity fund-of-funds manager that aggregates commitments from institutional and family-office LPs. Its architecture places the firm as an intermediary between capital and small-cap GPs, a segment where information asymmetry can reward disciplined manager selection with outsized returns compared to mega-fund indices. The firm's strategy spans primary fund commitments, direct co-investments, and secondary transactions, concentrating on buyout, growth equity, and early-stage venture strategies in the US. Sectors targeted by the underlying GPs include business services, industrials, healthcare, and technology — common hunting grounds for lower middle-market sponsors. Co-investment deployment gives the firm economics beyond the management fee on the fund-of-funds layer, a typical margin-enhancer for firms of this structure. Geographic focus remains on US-based small and mid-market companies, reflecting the home bias common among fund-of-funds managers that rely on GP proximity and reputation diligence. Reporting an estimated $560 million in assets, Harris Preston & Partners sits in the sizable but opaque tier of niche fund-of-funds shops that escaped the consolidation wave. The firm operates from Austin, a market that has become a hub for alternative asset management outside traditional coastal centers, but maintains a lean public profile with no disclosed additional offices. Team size and specific deployment figures are not publicly available. In September 2024, the firm's continued activity in lower middle-market fund selection and co-investments remained consistent with its two-decade operational pattern (Altss estimate). What genuinely distinguishes the firm is its structural position as a pure-play lower middle-market fund-of-funds at a time when many competitors migrated upstream to capture larger mandates. Harris Preston & Partners occupies a diligence-intensive niche that institutional allocators often lack the resources to cover internally, making it a permanent consolidator of small manager access rather than a commoditized aggregator. The partnership structure, carried by the two founders since inception, avoids the succession uncertainty that marks single-founder shops.

## Sectors

- Private Equity
- Venture Capital
- Buyout
- Growth Equity

## People

- James Harris — Co-Founder & Managing Partner
- Michael Preston — Co-Founder & Managing Partner

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Harris Preston & Partners?

Co-founders James Harris and Michael Preston lead the firm as managing partners. Both originate from institutional investment backgrounds and built the firm's manager-sourcing and co-investment underwriting processes. Specific investment committee structure is not publicly detailed.

### How does Harris Preston & Partners source its underlying fund managers?

The firm specializes in the lower middle market, a segment where many high-performing managers operate below the radar of large institutional allocators. Sourcing relies on deep GP networks, ongoing monitoring of fund performance data, and the founders' two-decade presence in the niche — a relationship-driven model that software screens struggle to replicate in small-cap private equity.

### Does Harris Preston & Partners invest directly into companies or only through funds?

The firm does both. Its primary model is committing to small and mid-market buyout, growth, and venture funds as a limited partner. It layers direct co-investments into portfolio companies alongside those same GPs, a structure that reduces blended fees and gives the firm exposure to specific deals its managers source.

### What investment stages does Harris Preston & Partners focus on?

Underlying fund commitments span buyout, growth equity, early-stage venture, and expansion-stage companies. The common thread is the lower middle market — small to mid-sized US businesses, often founder-owned or family-held at the point of first institutional capital.

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- [St. John's University Endowment](https://altss.com/profile/st-johns-university-endowment)
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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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